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Benefits and Shortcomings of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)
in Higher Education: an appraisal by students
By Stuart Capstick, Peer Assisted Learning Project Researcher, 2003/4.
This paper is a working copy produced for the Peer Assisted Learning
conference, January 2004. Revisions are likely to precede submission of this
work for publication from February 2004.
Benefits and Shortcomings of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) in Higher
Education: an appraisal by students
The benefits and shortcomings of a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme are
described from the perspective of its student participants. Qualitative methodology is
used to investigate and describe student outcomes, together with an analysis of
influence of PAL on marks in one course. A wide range of benefits are reported for
students engaged in PAL, as well as for those students responsible for managing
PAL discussion groups. Negative aspects of PAL as described by students are also
presented. It is argued that qualtitative benefits of PAL are more pronounced and
demonstrable, and more appropriately portray the scheme, than quantative
outcomes.
Introduction
Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) and its variants have operated in the UK as a system
of student-to-student support since the early 1990’s (Wallace, 1992; Rust & Wallace,
1994). PAL operates most usually by using trained second or third year students
(‘PAL Leaders’), working alone or in pairs, to regularly supervise the learning of a
small group of first year students. This group learning is usually classroom-based
(the ‘PAL session’) and is designed to offer a range of benefits to an institution, its
teaching teams and courses, and to those students involved with it (Capstick &
Fleming, 2001, 2002; Packham & Miller, 2000; Donelan & Kay, 1998). The emphasis
in PAL is on active discussion and cooperative learning within the framework of a
partnership with the formal structures of the course (Spencer & Wallace, 1994;
Donelan & Kay, 1998; Donelan & Wallace, 1998).
Although nomenclature and operational issues vary, the core idea of PAL as peer-
led, cooperative study sessions supplementing traditional teaching has changed little
since PAL first came to the UK over a decade ago. At this time, the model from which
PAL and a range of other schemes derived was the North American scheme termed
Supplemental Instruction (SI) (see Arendale, 1994). Since the inception of PAL/SI in
the UK, there has been a proliferation of the paradigm, with PAL or similar schemes
now operating across the full spectrum of degree courses at around twenty HE
institutions. PAL has also adapted to suit local conditions (see Wallace (1995) for
commentary on adapting PAL to an institution). The PAL Project that operates the
scheme described here also draws upon this lineage and has been cited as an
example of excellent practice by Universities UK (Universities UK, 2002).
Research has previously been presented that argues PAL is of benefit in raising
grades for first year students (Ashwin, 2003; Coe et al., 1999; Bidgood, 1994;
McCarthy et al., 1997) and this is viewed as an important evaluative outcome for the
scheme. Whilst the methodology for these studies has not always been convincing –
usually taking the form of a quasi-experimental comparison of grades between those
who attend PAL and those who do not, an argument open to the counter-claim that
students may in such a situation be in some way ‘self-selecting’ – the research base
in the U.S. is now so large and varied and is now inclusive of some rigorous
longitudinal studies and imaginatively-designed evaluations (e.g. Loviscek & Cloutier,
2001) that it is reasonable to concur that PAL – or at least its North American
precursor – may be considered efficacious in this way.
Such benefits of PAL are assumed to derive primarily from the outcomes of the PAL
session, which is intended to offer an environment in which first year student
students can adjust quickly to university life, improve their study habits, acquire a
clear view of course direction and expectations and enhance their understanding of
the subject matter of their course through group discussion (Capstick & Fleming,
2001, 2003).
Likely because of a pressure or desire to demonstrate a clear benefit of PAL in
statistical/ financial terms, much that has been written about the effectiveness of the
scheme sets out to assess whether PAL influences performance – perhaps at the
expense of a reflection upon some less obvious, qualitative outcomes pertaining to
the learning experience itself. Indeed, to review research into PAL/SI (e.g. the
extremely comprehensive bibliography by Arendale (2002) at www.umkc.ed/cad/si) is
to read oft-repeated claims about its effects, reduced to a not-always-convincing
statistical analysis, with more qualitative questions often left to an acceptance of the
received wisdom of PAL. Research in the UK has suggested effects of PAL for first
year student participants such as increasing understanding of course material and
adapting to university life (Donelan & Kay, 1998), and the development of
transferable skills (Price & Rust, 1995) but it is felt that a more thorough-going
investigation of outcomes of PAL for first year students is merited. This is timely
particularly because Ashwin’s (2003) study reported that a correlation with
attendance at PAL and performance corresponds with a reduction in quality of
learning – essentially, students were getting better marks but only through a more
discerning understanding of assessment requirements, at the expense of a meaning-
oriented approach to learning. It is suggested that due to the context in which PAL
operates – broadly speaking, an assessment-driven environment – there is perhaps
a tendency to shift from a meaning-oriented approach to learning towards a strategic
one. Whilst this does result in improved grades, the concern is evident that this may
be at the expense of a focus on the appreciation and understanding of the course
subject matter at hand.
Other research in the UK has pointed to the benefits of PAL to those trained students
who run the PAL session (‘PAL Leaders’) suggesting that they receive a range of
benefits from participating, such as development of teamwork and communication
skills (Donelan, 1999; Saunders & Gibbon, 1998). Ashwin (2003) also reports the
development of a more social view of learning as an outcome for peer facilitators.
Although PAL may be primarily implemented as a means of supporting first year
students, outcomes for PAL Leaders are also important indicators of the worth of the
scheme, particularly as these students are generally committed and enthusiastic
individuals essential to the success of PAL itself.
It is felt to be timely to move beyond a perhaps inevitably simplistic assessment of
the outcomes of PAL in terms of its influence on student ‘performance’. Whilst such
an evaluation may be demanded by an institution to demonstrate the worth of a
scheme (and as such may be unavoidable at times) there are several problems with
this approach:
1. It will generally be fraught with methodological issues: unless PAL is
implemented experimentally, i.e. with a genuine control group rather than self-
selecting ‘non-attenders’ then questions of causality can never truly be addressed
(though see Parkinson (in press) for just such an experimental design in
evaluating peer tutoring)
2. Assessing for influence of PAL on performance disregards other outcomes – is
PAL creating more autonomous, critical learners, for example, or simply students
more shrewd to what assessers want from them?
3. A focus on performance (and retention) as outcomes for PAL has tended to
emphasise these as the crux of the scheme: in fact, PAL may give rise to a range
of valuable learning experiences, many of them unique to it, but these may be
overlooked or downplayed where attention is focussed upon an attempt to ‘prove’
that PAL ‘works’
4. It disregards or downplays shortcomings or deficiencies with a PAL scheme: if
PAL is seen to effect a statistically significant effect on grades, then it may be
easy to overlook qualitative aspects – good and bad – of the scheme
5. It disregards the processes effecting such outcomes
The research described here therefore attempts to look at students’ perceptions and
appraisal of the benefits as well as shortcomings of PAL primarily through qualitative
techniques. Whilst it is acknowledged that learning processes are relevant to student
outcomes, these are largely outside the scope of this paper: instead we seek to
present the range of positive outcomes as seen as evident by students, as well as to
present their consideration of what is lacking in the scheme. In addition to this
qualitative assessment, an assessment of the influence of PAL on student
performance is also presented.
An attempt is made to test some of the purported benefits of PAL by asking students
to assess to what extent they felt certain outcomes of PAL were manifest in their
experience. A number of potential benefits are tested as suggested by the literature,
such as the contribution of PAL towards settling in to university, the opportunity to
discuss subject matter in ‘safety’ (i.e. away from course staff) as well as potential
benefits which PAL co-ordinators considered may arise, on the basis of anecdotal
evidence. Students are also asked to expand on scored answers with underlying
reasons for their choices, and to state reasons for (not) attending PAL and dislikes or
areas for improvement.
Student participants (first year students) are interviewed to explore their experiences
and opinions of PAL, with an emphasis on assessing benefits or detriments
originating from PAL. PAL Leaders are interviewed to explore their experiences and
opinions of PAL, with an emphasis on running and managing the PAL group and
what opportunities and difficulties this presented, as well as asked to keep reflective
diaries of their experiences of PAL to explore those points mentioned above.
Finally, a statistical assessment of the impact of PAL on grades on a course is
undertaken, using a novel procedure for the field utilising an improved control for self-
selection bias and taking into account course circumstances.
Note on terminology: PAL is used here to describe the peer learning scheme implemented at
Bournemouth University and also to refer to other similar peer learning schemes. For
simplicity, the term ‘PAL’ is used as a synonym for a range of UK schemes (e.g. Peer
Assisted Study Support), though it is acknowledged that there is a variety of practice and
situational contexts.
Methodology
PAL at Bournemouth
The study described was undertaken at Bournemouth University, a vocational
university in the South of England, during the academic year 2002/3.
During 2002/3 PAL ran on the following diverse (sets of) courses:
School No. Courses
incorporated No. PAL
Leaders No. first
years
Finance and Law
2 (Law) 9 120
Conservation Sciences
4 (Conservation) 4 100
Services Management 6 (Hospitality) 6 130
Design, Engineering,
Computing 1 (Business IT) 5 100
Media School 1 (Communication) 4 80
Business School 1 (Business Information
Systems Management) 6 90
Total 6 15 34 620
Over the course of the year, PAL ran relatively successfully from an operational point
of view on all these courses: attendance, whilst often very variable, was overall
above what could have been expected (running at close to 100% for some groups)
and all PAL Leaders persisted with the scheme throughout the year (except in two
situations unrelated to the PAL scheme). PAL has since expanded to run with over
80 PAL Leaders supporting around 1300 first year students.
Key features of the implementation of PAL at Bournemouth are:
• PAL Leaders are trained for their role during an intensive, two-day initial training
course at the start of Induction Week, and then during follow-up training sessions
mainly in the Autumn term. PAL Leaders have available to them extensive
training materials and resources to use in their PAL sessions.
• PAL Leaders are drawn from the same or a very similar course of study to their
first year students, are matched to a particular seminar group (enabling them to
build up a relationship with them) and are supervised from within the course by a
‘Course PAL Contact’, a nominated member of the teaching team who meets with
them regularly to review and plan PAL sessions.
• Central PAL Co-ordinators aim to observe PAL Leaders in their PAL sessions on
two occasions during the course of the academic year, and give them feedback
on their techniques and group management. PAL Co-ordinators also operate an
open-door policy so that we are available wherever possible to support PAL
Leaders.
• PAL Leaders are paid at £5 / hour for running PAL sessions, attending follow-up
training, meeting with their Course PAL Contact and for up to half an hour a week
preparation time.
• PAL sessions are timetabled and course teaching staff encouraged to contribute
‘guided activities’ for use by PAL Leaders.
Research questions
The over-arching research questions for this study can be described as:
1. What do student participants (first year students) see as being the benefits
and shortcomings of PAL for them?
2. What do PAL Leaders see as being the benefits and shortcomings of PAL for
themselves and for their students?
