Peer Leader Essays from the Desert Southwest: The Practice of Leading Learning

At semester’s end at the University of Texas at El Paso and at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, faculty members directing the PLTL Programs invite Peer Leaders to reflect on their experience, to describe their challenges, and to offer their personal advice. For the benefit of future Peer Leaders, here are their stories, reflections, observations, and advice about leadership and the practice of leading.

Peer Leader Alumni Reflections: Advancing Visibility and Reach of Peer-Led Team Learning. Panel from the 2021 PLTLIS Conference

Calculating roughly, starting in 1992 with Peer Leaders from “Workshop Chemistry” at the City College of New York, Peer-led Team Learning programs may have an aggregate of perhaps 30,000 students who became Peer Leaders and are now alumni. How are Peer Leaders affected by their experiences? This paper is an edited transcription of Peer Leader Alumni panelists from the discussion at the 2021 PLTLIS Annual Conference, held online on Saturday, June 5, 2021.

Peer-Led Team Learning and Student Success

Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), a nationally recognized teaching and learning model, was introduced into the General Chemistry course at Pace University in 2014. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the introduction of PLTL on the students’ final exam scores, and through surveys, determine how students viewed both the PLTL program and their Peer Leaders. In addition, this study sought to monitor the progress of Peer Leaders as they entered an upper-level Inorganic Chemistry class to determine whether the experience of being a Peer Leader helped their success in this course. The biggest difference, when comparing exam scores from two separate years before and after PLTL implementation, was found to be 10%. However, upon averaging exam scores over several years before and after the introduction of the PLTL program, a more modest average increase of 4% was determined. It was found that students with Peer Leader experience performed better in an upper-level Inorganic Chemistry class compared to those with no Peer Leader experience. Results from surveys administered to both students and Peer Leaders regarding their experiences, as well as the results from students evaluating their Peer Leaders, are reported here. Overall, the implementation of PLTL has led to greater interactions between the Instructor, Peer Leaders, and undergraduate students, thereby furthering a greater interest in chemistry and increasing the students’ sense of community.

Practice Based in Learning Theory: Peer Leaders Explain their Poster Projects

Three Peer Leaders present their final projects, one in Mathematics and two in Statics (Civil Engineering), for a one-credit course in Peer Leader Facilitation at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York, at the Honors and Emerging Scholars Poster Presentation in December 2015. The impetus for videotaping their presentations was the commemoration of a process which could be termed “How to Make a Poster.” The abbreviated directions are provided here. To aid the viewer of the videos, editing provides the static text of the poster section as the Peer Leader discusses that section. Introducing videos as exemplary practice advances the presentation of research in Peer Leader facilitation and theory.

The Co-Evolution of Network Structure and PrEP Adoption among a Large Cohort of PrEP Peer Leaders: Implications for Intervention Evaluation and Community Capacity-Building

Background: Peer leader interventions are effective strategies for promoting prevention behaviors in communities at risk for HIV, yet little is known about their effects on the social and behavioral dynamics of peer leaders themselves. Methods: Using data from PrEP Chicago, an RCT PrEP for prevention intervention for young Black MSM (YBMSM), we apply stochastic actor-based models to longitudinally model the impact of study participation on the online friendship and PrEP adoption dynamics among a network of peer leaders (n = 174) and a network of control group counterparts (n = 166). Results: Peer leaders assigned to the same leadership training workshop were more likely to form new Facebook friendships with one another, whereas control participants assigned to the same attention control workshop were no more or less likely to form new friendships. Further, peer leaders with greater PrEP intentions and those living with HIV were more active in forming new friendships with other peer leaders, effects not found in the control network. PrEP adoption was not influenced by network dynamics in either group. Conclusions: The implications of these findings are discussed through the lens of community-capacity building and the role that peer leader interventions and the networks they engage can impact public health.

Michigan Men’s diabetes project (MenD): protocol for a peer leader diabetes self-management education and support intervention

Background Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared to non-Hispanic White men, and this disparity increases among men over the age of 55. A growing body of literature demonstrates the critical role of gender in the management of health behaviors such as T2D and shows that male gender norms can conflict with healthy behaviors. These studies suggest that tailoring diabetes self-management interventions to address the needs of Black men may be critical to helping them to achieve optimal health outcomes. Further, our own research on Blacks with T2D found gender disparities in participation in diabetes interventions, with males participating at significantly lower rates than females. Peer leaders are trained lay individuals who are used to provide ongoing diabetes self-management support to people with diabetes, particularly in minority communities. However, despite studies showing that diabetes management interventions using peer leaders have been successful, the majority of peer leaders as well as the participants in those studies are women. The limited studies to date suggest that Black men with T2D prefer peer-led, male-to-male T2D programs, however, this research consists primarily of nonrandomized, small sample feasibility studies calling for additional studies to establish the efficacy of these approaches. The proposed study will develop and preliminarily validate the effectiveness of an adapted peer leader diabetes self-management support (PLDSMS) intervention designed to improve diabetes-related lifestyle and self-management behaviors in Black men (over 55) with T2D. Method We propose to tailor an existing intervention by 1) our using male peers and 2) modifying the peer leader training content to focus on material appropriate for men. The proposed study includes a developmental phase (development of the intervention with expert feedback, followed by feasibility testing with Black men) and a validation phase [randomized clinical trial (RCT)]. Discussion If successful, this study will lead to the development and dissemination of an intervention that will address the unique needs of Black men with T2D, helping them to achieve optimal diabetes self-management and health outcomes. Trial registration Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with an ID NCT04760444 on February 17, 2021

Identifying student opinion leaders to lead e-cigarette interventions: protocol for a randomized controlled pragmatic trial

Background After the US Surgeon General declared youth electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use an epidemic in 2018, the number of youth e-cigarette users continued to surge, growing from 3.8 million in 2018 to over 5 million 2019. Youth who use e-cigarettes are at a substantially higher risk of transitioning to traditional cigarettes, becoming regular cigarette smokers, and increasing their risk of developing tobacco-related cancer. A majority of youth are misinformed about e-cigarettes, often believing they are not harmful or contain no nicotine. Middle school students using e-cigarettes have been affected by its normalization leading to influence by their peers. However, social and group dynamics can be leveraged for a school-based peer-led intervention to identify and recruit student leaders to be anti-e-cigarette champions to prevent e-cigarette initiation. This study outlines a project to use social network analysis to identify student opinion-leaders in schools and train them to conduct anti-e-cigarette programming to their peers. Methods In the 2019–2020 academic school year, 6th grade students from nine schools in the Pittsburgh area were recruited. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with three arms—expert, elected peer-leader, and random peer-leader—for e-cigarette programming. Sixth grade students in each school completed a network survey that assessed the friendship networks in each class. Students also completed pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys about their intention-to-use, knowledge, and attitudes towards e-cigarettes. Within each peer-led arm, social network analysis was conducted to identify peer-nominated opinion leaders. An e-cigarette prevention program was administered by (1) an adult content-expert, (2) a peer-nominated opinion leader to assigned students, or (3) a peer-nominated opinion leader to random students. Discussion This study is the first to evaluate the feasibility of leveraging social network analysis to identify 6th grade opinion leaders to lead a school-based e-cigarette intervention. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04083469. Registered on September 10, 2019.