Drs. Emily Atieh and Darrin York present their findings on peer leaders’ attitudes towards learning in this article published in the Journal of Chemical Education. The authors’ mixed-methods approach first used a previously-validated survey instrument (the CLASS) to gauge peer leaders’ attitudes over their 1-3 years in the chemistry Teaching Interns peer leader program, administering the survey at the very start of their participation and then again at the end of each year. These data informed a second stage of data collection, which involved conducting interviews to further explore the peer leaders’ responses to CLASS items. The results published here suggest that experiences in the peer leadership program, including pedagogy training and teaching experience, have a positive influence on peer leaders’ attitudes towards learning and may be useful for those looking to implement similar programs in their departments.

Atieh, E. L., & York, D. M. (2020, 2020/07/28). Through the Looking CLASS: When Peer Leader Learning Attitudes Are Not What They Seem. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(8), 2078–2090. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00129

 

About the Authors
Emily Atieh was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology when this was published, and has since earned her PhD in chemistry education research. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virginia working with Dr. Marilyne Stains: https://sites.google.com/view/marilynestains/the-team

Darrin York is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical biology. His research group investigates the development and application of multi-scale quantum methods for simulations of biological reactions. He is the coordinator of General Chemistry and was the Director of the Cyberlearning Innovation and Research Center that developed and provided eLearning support for online recitations and a dynamic system for administering homework and quizzes. Learn more about York’s research and teaching here: https://rutchem.rutgers.edu/people/faculty-bio/201-york-darrin-m