3. Is there quantitative evidence for an influence of PAL upon achievement?
With two distinct student groups involved with PAL – PAL Leaders and first year
participants – there was an expectation that first year students would evaluate their
own experience of PAL, and PAL Leaders evaluate their own experience but also
offer a perspective (as ‘overseer’) on the outcomes for first year students.
1. Assessment of student perceptions – student ‘participants’ (first year students)
Student participants’ perceptions of PAL were assessed in three ways, by:
- Short questionnaires administered after PAL sessions through year
- Cohort surveys administered at around the middle of their second term of
study
- Semi-structured interviews with student participants accepted to be PAL
Leaders run during February and March 2003
The short questionnaire administered at the end of PAL sessions asked students to
rate a number of aspects of learning (data not used in this study) and also asked the
question “How was this PAL session of benefit to you (if at all)?”, sample answers
from which are illustrated in the results.
The cohort survey asked students the following questions (among others not
discussed within this study):
1. If you have been to three or more PAL sessions, what has made you keep
attending?
2. If you have not been to PAL, or to less than three sessions, please indicate
why.
3. If you have been to any PAL sessions, do you agree or disagree that they
contributed to the following? (sixteen potential benefits listed and respondents
asked to rate strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree
or strongly agree) - see notes below for further detail
4. Which aspects of PAL do you dislike?
5. What would you like to see improved or developed in relation to PAL?
6. Any other comments.
An attempt is made in parts of question 3 of the survey to assess the type of learning
outcome of PAL in relation to Approaches to Studying theory (Entwhistle, 1997).
Entwistle’s much-cited work suggests that students are inclined to adopt ‘styles’ of
learning which are “student-dependent” but also “context-dependent” (Entwhistle,
1988). In other words, the learning situation in which students find themselves
influences their approach to learning. Learners may adopt: the Deep or Meaning-
oriented approach (associated with understanding and analytical thinking), the
Surface or Reproducing approach (associated with memorising and factual
information) and the Strategic or Achievement approach (associated with recognising
and utilising the most effective way of achieving good grades). The first and last of
these correlate with achieving good grades; the Surface approach the opposite.
Entwhistle’s work has been well-tested and used to design and apply other scales
(e.g. Richardson, 1990) and is familiar to many as a satisfactory overview of student
behaviour and attitude to study. Thus, its implications have been utilised here to
apply some theoretical rigour to the question of what outcomes may be arising from
PAL. Although the questions used in this study are derivative it is suggested that they
are indicative of the types of approach encouraged by PAL.
See table 1 for list of potential benefits rated under point 3 and rationale for inclusion.
Table 1 : Potential benefits of PAL and derivation
Note – the potential benefits listed are in order of salience of presence as per the results of
the survey and not in the order they originally appeared in the questionnaire.
“If you have been to any PAL sessions, do you agree or disagree that they
contributed to the following?”
Potential benefit Derivation
1. Opportunity to clarify basic concepts Does PAL contribute to understanding?
(commensurate with deep approach to learning)*
2. Better preparation for assignments Does PAL contribute to strategic ability to do well?
(commensurate with strategic approach to learning)*
3. Opportunity to air concerns away from
teaching staff
Does a safe, open environment exist?
4. Opportunity to clarify complex
concepts As potential benefit (1) though does clarification of
concepts in PAL extend beyond the basics and into
complex areas?*
5. Understanding subject matter of
course As potential benefit (1) in a more general sense*
6. Reassurance about course-related
concerns Does PAL provide a guidance and reassurance
function specific to the course of study?
7. Social aspects of learning (learning
with others)
Is the supposed co-operative nature of PAL present
and explicitly recognised as being of value by
students?
8. Better marks in assignments Do students perceive PAL as assisting achievement?
9. Awareness of course expectations Does PAL enable students to understand what is
expected of them? Relates to potential benefit (2)*
10. Settling in to university Does PAL perform an inductive function?
11. Enjoyment of learning PAL is often seen as of value for its informality –
does this extend into, and can it be exemplified by,
contributing to making learning more enjoyable?
12. Development of my confidence Does PAL influence affective aspects of student
approach to study?
13. Reassurance about non-course-
related concerns (e.g. housing) Does PAL assist with extra-curricular matters of
concern to students?
14. Development of study skills (e.g.
essay writing, note-taking, time
management)
Does PAL improve generic study skills of students?
15. Remembering factual information
(e.g. names, dates) # Does PAL contribute to a surface approach?
(commensurate with surface approach to learning) *
* Potential benefits 1,2,4,5, 9 and 15 are intended to reflect Approaches to Studying theory
(Entwhistle)
# Potential ‘benefit’ 15 is included as a form of control variable – it is not a stated aim, nor
suggested by the evidence, nor, it may be argued, of benefit to students that PAL manifests
or encourages a ‘surface’ approach to learning.
Semi-structured interviews with student participants asked an initial opening
question: “What has been your experience of PAL this year?” Other questions
included on the interview schedule, used where appropriate, included:
- What do you think other first year students think about PAL?
- What is people’s attitude to PAL?
- How is it different from a tutor-led session?
- What do you think some of benefits are? How and why do you get these from
PAL?
- What are some of the downsides to PAL? What do you dislike about PAL?
- What makes you decide whether to go or not? Why do you go?
- Can you describe what happened in your PAL sessions - from the start
through to end of year?
2. Assessment of student perceptions – PAL Leaders (second year students)
PAL Leaders’ perceptions of PAL were assessed in ways, by:
- completion by PAL Leaders of reflective post-session forms through year
- survey of an opportunity sample of PAL leaders during March 2003
- semi-structured interviews and discussion groups with PAL Leaders during
February to April 2003
Post-session reflection forms asked PAL Leaders to comment on positive and
negative aspects of the PAL session in general, group learning, their own skills,
activities and self-development.
The PAL Leader survey asked PAL Leaders to comment on a range of issues, some
outside the scope of this paper (pertaining for example to operational issues), but
including:
- What have been your experiences of PAL so far?
- How is PAL different from tutor-led sessions?
- What do you think students gain from PAL sessions?
- What do students dislike about PAL?
- What sort of things are PAL sessions good for (and not so good for)?
- What have you got out of being a PAL Leader?
- What have you found difficult or not liked about being a PAL Leader?
Interviews and discussion groups asked an initial opening question: “What has
been your experience of PAL this year?” Other questions included on the interview
schedule (from a range of questions), used where appropriate, included:
- What have you enjoyed / found difficult / got out of being a PAL Leader?
- What happens in your PAL sessions?
- What do you think students gain / dislike about PAL sessions?
3. Quantitative methods
This study aimed to assess whether there is any relationship between PAL
attendance and end-of-year marks. Because PAL was available to all students, an
experimental design using a control group was not possible. Instead, the intention
was to examine whether attendance at PAL correlated with end-of-year marks, with
an attempt made to correct for some elements of 'self-selection' bias.
An attempt was made to collect registers across all PAL courses, by requesting PAL
Leaders keep careful records. In the event, records kept by PAL Leaders were too
incomplete to permit careful analysis of cohort trends except in one course, and for
one term – this because official course records of attendance at PAL were kept on
this course. Nonetheless, enough data was collected to allow for meaningful
statistical analysis.
The method used to assess for any relationship between PAL attendance and marks
was as follows:
• Three variables were used in analysis:
- attendance (by student) at PAL sessions over the Autumn term
- average attendance (by student) across all other course units over the
Autumn term
- end of year mark (by student)
• The hypothesis that a positive correlation exists between attendance at PAL and
end-of-year marks was analysed by performing a Pearson’s test of correlation; to
attempt to account for the likely strong effect of self-selection, motivation bias and
positive influence of attending lectures, seminars etc. the variable ‘average
attendance’ – a student’s average attendance across the course excluding PAL –
was corrected for
• With 6 separate seminar groups run differently by 5 PAL Leaders, effects for
group were analysed by testing for correlation separately by group
Data was also collected for this course on retention for the year in which PAL ran and
for the preceding year.
Results
1. Assessment of student perceptions – student ‘participants’ (first year students)
Short questionnaires
The short questionnaires administered at the end of PAL sessions proved useful for
PAL Leaders to get ideas for what to do in subsequent PAL sessions (as it asked first
year students to suggest such) but produced data of limited use for research
purposes. This was largely because responses were too short to be particularly
informative. A number of the types of responses are given below, however, together
with illustrative responses, as they do indicate areas students considered to be of
benefit.
Generally ‘helpful’
Students often referred to PAL non-specifically as being ‘helpful’ or ‘useful’ etc.:
“Very helpful”
“Very useful”
“Good to cover things more than once, especially when unsure”
“Quite beneficial, went over work I couldn’t remember how to do”
“Good to raise and solve problems with the course”
Adjusting/ settling in to university
The suggestion was made that PAL was of value in adjusting to university, in terms
of awareness of the operation of the course, general settling in and getting to know
fellow students:
“Helped me organise the beginning of my course”
“Good to talk about how we are getting on now we have started uni”
“Found out about my group members”
“Got to know seminar group better”
Understanding the course/ course specific help
Student comments indicate that PAL has been of value in understanding course
material in its own right, as well as in relation to course seminars:
“Gives a clear understanding and builds confidence in yourself with regards to topics
covered in seminars”
“This session benefited me as it gave me time to go over points that I did not
understand before”
“Helps to understand how [legal] cases relate to each other”
“I finally learnt how to convert binary to hexidecimal”
“Very helpful as it lead to my understanding decimal, hexidecimal and binary”
“Helped me expand my learning of course topics”
“Cleared up some ideas about systems and coding”
“Helped with understanding data-flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams”
“Helped me increase my understanding of topics I have previously had trouble with”
“Helped to understand Register in literature”
“Helped with looking at criminal law seminar questions”
“Vital preparation for criminal law seminars - very helpful”
“Helped with my understanding of the subject”
Awareness/ understanding of course directions and expectations
PAL sessions were also seen to be of value for understanding course expectations
and ‘survival’ skills:
“It helped me understand more of what is asked from me on this course”
“Good pointers and tips on surviving the course”
Assignment help
PAL sessions may be used to attend to immediate academic needs, such as looking
at assessment briefs (assignment questions), and other preparatory work for
assignments:
“Useful for pulling apart assignment question”
“It helped me with some of the issues I was unclear about for my essay”
“A useful opportunity to ask questions about the assignment”
“Very helpful - planned an excursion AND worked on criminal law assignment”
“Good stuff - looked at deadlines for assignments”
“Beneficial as worked on current assignment”
“Helped a lot with essay preparation”
“Very helpful for discussing ideas for contract assignment”
Reassurance / approachability of PAL
A feature of PAL appreciated by students has been its approachability in terms of
students feeling able to ask questions of concern to them in a safe environment, this
itself providing a reassuring function to some:
“Felt better because everyone has the same worries!”
“Very much so [beneficial]. I can ask questions not relevant in lectures/seminars.
Helps to tie up loose ends.”
“I feel as though I can ask any questions relating to my course with ease”
“It allowed me to discuss things I felt uneasy about in the course with the time for
them to be able to be explained”
“Relieved pre-assignment stress!”
