What do students in the first year of their studies learn from tutors facilitating their learning in counseling skills?

Author(s):

Amelie Fougner

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 B, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (Part 2)

Paper Session. Continued from 22 SES 07 B.

Time:

2009-09-30

10:30-12:00

Room:

HG, HS 30

Chair:

Christine Teelken

Contribution

Being a professional child welfare worker involves learning counseling skills. While teachers traditionally conduct this curriculum, the ‘ quality reform ‘ in higher education in Norway restructured this teaching model by focusing more on the responsibility of students for their own learning and that of others. The study examines a peer tutoring program that is being valued in two directions – examining what student tutors learned from the experience and examining what first year students learned from their student tutors. This paper focuses specifically on the quality of the first year students learning experiences. Do they learn differently from peer tutors than from professors and, if so, how? To what degree do they learn skills that maintain the standard quality required in the first year of their studies? Peer learning and tutoring are not single, undifferentiated educational strategies. They encompass a broad sweep of activities and educational dispositions that can be placed under the major heading of a socio-cultural paradigm of learning, where collaboration and dialogue are central concepts (Rommetveit, R. 1996, Bruffe, K. 1999, Säljö, R. 2000, Dysthe, O. 2001).

Method

The study is placed within the frame of participative action research ( Noffke & Stevenson 1995, Fielding 2004, 2005, Eikeland, 2006) and is a part of and embedded in the regular curriculum covering the time span between 2002 and 2008. Participation, openness and nearness to the research process is a fundamental prerequisite for action research and a main characteristic the way it is practiced within educational action research (Elliot 1991, Noffke 1994). The methodology is based on the epistemological paradigm of knowledge and change being obtained through participation. Knowledge is constructed through dialogue and reflection among all participants in a project and has also been used to encourage a more reflective teaching practice.

Expected Outcomes

Expected outcomes Statistical analysis based on data from questionnaire filled in by first year students reveal tendencies towards being more free and being more active when learning in the presence of students tutors compared to learning in the presence of teachers. The quality of substance learned seems to be adequate at the level of knowledge expected of first year students

References

Boud, D., Cohen, R. & Sampson, J. (2001). Peer Learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. London: Kogan Page Ltd. Bruffee, K. A.(1999). Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge. New York: The John Hopkins University Press. Dysthe, O. (Red.). (1996). Ulike perspektiv på læring og læringsforskning. [Perspectives on learning and research]. Oslo: Cappelen akademisk forlag. Dysthe, O.(Red). (2001). Dialog, samspel og læring.[Dialogue, collaboration and learning]. Oslo: Abstrakt forlag. Eikeland, O. (2006). The Validity of Action Research – Validity in Action Research. In Aagaard Nielsen, and Svensson, (Eds.). Action And Interactive Research: Beyond Theory and Practice. Maastricht and Aachen: Shaker Publishing Elliot, J. (1991). Action research for educational challenge. Buckingham: Open University Press. Falchikov, N. (2001). Learning Together. London: Routledge Falmer. Fielding, M. (2004). Transformative approaches to student voice: theoretical underpinnings, recalcitrant realities. British Educational Research Journal Vol. 30, No.2. Fougner,A., Tønnesson,H. Utne, B.(2008) What do students learn from facilitating the learning process of younger students? Nordic Educational Research Vol.28, pp287-302 Oslo.ISSN 0901-8050 Fougner, A. (2003) Om selvrefleksjon: Studenters refleksjoner over egen faglig og personlig utvikling ved barnevernpedagogutdanningen 1998-2000. [On self-reflection: Students` reflections on disciplinary and personal development in Child Welfare Studies] (Rapport nr 4.).Oslo: Høgskolen i Oslo, Avdeling for samfunnsfag.(Oslo University College, Dept. of Social Sciences) Halasek, K. (1999). A pedagogy of possibilities: Bakhtinian perspectives on composition studies. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. King, A., Staffieri,A.& Adelgais,A. (2004) Mutual Peer Tutoring: Effects of Structuring Tutorial Interaction to Scaffold Peer Learning. California State University, San Marcos: Sage publications. King, A., O`Donell, A.M. (1999). Cognitive Perspectives on Peer Learning. Mahwah New Jersey London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lather, P., Lather, P. (1991) Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy within the postmodern. New York: Routledge Lave, J., Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press Noffke, S., Stevenson, R. B. (Eds.) (1995) Educational Action Research: Becoming Practically Critical. New York and London: Teachers College Press Columbia University.

Author Information

Amelie Fougner

Oslo University College

Social Sciences

Oslo

158

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