The Peer Tutor and Supplemental Instruction Leader Experience: Perceived Gains in Learning, Connection to Campus, and Fulfillment

Abstract

This study explored the perceived gains of postsecondary peer educators, specifically related to their views of learning,feelings of connection to campus, and feelings of fulfillment as a result of their roles. The peer educator in the campuslearning center is a critical but undervalued resource for student success. This is reflected in the literature, which has agap in the research related to the experience of the peer educators themselves. To address this problem, a survey wassent through public listservs to college learning assistance professionals, who then distributed it to their respective peertutors and SI leaders (N = 1217). Using three open-ended questions from the Peer Educator Experiences Survey, I analyzedresponses to generate several themes for each question. I identified five distinct themes from responses to the firstquestion, which asked participants about their views of learning. Of the five themes, “learned how/ways people learn”had the highest frequency of responses (n = 239). I discovered four themes from responses to the second question thatasked about the most rewarding aspect of their jobs. For this question, the theme of “helping/witnessing growth” wasthe most evident response (n = 326). The final question asked about participants’ connections to campus; again, fourthemes identified four distinct themes. The theme of “campus people/resources” proved to be the most populous (n =203). Institutions and learning center administrators should consider these results when recruiting, training, assessing,and requesting funds for these programs.