“Good to be able to talk about things that are worrying us”
Study skills
Development of a range of transferable skills were reported by students as being a
benefit of PAL. These related to how to structure assignments, presentation skills,
revision skills, use of computer software, time management, use of the library, writing
up lab books, reports and experiments:
“I acquired skills on how to structure an assignment”
“The difference between essay and report writing”
“A good session, practised presentation skills”
“Helped to understand how to structure a presentation”
“Enjoyable, beneficial, learnt about presentations”
“Good for steadying nerves on presentations”
“Helped with essay techniques and lab books”
“Showed us how to write up experiments”
“Revision techniques useful”
“I learnt how to use Microsoft Powerpoint”
“I learnt how to manage my time and also how to approach the contract law
assignment”
“Went to library so I now know where books etc. relevant to the course are”
Cooperative learning
Students also recognised the cooperative nature of PAL as valuable:
“Very useful, I like sharing ideas with people who want to listen and picked up a few
essay ideas”
“Quite beneficial, helped hearing other’s views on how to draw!”
“Learning from experience of others”
“It gives the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback”
“It gives you the chance to talk over anything you are not sure about, we went over
how to set out essay questions and problem questions”
“Excellent discussion”
Cohort questionnaire surveys
The survey questionnaires administered to course cohorts on those courses on
which PAL ran produced some interesting and rich data. 250 students (around 40%
of all students for whom PAL was available) completed at least part of the
questionnaire.
Except for question (3) which specifically requested students respond to fixed
categories, all questions in the survey were open-ended. Responses from question
(3) are used to assess the extent of presence or absence of certain potential benefits
as perceived by students (see figure 1 and table 2). An attempt is not made here to
quantify responses to other questions within different categories however, rather to
present the variety of benefits and shortcomings arising from PAL.
Categories of responses with illustrative quotes
• Question 1: “If you have been to three or more PAL sessions, what has made you
keep attending?”
Advice from / perspective of PAL Leader
A motivation to attend PAL has been the opportunity to draw on the experience,
knowledge and perspective of the PAL Leader:
“I can ask specific questions to a person that has already been through the first year”
“I like being able to have a chat with someone who has been through what I am going
through now and being able to draw on the advice she has for us”
“It was very interactive and [PAL Leader] reinforced what the lecturers had said, but
from a different perspective”
“Someone who has done our year and is very bright”
“To gain a student perspective of the course from 2nd year students”
“The fact that we could just talk to [PAL Leader] about our work and everything else,
also asking questions and she answers in a student perspective”
Approachability of PAL Leader / sessions
Students have commented that an attractive feature of PAL sessions are their open
environment, which is amenable to asking questions or admitting misunderstanding,
including a favourable comparison with formal support structures (speaking with
lecturers) and favourable remarks upon the approachability of PAL Leaders:
“Easier to talk to them than most lecturers”
“Being able to ask questions on current subject problems without having to go direct
to the lecturer”
“A good, easy atmosphere”
“It helps me understand my work. She is very helpful with any problems I have and
it’s easier sometimes to ask a student than a lecturer”
Opportunity to decide subject matter
A useful feature of PAL can be the opportunity for students to determine content of
sessions:
“I felt I could ask about anything I didn’t understand”
“That our peer asks us what we would like to learn”
Help with assignments
Students report a reason for attending PAL is the ability to attend to assessed work,
whether in receiving ‘help’, discussing approaches to an assignment or for the
opportunity to improve marks:
“I felt I had an advantage over the people who weren’t attending, particularly with help
on assignments”
“PAL offers useful info and help with assignments”
“Able to discuss assignment approaches and helps with test revision”
“Because I find it hard to do coursework this gives me a chance to improve marks”
Understanding course subject matter
A motivation for attending, and benefit of PAL, can be the chance to enhance
understanding of course material, resolving ‘problems’ with it and reinforcing course
subject matter:
“Helps when we didn’t understand a thing taught in seminars”
“Review of course - resolving problems I and others have - a different way of
teaching”
“Helped to reinforce knowledge and strengthen areas of knowledge”
Settling in to university
Students have reported PAL sessions were of value in terms of helping to adjust to
(settle in to) university:
“PAL sessions and the discussions have helped with settling into uni life”
“At first it was helpful to get used to university and ask any questions about it”
PAL is ‘useful’ or ‘helpful’
A common (and entirely sensible!) response - many respondents simply put ‘PAL is
helpful’ or similar.
Timetabled or expected
Some students suggested that they attended PAL out of a sense of obligation:
“Because I thought they were compulsory”
• Question 2: “If you have not been to PAL or to less than three sessions, please
indicate why”
‘Do not need help’
A common reason given for not attending PAL was a perception on students’ part
that the support offered was ‘not needed’, either because these students felt
themselves to have a good grasp on the course or because of a preference for other
support mechanisms:
“I personally feel the work I have been set I have had a good understanding of and
any aspects I don’t know I speak to the lecturer”
PAL ‘not helpful’
In a different sense, some students have reported that they have attended PAL, but
not found it to be of any or enough help to them to be motivated to persist with it:
“I found them to not be of any help to myself”
“Haven’t found previous sessions to be that useful”
“Not felt that they really helped much. Would rather get on with work on my own or if
there is a problem see the lecturer”
“We first met in the student bar so that did not give me a good impression, didn’t have
the feeling of study”
“The feel of the sessions was slow, made me feel I was wasting time”
• Question 3: “If you have been to any PAL sessions, do you agree or disagree that
they contributed to the following?” (sixteen potential benefits rated)
The results of students’ appraisal of the extent of presence or absence of the range
of 16 potential benefits (as detailed in table 2 above) are shown in figure 1. This
shows percentage of responses for (strongly) agree/ (strongly) disagree/ don’t know
for each item.
Table 3 shows the results of students’ appraisal of the extent of presence or absence
of benefits for each course, whereby benefits are ranked in order by course.
An attempt is made to demonstrate salience for each item, in comparison with other
items, by ranking items. Rankings are calculated by scoring each item whereby each
‘strongly disagree’ marked by a student scores a minus 2 through to each ‘strongly
agree’ scoring a plus 2. In this way, an average figure per item per course is
calculated, where 1 indicates the most highly ranked benefit through to 16, the least
ranked. For example, in course 1, Business Information Systems Management, the
most highly rated benefit of PAL by students is “Opportunity to air concerns away
from teaching staff” whereas for course 5, LLB Law, “Opportunity to clarify basic
concepts” is the most highly ranked benefit. This ranking table is intended to show
both the extent of consistency of salience of emergent benefits between courses, as
well as to provide data that may assess the reliability of the measure used.
Table 3 in fact shows a great deal of consistency between courses for items. For
example, “Opportunity to clarify basic concepts” is the most highly-ranked benefit of
the sixteen for four of six courses, and second and third ranked for the other two
courses. The ‘control’ measure, “Remembering factual information (e.g. names,
dates)” emerges as the least highly-ranked item (sixteenth) for two of the six courses,
as fifteenth for two courses, and fourteenth for the other two courses.
The consistency of rankings between courses indicates that the scale is a reliable
measure for assessing potential benefits of PAL sessions (students from different
courses, at different administrations of the scale, responded closely to each other).
The consistency of rankings also indicates that the benefits of PAL appear to be
comparable between courses and disciplines. It is noteworthy that students of
Conservation Science courses assess the benefits of their experience of PAL in a
very similar fashion to those from Law, Computing etc. courses. This is even more
striking given that within courses students had their PAL sessions taken by up to nine
different PAL Leaders, and between courses, taken by thirty-four different PAL
Leaders.
Figure 1: Extent of benefits of PAL sessions as perceived by first year students
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Remembering factual information (e.g. names,
dates) *
Development of study skills
Reassurance about non-course-related
concerns
Development of my confidence
Enjoyment of learning
Better marks in assignments
Settling in to university
Social aspects of learning (learning with
others)
Opportunity to clarify complex concepts
Better preparation for assignments
Awareness of course expectations
Reassurance about course-related concerns
Obtaining a second year’s perspective on the
course
Understanding subject matter of course
Opportunity to air concerns away from
teaching staff
Opportunity to clarify basic concepts
(strongly) agree
(strongly) disagree
don't know
* It should be noted that the ‘control’ question – that asked about remembering factual information –
has in fact a very low acceptance rate by students.
Table 2 : Rankings of potential benefits by course
rankings by course
Potential benefit Course 1 Course 2 Course 3 Course 4 Course 5 Course 6 Average
Opportunity to clarify basic
concepts 2 1 3 1 1 1 1.5
Opportunity to air concerns
away from teaching staff 1 2 2 6 3 3 2.83
Understanding subject matter
of course 5 3 4 2 5 4 3.83
Obtaining a second year’s
perspective on the course 10 4 1 4 Not
included 2 4.20
Reassurance about course-
related concerns 3 7 5 7 6 6 5.67
Better preparation for
assignments 6 8 7 8 2 5 6.00
Awareness of course
expectations 7 5 6 3 9 7 6.17
Opportunity to clarify
complex concepts 4 6 9 10 4 8 6.83
Social aspects of learning
(learning with others) 8 10 8 9 7 9 8.50
Better marks in assignments 12 13 11 11 8 10 10.83
Settling in to university 9 11 10 13 10 13 11.00
Enjoyment of learning 11 12 13 12 11 12 11.83
Development of my
confidence 13 14 15 5 12 15 12.33
Reassurance about non-
course-related concerns (e.g.
housing, finances)
16 9 14 16 13 14 13.67
Development of study skills
(e.g. essay writing, use of
library, note-taking, planning
time)
15 16 12 14 15 11 13.83
Remembering factual
information (e.g. names,
dates) *
14 15 16 15 14 16 15.00
Course 1 = Business Information Systems Management (Business School)
Course 2 = Business Information Technology (School of Design Engineering Computing)
Course 3 = Communication (Media School)
Course 4 = Chemistry and Environmental and Geographical Sciences (School of
Conservation Sciences)
Course 5 = LLB Law
Course 6 = Management Foundation Course (combined Hospitality degrees - School of
Services Management)
* It should be noted that the ‘control’ question – that asked about remembering factual information –
has in fact a very low acceptance rate by students.
• Question 4: “In which other ways have you found PAL to be of value?”
