Student Peer Assisted Mentoring (SPAM): A Conceptual Framework

Introduction This paper is a reflection on the development of strategies to assist students in their learning process and thereby motivate them to remain committed to completing their higher education. The goals are therefore to support the learning process by supplementary instruction and to raise the level of student motivation thus retaining them in the university. Martin and Arendale (1992) identify student attrition as a major area of concern and endorse the use of (SI) as a use of combating the problem. One approach is to provide opportunities for students to be more involved in the learning and teaching process. Research has shown that student involvement does have a motivating influence on performance. Research has shown that student involvement does have a motivating influence on performance. Researchers (Astin, 1984; Mallette & Cabrera, 1991) reported finding that the level of student involvement with on campus activities was positively correlated with retention at university. In addition involvement has also been found to influence learning (Astin, 1984, 1993; Pascarella & Terezini, 1991; Ory & Braskamp, 1988; Parker & Schmidt, 1982). In effect, the greater the students' involvement in activities outside of the traditional lecture or tutorial the greater their acquisition of knowledge, development of relevant skills and likelihood of remaining at university. Various strategies have been developed over a number of years to address the needs of students and particularly the problems associated with transition to the university environment. Calder (2004) provided evidence that peer interaction could play a central role in the successful transition process. Arendale (2007) compiled an annotated bibliography of the various 'peer cooperative learning programs' (1) proposed that they could be delineated according to their different approaches and therefore set into six categories. The six categories were selected by Arendale (2007) on the basis that the programs meet a set of characteristics that could be used to justify their relevance: * The program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level; * The program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation that could be replicated by another institution; * Program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review; * The program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with review of the academic content material; * The program outcomes include increased content knowledge, higher final grades, higher pass rates, and higher college persistence rates; and * The program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. Source: Arendale (2006) Peer assisted learning is a term used to describe a variety of approaches that may involve an active or interactive mediation of learning by students with the support of other students (Topping & Ehly, 2001:113). Assisted learning has become more commonly associated with a teaching method or tool. For example, the terminology is commonly used to describe computer assisted learning (Tseng, 2005). In these circumstances the computer software is the tool being used to assist in the learning process. Peer-assisted learning however, simply describes the situation where students teach other students (Adler & Milne, 1997: 196). The term more appropriate, although seemingly less used is, peer tutoring and this is an informal approach to student learning through a process involving tutoring or proctoring between advanced and less advanced students (Saunders, 1992). A concern with such an informal system is that there is the potential for the learning of inaccurate or inappropriate problem solving skills. The solution as expressed by Saunders (1992: 6) is to include some form of supervision or monitoring of the peer tutoring activities. …