Rigorously selected and well trained senior student tutors in problem based learning: student perceptions and study achievements

Abstract

We compared effects of tutoring by students and by staff. In four courses in each of two consecutive first years of an undergraduate problem-based law curriculum we examined the achievements and perceptions of tutors of students taught by student and staff tutors. Achievements were measured by the results on the regular end-of-course tests. After the end-of-course tests students' perceptions were obtained by an online questionnaire and by a semi-structured focus group interview. The aim of the focus groups was to gain more in-depth insight into students' perceptions. No significant differences in achievement and perceptions of tutors were found. Students' perceptions of both staff and student tutors were generally positive. The results suggest that students that are carefully selected and well trained can be effective as tutors in the first year of an undergraduate problem-based curriculum.

Self-directed learning research: An imperative for transforming the educational landscape

“…The study also differs from Solomon and Crowe (2001), who report that student tutors struggled with facilitative skills and had difficulty separating the student and tutors roles. The findings of this study definitely support the view of De Rijdt et al (2012) that student tutors who are carefully selected and well trained can be effective as student tutors and thus play a vital role in undergraduate programmes.…”

Qualitative analysis of cognitive and social congruence in peer-assisted learning – The perspectives of medical students, student tutors and lecturers

“…Schmidt [1] shows that expertise next to social congruence was a strong predictor for cognitive congruence. Other studies even postulated that students did not miss the expertise of the student tutors, as it was compensated by cognitive congruence [5,31,32]. Besides, all three groups including students, student tutors and lecturers strengthened the effective knowledge transfer in the tutorial.…”

Cognitive and social congruence in peer-assisted learning – A scoping review

“…Moreover, greater cognitive congruence might imply that student tutors could better understand the problems that tutees might experience [7, 9]. Overall, student tutors are seen as more cognitively congruent than faculty tutors [9, 38].…”

“…Several studies tested the reliability and validity of the questionnaire by calculating Hancock’s coefficient ranging from 0.70 (for social congruence) to 0.77 (for cognitive congruence) [14, 18, 31, 36, 37]. The further questionnaires used to assess cognitive and social congruence also proved to be reliable and valid with Cronbach's alpha from 0.80 to 0.87 [8, 11, 12, 38].…”