General ‘help’
A number of students responded that PAL has been ‘helpful’ or in other general
ways:
“Friendly help that I understand”
“PAL is a good opportunity for students to discuss problems or find out things about
the course”
“Helpful to explain the basics from a student’s point of view”
Advice from / perspective of PAL Leader
The value of the PAL Leader is often spoken of in terms of their ‘perspective’, broadly
that they are able to view the course of study and university from the students’ point
of view. They are also reported as assisting with understanding course expectations
(for example by showing their own old assignments), as explaining course material in
student-friendly language and demonstrating appropriate ‘coping’ skills:
“Offering a copy of the assignments they did in the first year to see what is expected”
“The course from a different perspective - been there, done that, got the T-shirt, this
is what you need to do, type of thing”
“If we have any concerns about work generally the PAL Leader will go away, read up
on it and then get back to us”
“Someone on your level explaining things in your language”
“Good to see how a second year copes with the course, identifies what is ahead for
us”
“Provides the ability to ask questions about the course from someone who has
completed the first year - you can ask what is expected”
Understanding course expectations
The ability of PAL to assist with awareness of course and university expectations is
reported:
“You get a better understanding of the course and what will be expected of you”
“Helps to see what is expected, what is coming your way and how seriously you
should really take university”
Approachability of PAL Leader / sessions
The ‘friendly’, ‘enjoyable’, ‘positive’ atmosphere of PAL sessions is reported as being
of value, as is the notion that PAL is a confidential place to voice problems:
“A friendly and enjoyable environment”
“It allows one to voice almost any problem in confidence”
“When I need help I know I can ask my PAL Leader”
“There is always a very positive attitude”
Help with assignments
Preparation for, and understanding of expectations of, assignments was also seen to
be of value in PAL. This may, as in one quote, have occurred because students used
the opportunity of being together in a classroom to work on assignments (with the
PAL Leader on hand if needed) or because PAL was of help with revision, or helped
with awareness of assignment expectations, structure or content:
“If we had nothing to discuss we could use the time to work on assignments and the
PAL Leader would be there to help if needed”
“Some interesting revision sessions”
“Better understanding of assignment expectations”
“Assignment structure and ideas”
“PAL Leader brings in her 1st year assignments so we can have a better idea of what
is expected of them, also revision classes have been very useful”
Understanding course subject matter
PAL was seen to be of value in assisting with understanding of (difficult) parts of the
course:
“Having extra support, such as clarifying specific points that lectures might not explain
very well”
“Particularly useful for understanding the tricky parts of the course”
“Helped to strengthen my knowledge and understanding of subjects”
Cooperative aspects
Students reported that PAL was of value for its cooperative character, enabling
students to share ideas, approaches, experiences or problems or to help with getting
to know fellow students:
“Able to use the ideas of others”
“Good place to air problems so class can discuss as well as lecturer/ PAL Leader”
“Students at PAL can share their experiences”
“Enables you to get to know your seminar group better because you help each other”
“Understanding how other people on my course approach work e.g. assignments”
Settling in to university / social aspects
The social aspect of PAL is also referred to in terms of ‘gelling’ of a seminar group
(same composition as the PAL group), encouraging socialisation and getting to know
second year students:
“Helped with the gelling of our seminar group”
“Getting to know 2nd years”
“Socialising with seminar group - we all went out as a PAL group which was good to
do in the first weeks of term”
“Able to get to know seminar group - more individual style of learning also”
Reassurance about the course
PAL has also appeared to offer a reassuring function to students, whether in terms of
encouragement and support offered by the PAL Leader, understanding work,
increasing self-confidence about persistence and the opportunity for guidance
through the first year:
“It really helps to have a chat to someone who went through exactly what you’re
going through and made it when you think you are having a bad time of it”
“Reassures about work I haven’t understood”
“Makes you feel confident that you can make it to the second year because the PAL
tutors were also in my position”
“It’s good to have someone other than a teacher to guide you through the first year
and sort out any worries you have”
• Question 5: “Which aspects of PAL do you dislike?”
Lack of structure
A common complaint from students has been that PAL sessions sometimes lack
structure, plan or learning outcomes:
“Sometimes our sessions are quite unstructured which seems a bit of a waste of time”
“There doesn’t seem to be a structure to sessions”
“There is not a clear plan - better structure needed”
“The PAL Leader should have a clear plan and learning outcomes otherwise it is a bit
pointless”
Concern about productivity
Some students have also commented that they saw PAL as being not especially
productive, because of its relaxed character, an undue focus on ‘moaning’, its limited
use when demands on students are low, or as only being of use for tackling
assignments (and hence not of use when assignments are not due):
“The attitude was too relaxed, should be more serious to solve academic problems”
“Useful to moan about our workload but not sure how much else we got done”
“PAL is extremely valuable initially and at the end for revision but when there is not
much to do it isn’t”
“It’s handy when we have something challenging to do because we can discuss
ideas. If there is not a big assignment it can seem like a waste of time.”
Repeats work unnecessarily
Students have also suggested that PAL may unnecessarily repeat that which some
students already understand, or attend to one aspect of a course when other more
difficult areas were of greater concern:
“Often repeating what we know or have recently learnt”
“The few sessions I attended covered very simple and straightforward aspects of the
course when the class were struggling in other areas”
“Don’t do work we have already done and understood”
Concern about expertise of PAL Leaders
Some students expressed concern about the expertise of PAL Leaders, including
that information conveyed has been incorrect or contradictory or that the potential for
this to occur exists:
“Sometimes information given is incorrect and contradicts lecturers”
“That we are being given advice and guidance about the course by people with no
more qualifications than ourselves - they could fail their degree”
“I have had some misguidance on an assignment”
“Students do not have the knowledge of lecturers so we could be misinformed”
Comment on PAL Leader
A comment was also made about a PAL Leader:
“PAL Leader was often unprepared and not confident”
• Question 6: “What would you like to see improved or developed in relation to
PAL?”
Timetabling
Students suggested better scheduling of PAL would help encourage attendance and
awareness of time and location of PAL:
“Make times of sessions better i.e. not first lesson of day”
“Better timetabling to increase turnout”
“Have had problems finding PAL due to room changes”
“PAL should be timetabled in a place where people want to go to it”
More assistance for PAL (Leaders) from teaching staff
Students suggested that PAL would benefit from heightened input of teaching staff to
the scheme:
“There needs to be more input from teachers to the PAL Leaders”
“More information given to PAL Leaders from staff”
“I think a tutor needs to be there to explain topics in more detail”
Better structure to PAL sessions
Again, an increase in structure to PAL sessions was desired. This, it is proposed,
would help students know what is coming up in future sessions, increase productivity
of PAL sessions, enable better matching of student concerns to PAL session content,
and make sessions more interesting:
“Perhaps a more structured approach would help”
“Better constructed lessons so that each week you knew what was going to be
discussed”
“PAL is not organised enough - a specific plan is needed for each session”
“Not structured enough - you feel you have not got that much done in sessions”
“Could have more structure i.e. agree on what we are going to discuss in the next
session so we can bring in areas of concern”
“The PAL Leader needs to plan their lesson to make them more interesting”
Request for increase in PAL
Encouragingly, some students requested an increase in provision of PAL:
“More PAL sessions”
“PAL twice a week”
“Would like more of the same, just what is needed to get through first year”
“More time with PAL, one hour is often not enough”
“Would it be possible to have this scheme next year?”
• Examples of ‘any other’ comments made by students, which support other
statements made above, include:
Positive remarks
“PAL has been very helpful and very well run!”
“An excellent idea that has enabled us to settle in!”
“Very good idea, helpful, approachable and informal”
“I think it is an excellent scheme on all levels and I have really benefited from it this year”
“PAL has been enjoyable and has been something I look forward to each week”
“Good atmosphere and develops confidence within the group”
“[PAL Leader name] rocks!”
Negative remarks
“Not enjoyable, not helpful, not needed”
“I find that PAL is a good concept but fails when put into practice. The time could more
usefully be spent on assignments. When problems do arise people generally help each other
and don’t really need to attend PAL sessions.”
“I preferred to get on with work on my own which I think was a better use of my time”
Semi-structured interviews
Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with first year students who had
experienced PAL.
Broadly, the sorts of benefits of PAL first year students spoke of fall into the following
categories:
- Adjusting (settling in) to university
- Informality/ openness of PAL
- Co-operative aspects
- PAL Leader perspective
- Understanding course subject matter
- Assignment and exam work
- Awareness of course direction and expectations
- Study skills
- Development of confidence / reassurance
- PAL Leader – staff liaison
Shortcomings fall into the following broad categories:
- Initial misconceptions
- Resistance to or limitations of cooperative learning
- Dissatisfaction with the content of PAL sessions
- Dissatisfaction with the operational aspects of PAL
- Lack of structure, format or clear aims to PAL sessions
- Incorrect, inappropriate or unhelpful advice or perceptions received in PAL
sessions
Quotes are numbered for reference back during the Discussion.
