Student Mentor Project

Student Mentor Project Creates Learning Excitement
Michael Golde
Chemistry Department

Editor’s Note: In 1995, the University of Pittsburgh was among a number of institutions in the country to join City University of New York in a novel research project, Workshop Chemistry, which focuses on the improvement of teaching and learning in undergraduate chemistry. Here at Pitt, Michael Golde initially tested Workshop Chemistry in recitations and, more recently, in lab sections. He is currently working with more advanced chemistry undergraduates who act as mentors for students in General Chemistry labs. This lab project, in its second year of a new 3-year grant, is funded by the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

Teaching large science classes involves particular challenges. In my many years of teaching, I have concluded that most of my students in General Chemistry are capable of learning and are willing to learn, if only I could find the way to reach them. Collaborative group learning is a means to give students more personal attention, but implementation in a fact-rich subject such as chemistry has not been widely researched.

Workshop Chemistry, in which group study in structured "workshops" is an integral part of the course, has proved to be a promising approach that allows instructors to reach more students. A key to the program is training more advanced undergraduates to serve as mentors, one to each group. At Pitt, we call these mentors UTUs (undergraduates teaching undergraduates). The most apparent difference between the "traditional" instruction and the new workshops is the excitement, noise and sense of involvement in the UTU sessions, compared to the quiet formality of TA-taught recitations. Most students relish the increased opportunity to ask questions, to explain answers to their peers and to work problems at the blackboard. Students with special problems are readily detected, giving us an increased chance of helping them.

Students have responded well, the UTU mentors appear to benefit greatly and, as I uncover new information concerning student learning, my approach is changing markedly. New strategies for student learning can be fashioned and tested easily in this small-group setting.

In the initial phase of Workshop Chemistry, as we piloted a system where our recitation classes were divided into groups of five to six students working with each UTU, we developed a number of guidelines, which we are testing in the lab project. These include the following:

Photos by Patricia Nagle, CIDDE

Students must come to the sessions prepared;
Students should be given a challenging assignment;
Students receive credit for the group work;
Students are also individually responsible for learning the material and are quizzed at the end of the session.

The science lab has the potential to provide students with an opportunity for active learning of concepts, techniques and research methods and with a valuable introduction to real-life science. However, unfortunately, labs often consist of students attempting to follow a series of instructions that lack clear aims or structure. We plan to re-energize the General Chemistry lab by applying our experience with the recitation-based project, using a team of UTUs as instructors.

We soon encountered a distinct set of goals and challenges, which required new strategies. With assistance from instructional designers Rosemarie Lyons and Joanne Nicoll from the Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education, we have worked with UTUs for several hours a week during the semester to prepare them to teach the labs. We have also undertaken a systematic process of observing labs in progress and examining student lab reports and end-of-term lab papers. Our research has revealed the limits of students’ knowledge, understanding and ability to reason, and the need for TA and UTU instructors to be more actively involved in helping the students.

We have also discovered relationships between challenges faced by students in a lab and those encountered, for instance, in solving unfamiliar exam questions. As a result, the organizational guidelines are being rephrased and a compact set of pedagogical goals relevant to lab and to problem-solving in general is being developed.

The faculty members and UTUs ideally work as a collaborative team, with each member having responsibility for a part of the learning process. I have found UTU mentors willing and often eager to innovate. They have developed many different strategies for involving the students, and they pass these ideas on to the next generation of UTUs. Many UTUs continue for more than a year and, during that time, their knowledge of chemistry and their communication skills improve noticeably. In fact, it is becoming apparent that being a UTU is consistent with their primary goals as students, as they prepare to take graduate student entrance exams or to enter the workplace.

UTU-led recitations are now a regular part of the Pitt chemistry program and have been experienced by six faculty in General and Organic Chemistry. Several other science departments have shown an interest in the UTU program.