Benefits of PAL
Adjusting to university
Although interviews were conducted into the Spring term and a number of students
asserted that they had trouble remembering the start of the Autumn term, the point
was made on a number of occasions that PAL had assisted with adjusting to
university. This occurred through sharing of experiences, getting to know others,
making friends with and socialising with seminar group, reinforcing induction issues,
and understanding others’ viewpoints:
“It was very difficult starting [university]… [PAL] helped me settle in quite a lot, we
talked about our experiences in the first PAL session, how we’d moved in and how
people were getting on, it was really good to be able to do that”
“PAL helped a lot getting to know my group because… it meant that people were
forced together and met when it wasn’t a lecture and actually talked to each other and
then it meant that people went out with each other in the evening too”
“[PAL is] a good idea because it settles in new students better because it’s students
talking to students… and my PAL Leader was really good at helping that work”
“The trouble is with a lot of things that are explained very early on is that they just
don’t sink in so PAL is useful to explain these”
“It wasn’t just about the course, it was about making friends, going out, clubs, it was
really like induction all over again”
“People became a lot closer through PAL, I’m not saying just through PAL but it really
genuinely does help”
“You get to know each other on a more personal level which helps… you can
understand who thinks what and their views on things”
Informality/ openness of PAL
Interviewees often spoke of an appreciation for the relaxed, informal, open character
of PAL and how this enabled them to be more open and honest, such as being able
to admit misunderstanding or problems (including being able to raise very basic
points), ask questions, or even just to have the confidence to speak at all, and how
this in some cases contributed to an increased confidence or served a reassuring
function:
“When you’re in a lecture or seminar you don’t feel comfortable asking questions…
but I found it much easier talking [in PAL] and it’s just a friendlier atmosphere in PAL
sessions… which is good because you just think “phew!” this isn’t that horrible after
all”
“There are a lot of people who won’t say anything in seminars but they will actually
talk in PAL, so it definitely allows people who may be normally nervous or anxious to
come across”
“When people realised it was nothing to do with lecturers or teaching then they
became a lot more open and say what problems they had”
“When you’re in the first year it’s hard to… raise points in seminars and lectures, with
all your friends and other students and new people there there’s the whole, nobody
wants to speak out, but in PAL nobody minded saying anything, really it was easy…
to get the points you wanted to get out”
“People come up with points [in PAL] even if they don’t understand the most basic of
things you can say ‘look I’m really not too sure’ “
“It’s easier to ask questions [in PAL], when you’re in a lecture or seminar you don’t
feel comfortable asking questions in front of everyone and the teacher sometimes
explains it like you’re a bit stupid, but I found it much easier to talk to [the PAL
Leader] and it’s just a friendlier atmosphere in PAL sessions”
“People are coming up with points even if they don’t understand the most basic of
things you can say ‘look I’m not really too sure’ and nobody sort of looks at you
because we have [lecturer] if you ask a question even if it was a really good question,
he’d look at you like you’re the dumbest kid in the world and it was really off-putting
because you sat there through the whole seminar and if you don’t understand
something at the beginning it makes the whole seminar pointless really but you could
just go to PAL and say ‘look I’m not really too sure on this’ and they’re more than
willing to help you out”
Co-operative aspects
Whilst often in interviews the cooperative nature of PAL was often either hinted at (or
it was perhaps unclear to what extent it was present) in a number of cases students
made explicit (an appreciation of) the cooperative aspects of the PAL session. These
included general comments regarding the participative nature of discussion, the
ability of students with different strengths to assist one another, the sharing of ideas
enhancing assessed work, and again the social aspect of PAL was mentioned:
“Everybody chipped in with their ideas, some obviously as well had the wrong point
but… it was like a big forum for ideas”
“…people contributed what they had, the people that were, say, more business-
oriented or computing-oriented brought in their point of view which helped the people
who weren’t sure… understand what was happening”
“You can knock ideas around, you can have an amazing assignment [written] and
you’ve got all the points in your head but then somebody just chips in with one idea
and you think ‘that really makes sense’ and it brings it all together”
“We finished at 10 o’clock on a Friday and then didn’t have anything until 1 o’clock
when our PAL session was and virtually everyone waited around for the 3 hour gap
which is really unusual for students to wait around that long! Because it was an
enjoyment thing because you get to go along and have a… not have a laugh as such
but in a way enjoy yourself, you can discuss ideas, talk about the weekend after
you’ve got all your work done, so it’s an enjoyable thing, it’s not a chore to have to do
it… we always used to go to the bar after the PAL session”
The role of the PAL Leader in encouraging cooperative learning in PAL was also
referred to, whether in group management or in drawing out ideas from the group:
“[The PAL Leader] said the best thing is to maybe split yourself up into smaller groups
and discuss… and then all come back together which helped us a great deal with
working together”
“[The PAL Leaders] helped us to discuss [course issues] as a group, they didn’t really
do anything, they didn’t tell us the answers or anything they just got us to actually talk
to each other about the problems we had as opposed to just sitting on our own which
is definitely very useful”
“The PAL Leader helped clarify things… and he did coax a lot of things out of us, he
didn’t just give it to us… in a way he’d play stupid to help us get the answers because
it’s always more satisfying when you get the answer yourself”
PAL Leader perspective
The PAL Leader was frequently referred to as being a source of advice or knowledge
for first year students. This occurred through the passing on of experience (including
how to improve on their mistakes), through PAL Leaders having a heightened,
student-centred understanding of the first year experience, through affective
closeness between students and the PAL Leader, through being able to offer
reassurance, and through an altruistic attitude:
“The PAL Leader described their own experiences and helped us to improve on their
mistakes and use their experience”
“The fact that the PAL Leader knows what problems she had in the first year, she
knows what problems we’re going to be having now, that makes it much easier
because then she knows what we want to know rather than what the lecturers just
seem to think we should know”
“Where PAL works is getting the benefit of the experience of someone who’s just
above you because after all it’s very difficult for tutors to go back in time and get rid of
all that mass of knowledge they’ve got and focus back down to the first year level”
“As a PAL Leader it’s quite good from a psychological slant for them to talk about
their failings, talk about the things they messed up on and didn’t understand because
that way you break down barriers, there’s very few of the tutors that are like that but
with students together we can do that, we can say ‘well actually I was crap at writing
essays at first but I know now why that was’ ”
“[The PAL Leader] knew it was hard to learn and he understood where we were
coming from and he made it simpler for us to understand. Because he was just a
second year when he came here a year ago he had the same anxieties and
expectations as us, so he could relate to that and try to make us feel a bit more at
ease”
“It was good the way [the PAL Leader] came across as not like the lecturers -
teaching teaching teaching, read this read this read this - he showed us the other side
to university life, and that doesn’t come up anywhere else on the course”
“You come out of a lecture or seminar and there’s all these ideas and you’re thinking
‘Oh my God how does all this fit together’ and then you sit down in PAL and say you
don’t understand this at all and they can say ‘this is how I understand it’ and ‘I had the
same problem’ and give you examples”
“It’s not just a second year coming along and acting like they know loads more than
you, they honestly want to help you and I know all the people who have applied to do
it this year was because we found it so beneficial we want to pass it on”
Understanding course subject matter
This ‘meaning-oriented’ issue was mentioned in interviews, whether as a stand-alone
issue or sometimes in association with preparation for an assignment. PAL sessions
could be of value, for example, to review and reinforce lecture and seminar material,
to get to grips with technical terminology, seeing linkages, and in general terms:
“The lectures and the seminars give you the content, what you need to know, but
then if there’s anything you don’t understand you can run through it in PAL… and it
makes it all make sense”
“Making sense of legal terms comes up a lot in PAL because people get confused
and they need to understand the meanings and the differences and what’s important
and relevant”
“[The PAL Leader] went through what it needs to look like, showed us on the board..
so he clarified things for us and helped show the linkages”
“A lot of us [first year students] have our stronger units and a lot of the guys have
been explaining things to me in PAL sessions and it makes it a lot easier to
understand”
Assessed work
Students reported that attention to assessed work was a beneficial feature of PAL
sessions. The PAL session might focus on the content for assignments (including
focussing on specific points which require inclusion), analysing assignment briefs,
and for revision; there is also the implication that PAL can help achieve high marks:
“Working on assignments is reassuring… working out the basic content, we did a few
spider diagrams on the board and we broke down all the points and expanded on
them”
“As we got into PAL we started talking about assignments, going over topics… we
went over the assignment briefs and all the different things we had to do, we didn’t go
over the actual assignment but an example one and it was really useful… and I
managed to get 75%”
“We’ve been going over old exam papers and been doing revision and it makes it
easier to understand”
Course directions and expectations
Discussing where the course is headed, acquiring an overview of the course as a
whole and what is required from it both within the first year and on into the second
year (and placements) was a regular feature of many PAL sessions, as were
awareness of standards expected by lecturers, and of protocol, such as whether and
how to approach staff:
“It was good finding out where the course goes from here, what we’ll be doing, if it’s
harder and how the subjects change [etc.]”
“[PAL] helped with… knowing what sort of standards and what the lecturers were
expecting to deliver to them… and also gave a general overview because the first
year you’re not sure what’s going on obviously whereas the second year students are
applying for placements and they have done the first year already and know how it
links on”
“Early on you’re not sure if you can go and what sort of questions you can ask
lecturers, it’s quite closed doors everywhere you’re unsure whether to actually knock
on the door and ask people, but certainly the PAL Leaders emphasised that you can
go and knock on the door, they don’t mind and even if you weren’t sure about asking
the lecturers questions you could ask the PAL Leaders…”
Study skills
Students referred to PAL being of benefit in supporting study skills, such as
practising presentations, exercises to ascertain quality in assessed work and revision
techniques (for example time management):
“[The PAL Leader] talked to us as well about presentation skills, what he did when he
presented and we also practised presentations in the PAL session… that got people
more sure about how to present in front of a room full of people”
“We looked at two different sample essays and marked them and looked at why each
was good and talked about why each was good and it got us thinking about the
difference between a good and a bad essay”
“We were given a revision timetable and [discussed] questions about how to revise
and how long to spend on each question and went over past exam papers”
Development of confidence / reassurance
An interesting quote illustrates how one student felt that PAL could encourage the
development over time of self-confidence, in terms of preparedness to raise one’s
voice. It is suggested that PAL is able to inculcate the idea that it is permissible to
‘speak out’ even if one may not be ‘correct’ on an issue:
“There were some people that just never spoke out until they’d been to a few PAL
sessions and got the idea of actually nobody really minds if I speak out and I say the
wrong thing because we all do it all the time, that was the shyness and the ‘Oh I can’t
say anything in seminars and lectures because I don’t want anybody looking at me
like I’m a total plonker’ but once you’ve said a few things in PAL and they’ve mostly
been right but even if they’re wrong nobody’s said anything just said ‘yeah, you’re
wrong but have you thought of it like this’ then… when they come into a seminar they
begin to raise points and come forward”
PAL Leader – staff liaison
PAL Leaders were also referred to as being a useful intermediary between first year
students and staff. In the experience of PAL co-ordinators at Bournemouth, this role
has in many cases come to be a productive and regular feature of the work of PAL
Leaders:
“The PAL Leader is like a mentor, helping you out, for instance we’re finding it really
hard to get notes off [lecturer] but [PAL Leader] said ‘oh I’ll go and have a word with
him and see what I can get out of him’ and I think… they’re more open to give the
PAL Leader that information on behalf of the whole class“
Shortcomings of PAL
Initial misconceptions
It was reported that first year students may have had misconceptions about PAL and
PAL Leaders, either that PAL Leaders may adopt a superior stance or that they
would take a teacher-like role:
“[There was a misconception that PAL Leaders were] trying to be above us, I don’t
know where it came from but it’s the automatic thing to put up the barrier – everyone
was trying to work out: ‘a second year teaching us what? They’ve only been here a
year they don’t know that much’ ”
“You expect the teacher-student thing, some people are worried that it’s going to be
that teacher-student relationship but it’s completely the other way round, you go in
and talk about what you want”
Resistance to or limitations of cooperative learning
In contrast to positive appraisals of the participative, cooperative nature of PAL,
some also disliked this character of the scheme. It was at times felt that PAL would
have been improved by PAL Leaders ‘teaching’, or that because of a lack of
knowledge on the part of the first year group cooperative learning was difficult to
achieve. Some students were averse to explaining their ideas to others, and
sometimes there was the perception among the group that the PAL Leader would
provide a teacher-like role:
“It was good because it was less formal, he did allow us to chat, but I think there
should have been more of a teaching structure like lecturers have, it was basically
about what we wanted to know and I would have preferred it if he had taught us”
“[The PAL Leader] could only explain so much and certain people in our seminar
group didn’t know the work and didn’t understand anything and so they couldn’t ask
any questions and so they stopped coming”
“Some people don’t like telling other people what they know so it was quite hard when
only some people turned up and then when the others did come you don’t really want
to make the effort for them because they didn’t make the effort for you”
“I think our group relied on the PAL Leader far too much – they’re just there for
support and not to answer all your questions”
Dissatisfaction with the content of PAL sessions
One comment suggests that PAL may at times be only a substitute for what may
occur naturally in an informal setting:
“[It is] a balance between having a good talk… and it not just becoming a complaining
session or something you could do just with friends in the café”
Dissatisfaction with the operational aspects of PAL
Comments were made regarding the operational aspects of PAL (which do not
pertain to the ‘PAL session'):
“The problem that I found was that the timings were confused at the start and it
sometimes wouldn’t be on and then there would be a lot of miscommunication”
“It was right in the middle of a day where we didn’t have any other lectures. The
problem is that you wouldn’t want to come in on your ‘lazy’ day”
“Timetabling was OK at first but when it changed and PAL was on a day when there
wasn’t anything else, no one turned up after that…”
Lack of structure, format or clear aims to PAL sessions
Some students referred to the negative side of the informal, unstructured character of
PAL, including a suggestion that this may at times heighten confusion:
“We went to one PAL session and they were really under-prepared and I came away
more confused and they didn’t understand it either so it didn’t help”
“It needs structure so you know you’re there for a good reason and what you’re going
to achieve and also allow space for extra-curricular talk”
“It’s really good how it’s informal at the moment but maybe make it more structured at
the beginning so people know what they are going to be covering”
Incorrect, inappropriate or unhelpful advice or perceptions received in PAL sessions
It was suggested that PAL did have the potential to give misleading information
regarding assignments, or in conveying a mood (towards the course?) of PAL
Leaders:
“What they did tell me in one PAL session, when they said this was the way I should
approach a particular essay, I did use it and I didn’t get a very good mark for it, I’m
not blaming them but…”
“I must admit I think some of the PAL Leaders were a little bit depressed themselves
which isn’t a great thing to pass on”
2. Assessment of student perceptions – PAL Leaders (second year students)
Reflective forms
Data was gathered from PAL Leaders through post-session reflection forms
regarding the environment of learning in PAL sessions, which is largely outside the
scope of this study. As to what PAL Leaders considered to be benefits and
shortcomings of PAL for themselves and their students, some useful data was
obtained: categories of response together with illustrative quotes are given below.
Benefits to and shortcomings for first year students (as seen by PAL Leaders)
Adjusting to university
PAL Leaders indicated that issues pertinent to adjusting to university, some course-
relevant, others generic, were discussed in PAL:
“Discussed various queries - Fresher’s Week, Accommodation, transport etc.”
Course direction and expectations
It is suggested that PAL sessions also began early on to look at course expectations
and study skills:
“Students were beginning to think about what the course will entail in terms of
presentation of written work”
Assignment help
Preparation for assessed work was a common feature of PAL sessions; in PAL
students utilised course materials (textbooks), students’ confidence was increased,
essay structure and content was attended to, as were the differences between
different types of assessed work:
“The discussion on one of the assignments was productive as the students had
textbooks so the discussion was backed up with authority”
“Students made to think about the meaning of quotes in assignment question”
“Between now and Christmas I expect the sessions to focus specifically on
assignments due in the next few weeks”
“They left with more confidence after talking through the assignment”
“Group seemed happy tackling assignment - recapped essay structure, applied to
current assignment and identified themes to be covered”
“Very good session - discussed the difference between essay and problem
assignment questions”
Understanding course subject matter
Reference is made to work directed to understanding course material in a
participative fashion:
“Some members of the group participated and gained a greater understanding of the
subject”
“Actually got them thinking about how they were able to reach the decisions they did”
“A difficult area of contract law was broken down into its component parts”
Cooperative aspects
The cooperative nature of PAL is referred to in a positive light by PAL Leaders:
“The group were extremely talkative and the situation was very relaxed”
“The class was very involved - working in pairs and as a whole group”
“Very pleased they all worked well and contributed whenever they could”
“The group were willing to talk at all times and to answer my questions”
Informality
PAL Leaders suggested that the informal, relaxed nature of PAL was constructive,
and of value to PAL Leaders as well as the group:
“Very friendly, comfortable atmosphere with maximum input on both sides”
“Extremely flowing with good atmosphere”
“Everybody was getting along and many good issues were raised”
“A very relaxed, informal and productive session”
“The group is easy to manage as it is much more like a group of friends chatting”
Students deciding topics
It is suggested that there was a development of ownership of PAL sessions by first
year students:
“The group are becoming more definite of what they want out of the sessions”
Lack of structure
PAL Leaders remarked, in a negative sense, that their PAL sessions lacked
structure:
“I felt the session lacked structure”
“Sessions largely without structure - although the majority of discussion is law-based”
Benefits to and shortcomings for PAL Leaders
Revising first year material
PAL Leaders made reference to the value of PAL to themselves in terms of reviewing
course material:
“Useful for me to go back over the subject”
“I had forgotten what we were covering so it was PAL for me as well!”
Personal development
PAL Leaders also mention the value of PAL in self-development, in that it helps develop self-
confidence, ability to speak in front of a group, presentation skills, and that such aspects are
in themselves rewarding:
“I am glad that I am getting more confident about running PAL sessions - I am much
more relaxed about talking to a group and running discussion”
“Good for my presentation skills”
“Nice experience to see that I can run such a large group of people”
“Feel confidence is increasing as time goes on”
Limitations of cooperative learning
PAL Leaders refer to limitations in being able to achieve cooperative learning as a
shortcoming of PAL; they felt in some instances that they were drawn, pressured or
by default required to lead sessions, or provide an inappropriate amount of help. This
may be because students are or appear to be unresponsive, or because of
inappropriate expectations on the part of the student group:
“Discussion was often lead by me due to being only the second week of term”
“They need to be spoon-fed, lack initiative to think without prompting”
“I was worried about how dependent the group seem to be on me - it needs to be
emphasised again that I am not a teacher!”
“Don’t think I could have done more without writing the assignment myself”
“It can be very difficult to get responses from students, no matter how friendly or
apporachable you come across”
“The students expected to be taught”
“Some students are very hard work such as problem ring leader”
Questionnaire survey
The questionnaire survey of PAL Leaders was conducted with a group of 12 PAL
Leaders prior to holding a discussion group about PAL. Some limited information was
gained from this survey.
• What has been your experience of PAL so far this year?
Positive aspects
PAL Leaders suggested that positive outcomes for them had been an increase in
confidence and the value of being involved in a ‘new experience’:
“Improves and builds confidence of PAL Leaders”
“Students find it easier to relate concerns to PAL Leaders than lecturers etc.”
“New experience, get to know other people”
Negative/ difficult aspects
PAL Leaders suggested that PAL can interfere with their own work, expressed the
diffiulty of finding it hard to involve the student group, mentioned the difficulty in
attending to all aspects of the course and problems caused by changes in the course
(from when they studied it):
“Can sometimes get in the way of own work, sometimes difficult to keep students
interested”
“Sometimes so broad - hard to cover everything”
“Structure of course changed from year before”
• How is PAL different from tutor-led sessions?
When asked how PAL differs from formal structures of the course, they pointed out
the informal and approachable nature of the scheme, the student-led character of the
scheme (though not remarked upon whether this was felt to be positive or negative),
that PAL is more centred on self-managed learning, and more participative:
“More informal, relaxed”
“It is more relaxed, you can get things wrong without feeling a fool”
“More led by students’ preference than a definite structure”
“Encourage them to learn for themselves rather than tutor-led”
“More debate in PAL sessions”
“More informal, more approachable”
• What do you think students gain from PAL sessions?
PAL Leaders suggested that they felt students gain a range of benefits, such as
benefiting from other students’ (or PAL Leaders’) perspective, a better understanding
of the course, gaining ideas and techniques for assignments, the informal nature
permitting openness, helping adjust to university life, ‘self-belief’ and getting to know
their fellow students:
“Knowledge from a student’s perspective - relate better”
“Better understanding of the course as a whole”
“Different ideas and techniques for assignments etc.”
“More informal therefore more willing to voice concerns”
“Helped them get used to university life”
“Self-belief”
“Interaction with class-mates - get to know them quicker”
“Opportunity to chat, learn on an informal level”
“Help with assignments”
“Informal approach”
“Greater thinking about the course”
“Assignment tips and the way ahead”
“I think it has had a positive effect on those that have attended even if they don’t
realise it”
• What do students dislike about PAL?
PAL Leaders suggested that students see as shortcomings of the scheme a lack of
structure to PAL sessions, perceiving sessions as lacking usefulness, and a dislike of
the non-teaching ethos of PAL:
“Unstructured sessions”
“Some feel there’s no point - don’t need the support”
“Timetable of PAL session”
“Fact that we read the same subject as them and know just as much as them”
“That we don’t teach”
“Don’t see the point, not helpful”
• What sort of things are PAL sessions good for?
PAL Leaders remarked that PAL sessions are of value for planning and discussing
ideas relevant to assignments, learning about techniques not conveyed elsewhere
such as revision tips, students being able to learn from one another, and helping a
student group to cohere (including this leading to heightened sense of ‘security’):
“Covering assignments - planning, discussing and sharing ideas”
“Brainstorming - clarifying any misunderstandings”
“Techniques not actually taught on the course like revision tips, essay writing”
“Learning from each other”
“A student’s view of the course”
“Come together as a group”
“At the start it helped bring people together. They feel more secure with everything - a
place to voice their concerns if they have any.”
• What sort of things are PAL sessions not so good for?
PAL Leaders felt that PAL sessions are not appropriate for teaching or other direct
provision of answers:
“Teaching, telling, giving answers”
“Formal teaching”
• What have you got out of being a PAL Leader?
PAL Leaders suggested a range of benefits to themselves (similar to those
mentioned above) such as increased presentation, communication and
organisational skills, and heightened confidence:
“Presentation skills and communication skills, organisation”
“Better communication skills, more confidence with speaking in front of a group”
“Gained in confidence i.e. from being focal point of attention. Sometimes being the
only one talking makes you realise just how much you actually know.”
• What have you found difficult about being a PAL Leader?
PAL Leaders suggested that difficult aspects of their work included variability in
attendance, problems arising when they didn’t ‘know the answers’ and when covering
subjects about which they had little knowledge or due to changes in the course:
“Variable attendance”
“Can be problematic when you don’t know the answers”
“Covering subjects that we have little knowledge on”
“Depth of knowledge - there have been a number of changes in the School - new
lecturers have different ideas/ approaches to their teaching”
Interviews and discussion groups
Interviews and discussion groups with PAL Leaders provided the most useful source
of information about benefits and shortcomings of PAL from the perspective of PAL
Leaders. Six discussion groups were conducted with groups of PAL Leaders.
Benefits to first year students (as seen by PAL Leaders)
Help with assignments
PAL Leaders suggested that their students benefited from PAL in terms of
awareness of methods of approaching assessed work (in a cooperative manner),
raising concerns relevant to assignments, assisting with tests (in this case in respect
of understanding legal terms), and of offering motivation (a ‘kick up the backside’):
“I think it’s quite helpful for them in terms of how to write assignments and they often
say when they’ve got problems with… a particular assignment”
“Through PAL we bring them together, we force them to talk about an essay question,
so none of them have to give away their best examples but they can talk about the
problem and make sure they all understand it properly and how to answer it”
“Some of them have said it has helped them in one of their tests, the quiz I prepared
for them helped them because it was about defining terms and that is what the test is
about”
“Normally we look at assignments which are due in next week and alright they should
have done the work already but in a way they come to PAL sessions to get a kick up
the backside and a push in the right direction”
Offering advice and perspective
PAL Leaders refer to their own provision of advice (‘tips’) such as time management
in respect of research methods, and the nature of their responsiveness to student
concerns:
“We can give them tips they can take into the second year… we did one PAL session
on time management, telling them different techniques like how and when to start
doing their research, when to start writing the essay, giving themselves time at the
end to correct it, the usual stuff but it’s good because they had quite a few questions
about that”
“There’s a big panic if you get behind and it gets worse because you’re scared about
going to see your teacher because you think they’re going to [tell you off] but they can
come and see us and go ‘aargh, help, I’m well behind, I don’t know what I’m doing’
and at least we’re not going to go ‘well you should have done this by now, bla bla bla’
we’re going to go ‘yes, don’t worry, we were there’ “
Understanding the course direction and expectations
In part provided again through PAL Leaders offering advice and a perspective, PAL
sessions were seen as being of benefit to students for enabling an understanding of
the operation of a course and expectations of assessed work, and awareness of
course direction into the second and third year (including finding placements):
“I think they’re getting a better understanding of how the course works… when we sat
down and said ‘well what happens is all your essays and research and exams will be
put together and averaged’ and no one knew that, no one knew what they were really
aiming for and what importance was on what”
“We had a good chat last time about where the course goes in the second year and
then the third year because when you’re in the first year you can’t really see that far
and you get a bit swamped”
“They’re asking a lot of questions about the second year, what modules are different,
what the exams are like, do we have the same lecturers, housing issues…”
“They are asking about research projects, what you do for it, how do you look for
placements, how do you approach the second year and getting into gear for the
second year”
Non-course-related issues
PAL sessions were at times used to discuss non-course-related issues, such as
housing and finances:
“We did discuss housing and everything that’s involved there, it wasn’t a big feature
of PAL but sometimes people just wanted that reassurance or suggestions there”
“Some people were quite anxious about finances and I tried to give some advice
about not being complacent and how to be careful and plan and so on”
Cooperative learning
PAL sessions were referred to as enabling cooperative learning, which it is
suggested helps to encourage students’ thinking, to ascertain gaps in knowledge and
how to address these, to enhance learning by students benefiting through one
another’s knowledge and understanding, to develop a more social view of learning,
and to make decisions:
“We don’t restrict the conversation we just let them talk and if they run out of ideas we
just throw our ideas in and they talk about that and when there’s no more to say
there’s no more to say but it gets them thinking, we usually start off with a brainstorm”
“We say ‘how much do you know’ and we write it all up… and they find the stuff they
know isn’t enough to answer the question they want so we’re sort of saying ‘so what
are you missing?’ and that’s when the ideas start coming out”
“They all benefit from each other’s knowledge and each other’s understanding and
PAL promotes that and I think it’s a good thing because a lot of people come to
university thinking it’s like a one man competition, just save yourself”
“There’s all this talk about plagiarism and the lecturers are very strict on it but it
seems like it’s creating an unhealthy atmosphere where people aren’t keen on
learning from each other, so PAL is like an alternative where people are put in a
situation where they’re forced to share their knowledge and help each other to
understand”
“I do small group work and… luckily everyone in my group is willing to get on with it
and they have a fair amount of knowledge”
“I still feel part of [PAL sessions] but I think it’s a good thing to feel redundant
because that means they’re helping each other, I might sit at the back and if they’ve
got a problem they can ask me”
“PAL is good for groupwork, brainstorming ideas and for assignments, you can sit
there and make decisions and get discussions going”
Generating group cohesiveness/ settling in to university
PAL Leaders reported that PAL helps with group cohesiveness, enabling groupwork
and getting to know others (this in turn helping with settling in to university):
“I think PAL helped to make the first year more cohesive, especially at the beginning
when we got them all working in small groups”
“I used various [activities suggested in PAL training]. It helped them to work as a
group to start with, like putting them in different sized groups and getting them to talk
to each other… I think it didn’t just help fill in the gap it helped them become more
together”
“It helps with getting to know coursemates quicker, in PAL you get to know people
quicker, the interaction helps them settle in a bit more”
Study skills
PAL Leaders have suggested that PAL is of use in developing study skills, such as
using the library, presentation, exam revision and techniques and essay skills, and
general university expectations:
“We have gone to the library quite a few times… we point out books and show them
how to find the books that aren’t in the unit guide, there was one girl who couldn’t find
any books and I took her with me and showed her how to tell if a book was relevant
by using the index and actually opening the book and looking at the content page!”
“Early on we looked at presentation skills and essay writing, which is good to do early
on before you’ve got a lot of work to do and I think it got them tuned in to what it was
all about and what is required from university”
Developing confidence
It has been suggested that PAL can enhance confidence in students in voicing their
thoughts:
“I think they’re got more confident in voicing their thoughts through PAL, so probably
when they go back into their seminars they speak up more because they have to
speak up in PAL”
Shortcomings of PAL for first year students (as seen by PAL Leaders)
Problems with structure of PAL
It was proposed that the lack of a definite structure and focus to PAL sessions could
present PAL as unprofessional or unstructured (and therefore ineffectual):
“[It would be an advantage to have] set topics, having something definite each time, I
think sometimes they don’t really, I mean I’d get the impression if I went to PAL that
sometimes it isn’t professional, it wasn’t structured”
Lack of importance of PAL
PAL Leaders indicated that at times students perceive PAL as lacking in importance:
“You know that sometimes people see it as one of those woolly things on a course
that doesn’t really matter”
“The fact that we didn’t have a very good timetable slot didn’t help… because you
might hang around for a core unit of the course but you probably won’t for PAL”
Benefits of PAL for PAL Leaders
Developing academic/ personal skills
PAL Leaders reported that PAL has for them improved presentation skills, confidence
and ability in group speaking and confidence obtained through trust having been
placed in them, professionalism in approach, and an appreciation of social aspects of
learning:
“PAL has definitely improved my presentation skills, actually having to talk to them
and it just gains your confidence the fact that once a week you have to introduce what
you’re doing and talk to the group and be responsible for that”
“[The PAL session] is a professional type setting, because in a professional setting
you’ll never have someone over you who judges every word you say… it’s been really
good, I’ve improved my abilities to speak in front of people”
“My confidence has gone up because… when you’ve got people who feel confident in
you, the fact someone trusts us or you get positive feedback, that’s nice to know,
and… they feel they can come to use with anything, that’s a good feeling”
“It’s helped me communicated better and it’s made me calmer in my placement
interviews because I’ve got that experience of walking into a room full of people I
don’t know and having to explain myself and I found that very helpful”
“PAL has improved and built my personal confidence, at the start of the year I was
nervous taking a seminar, facing first years, over time it’s got easier and to be pretty
good”
“I don’t think I even realised how important [cooperative learning] was at the start of
PAL, it’s only now that I’ve experienced it that I’ve realised that and… now I will talk to
a number of people in my year and share ideas and go to the library and it’s definitely
had an impact on my studies”
Utilising the experience
Many PAL Leaders have mentioned that they are asked about PAL in placement
interviews, some saying the subject has dominated their interviews, as well as that
the experience of PAL had helped with the skills themselves needed for interviews:
“I’ve been asked about PAL in all of my placement interviews, because I’ve got it on
my CV everyone has asked me what it involves, what have you learned from it, how
has it helped you, why did you do it?”
“PAL has developed self-confidence and communication skills, in the interviews I’ve
had they ask about it all the time because it is a bit more unusual, unique to have it
on your CV, the fact that you are taking responsibility for another group and their
learning, they like to see that in you certainly at an early age, so that’s going to help
us lifelong I think”
Several PAL Leaders have also expressed an interest in teaching, and said that PAL
has either promoted this interest or been of assisting in developing the skills
necessary:
“I’m considering a career in teaching, so this has been good experience and practice
and seeing what it’s like on the other side!”
One PAL Leader who had experienced this inquired further about the influence of
PAL on his obtaining a placement with a prestigious company and received the
following email:
“I have been up and seen the placements office and asked about PAL affecting my
[name of company] success. This is the response the placement office got from one
of the people at [the company]:
‘ My $0.002 is that these extra activities are very much what stick out firstly when the
CV sifting is done (we receive hundreds each year, and it is the "extras" that give at
least a sense of how a student might fit in to the [company] environment). Also, the
interview note refers to the "[Company] fit" -- a term we probably overuse, but this
encompasses initiative, commitment, team player and so forth. Activities such as
Peer Assisted Learning point towards these kind of behaviours, and I would
personally argue that it added to our interest in [student name].’
This I think shows that PAL has definitely played a part in my placement, which I think
is a definite ‘selling point’ (if that’s the right word!) for future leaders and the benefit
that PAL gives to it’s leaders.”
Review of course material
PAL Leaders have referred to PAL as being of help with understanding the context of
their own current course demands, and reinforcing basic knowledge (revision):
“To be honest, I learn a lot from my students, some of them really know their stuff, so
as well as helping each other I have to say they help me too”
“By revising through PAL the things we did last year it gives us a better understanding
of what we’re doing this year”
“Some of the PAL sessions went back into basic ideas and that reinforced my
knowledge”
“They normally talk about the bits of the course that they find difficult which are the
bits that you found difficult which helps to revise things. If you need to set out points
in some logical order then you need to re-learn that, so it’s revision”
“PAL reinforced the foundations of things you’ve progressed onto in your second year
and you can see how you’ve moved on”
Shortcomings of PAL for PAL Leaders
Limitations of cooperative aspects / achieving cooperative learning
PAL Leaders have suggested that the participative nature of PAL can be a detriment,
where PAL Leaders are unable to offer more direct help to struggling students.
Furthermore, if students are lacking in knowledge this makes it difficult to have a
discussion around an issue (about which they know little). The issue of the student
group being unforthcoming also relates to students’ lack of ideas for what they want
to discuss. PAL Leaders have experienced difficulties where students are unhappy
about the intended cooperative nature of PAL, or have misconceptions about
university. The longest quote in this section also alludes to difficulties that may be
experienced in achieving cooperative learning in PAL due to the make-up of a group;
the last three quotes to Leaders’ reflections on whether all work should be contained
within individual PAL sessions:
“Sometimes I feel a bit bad because they do struggle and we can’t help them more
than we do. We can’t tell them what to write, all we can do is sort of get their ideas
out of them”
“It can be a bit difficult because often you ask them their ideas and they don’t really
have any, they haven’t done their research, and because we can’t really give them all
the answers we focus more on essay style and structure and things because when it
comes to asking about actual content they don’t seem to have done a lot”
“Sometimes when you go in and say what do you want to do they’ll turn round and
say ‘dunno, nothing’ ”
“I find it really difficult sometimes because sometimes they’ve just got no idea” (
“They get a chance to talk to each other in PAL, but sometimes they might as well be
on different planets, because no matter how many times you say to them, talk in
pairs, but they just don’t talk about their course, it’s really strange!”
“Some of them get annoyed at the fact that we don’t teach them, they want an answer
and you don’t give it to them and they don’t see the point of PAL sessions”
“They’re so used to being given the answers that when they come here they expect
that to continue and it doesn’t”
“I expected them to get involved more, I expected more help and more enthusiasm
from them, because after all I’ve volunteered to do this, but sometimes it’s really hard,
they just kind of sit there and you get a bit fed up when they won’t help you out”
“I expected more motivation from people in my group, I expected more help from
them, it seemed at the start it was just full of gormless people or stroppy madams”
“When I got there I’d assumed they’d know the information that was on the question, I
assumed they’d know something and half the group knew absolutely every answer
and the other half just sat there with their arms crossed looking stroppy which were
the people that don’t turn up a lot, and I was at a bit of a loose end, I was like, well
I’ve put you in groups but half of you aren’t even talking to each other and the other
half have finished and I didn’t know what to do then, so I tried to integrate the groups,
I put two people that had finished with two that were struggling, the stroppy little
madams, and got them to help each other and just kept rotating the groups and
getting people to work with different people and discussed it all at the end, so
everybody came out with the same information”
“I handed out some questions, a quiz, when they had a test and handed them out and
said to bring them next week and some forgot and there were different people and we
had to go through it again and it just got a bit annoying”
“I think it’s easier to contain everything in that PAL session. If they want to go away
and do something further they can afterwards but I don’t think it works from my
experience”
“Even with assignments when you plan it out and say right we’re going to do that
assignment next week and you say go away read it to back up what we’ve done they
come back and they’ve done nothing that is a bit strange you’d think that to get the
most out of it they’d do the work”
Limits of powers
PAL Leaders at times felt that pastoral issues, and extra help required by students,
were somewhat beyond their capability. PAL Leaders also refer to the influence of
their own pressures of work:
“There was one girl who hadn’t got her essay back and so I went to the office with her
and she’d failed and I just felt useless then”
“It’s difficult if one person in particular has serious problems it’s difficult to help without
becoming a personal tutor”
“One girl was really struggling and I told her I’d help her outside PAL but it was a bit
too much, she asked for a bit too much from me… in the end it took so long it was
just beyond my capacity”
“Lately I’ve not had the time and I’ve been so distracted with my deadlines, if it only
lasts 20 minutes then OK, I’ve got my work to do because that’s what’s on my mind”
“If they don’t turn up wanting something I can’t really be bothered to be honest
because I’ve got plenty of other stuff to be doing”
(Mis)conceptions about PAL
Some PAL Leaders felt that students retained misconceptions about PAL, such as
not viewing sessions as a place they could prepare for assignments, as seeing PAL
Leaders as something approaching ‘teachers’, as not appreciating the potential for
cooperative learning,
“I don’t think they’ve grasped the concept of PAL still, for example they asked me to
do a session on databases and I went in and there was only 2 or 3 people there, but
then I went up to [the computer labs] and I found most of the others trying to do their
assignment and they turned round and said ‘can you help us do this?’ and I thought
‘you’re in the wrong room’ and they just hadn’t got the idea”
“Some of them are still coming along thinking we’re the teacher and they’re the
student therefore we’re in charge but it’s the opposite way round really, but there’s
something subconscious that they’re thinking ‘we can’t say anything, he’s got to tell
us’ sort of thing”
“They haven’t understood the idea of self-managed learning… If I was to do PAL
again I’d focus a lot more of my time getting across to them what the expectations are
on them”
“I think it’s very important right at the very beginning to make it clear to them that
they’re never going to get an answer out of you and so long as you keep to that then
you won’t get so much problem but you know that some of them are coming just to
get the answers but if they have any sense they’ll realise that they are getting the
answers not from you but from everyone else there, but because some people think
they can only get the answer from the person at the front of the room and then they’re
not giving it then they’ll think well what’s the point of me being here, so if that point is
made and they grasp it they’ll understand that they will get the answer or maybe
some of it but from the others, but if you don’t make it clear you’ll get problems all the
way through”
3. Quantitative results
Effects of PAL upon performance
Meaningful statistical analysis was only possible in one course over the 2002/3
period, because detailed records were kept as an official part of the course. This still
represents around 100 students for whom PAL was available and offers some
interesting results.
Analysis of attendance data and end-of-year marks for students on the Business
Information Technology (BIT) course show some evidence of a correlation between
attendance at PAL sessions and marks, when controlling for the effect of attendance
at all other course units.
The correlation between attendance at PAL and mark was just not significant across
the course as a whole (N=69, Pearson correlation= 0.153, P=0.105). The correlation
across the course as a whole between attendance at PAL and mark, controlling for
the effect of attendance at all other course units (‘average attendance’), was not
significant (N=66, Pearson correlation=0.088, P=0.471). The correlation between
attendance at PAL and course attendance was highly significant (N=77, Pearson
correlation=0.347, P=0.001). (Numbers vary due to missing values.)
The correlations between attendance at PAL and mark, controlling for the effect of
average attendance, analysed separately by seminar (/PAL) group produced the
following results (see table 3).
Table 3: Comparison of attendance and marks on BIT course
Group Group’s
average
attendance at
PAL (%
sessions
attended)
Group’s
average end-
of-year mark
(%)
Group’s average
attendance
across all other
units (% of
course attended)
Correlation
between PAL and
mark, controlling
for average
attendance
P
(significance
level)
1 (N=11) 66.5 55.7 67.8 0.784 0.001
2 (N=12) 44.2 55.3 66.4 0.696 0.004
3 (N=12) 32.9 63.3 66.3 0.116 0.346
4 (N=12) 15.8 54.4 61.1 -0.108 0.363
5 (N=11) 6.3 46.0 64.1 0.155 0.325
This seems to suggest that for 2 of the 5 groups, attendance at PAL was significantly
correlated with marks, even when the effect of attendance at other course units was
accounted for. This is an important result for it indicates a positive influence of PAL,
and also makes use of a technique perhaps not previously used in investigating
effects of PAL. Usually, a student’s entry qualifications are taken as a de facto
measure of ability or motivation, but it is proposed here that the measure of actual
attendance at other course units provides a better measure of both motivation whilst
actually at university (rather than a previous measure such as A-level results) and
also can be taken to be an indicator of the extent to which students may receive
benefits from attending other parts of the course (e.g. through attending seminars).
The results here therefore indicate that PAL is of benefit in increasing performance
and also uses a more rigourous technique than other studies (e.g. Bidgood, 1994,
Coe et al., 1997).
Further interpretation of results
Where significant results occur, this is where the average attendance at PAL tended
to be high. Where significant results do not occur, this is where students of a group
tend not to attend PAL - this sounds like a fairly self-evident finding, and may be
interpreted in a purely statistical fashion: if students are in general not attending PAL
then a maethematical correlation will be unlikely to be obtained, for example in group
5 only 4 of 12 students attended PAL more than zero times: how likely is it then to
find a statistically significant correlation here?
The result may also be interpreted in another way, however, and that is to say that a
positive influence (upon performance) of PAL is dependent upon a well-attending and
functional group. This may explain why groups 3 and 4, despite there being some
attendance, demonstrated no positive correlation between attendance at PAL and
marks. It should be noted that it was in fact felt at the time that groups 1 and 2 were
the most productive, well-functioning groups within the course, with PAL Leaders
able to establish a positive rapport with their students and reporting constructive and
purposeful sessions. Of course, this is only an impression from speaking with
students, PAL Leaders and observing sessions, but with a knowledge of PAL on this
course it seems a feasible explanation.
Thus the proposition may be (from this admittedly small sample) that PAL can effect
a positive influence upon grades but group effects should be taken into account: only
where students in a group attend regularly and where there is good group coherence
and a positive relationship with the PAL Leader will this effect occur. Results also
suggest, unsurprisingly, that attendance at PAL and group productivity are
interrelated.
It should be noted that because data for groups 1 and 2 are non-parametric, it may
be seen as problematic to use Pearson’s test, but it is suggested that because data
is very significant this result should stand.
PAL and retention
Total attrition (dropout) as a percentage within this course for 2002/3 was 16.7%,
down from 24.7% in 2001/2 - this corresponds to a loss of 13 out of 78 students in
2002/3 compared to 23 out of 93 students in 2001/2. Although caution should be
exercised in attributing any of such a change to PAL, it is not unreasonable to
suppose that the scheme may have been a contributing factor.
Results - summary
The results of analyses of PAL at Bournemouth are summarised in tables 4-7 below.
Table 4: Benefits of PAL for first year students
Benefit Characteristics (as expressed by students)
Assists with
adjusting to
university
Getting to know other students and enhancing social side of university; developing
group and course coherence; reassurance at stressful time; awareness of and
understanding initial course and university expectations; reviewing information received
during induction; advice on university life; sharing initial experiences
Understanding
the course Understanding the ‘basics’ as well as ‘difficult’ parts of the course; clarifying course
subject matter; consolidating and constructing knowledge; ascertaining gaps in
knowledge and how to address these; reviewing (taught) material; increasing
knowledge; reducing misunderstanding; understanding relations between different parts
of the course (linkages); comprehending course terminology; increasing confidence in
handling course topics; problem solving; revision; increasing understanding in relation to
seminar work and specific to particular assignments
Awareness of
course
expectations
and directions
Gaining ‘survival’ techniques; awareness and understanding of course expectations and
assessment criteria; understanding university expectations; awareness of protocol (e.g.
deadlines, approaching staff); awareness of how course develops and links with first
year; awareness of course ‘as a whole’ and how it operates
Preparation
and completion
of assessed
work
Analysing assignment briefs/ questions; discussing approaches; structuring
assignments; reviewing relevant concepts; practising relevant aspects through
associated tasks; discussing and deciding content to include; chance to improve marks;
awareness of assessment requirements (including by viewing PAL Leaders’ old work);
able to use time in PAL for academic writing, with potential for input from PAL Leader;
revision for exams/ tests (e.g. past papers)
Reassurance /
confidence Mutuality (others with similar worries); develops confidence to ‘speak up’; develops
conviction in knowledge and abilities; talking with PAL Leader about progression;
develops confidence about progression
Openness /
informality Unintimidating; encourages open, honest admission of misunderstanding, concerns and
problems; encourages asking of questions; attentive to issues students wish to discuss;
confidential; enjoyable/ friendly/ stimulating environment; stress-reducing; ‘positive’
attitude; more ‘personal’ than other parts of course; lack of ‘fear of failure’
Student-
determined Students able to decide subject matter, raise questions and issues of concern; attends
to immediate academic needs (e.g. assignments due in)
Cooperative
learning Sharing ideas (a ‘forum’ for ideas); gaining others’ knowledge; exchange between
students based on subject strengths; discussing different approaches; discovering
solutions; airing problems within the group; enhancing understanding through exchange
of ideas; opportunity for informal discussion, debate; ‘learning for themselves’;
appreciating social aspects to learning
Study and
transferable
skills
Understanding how to structure work; developing essay techniques/ how to report
experiments; awareness of differences between essay/ report writing; enhancing
(including practising) presentation skills; enhancing use of generic software (MS
powerpoint); developing revision and exam techniques and time management;
developing ability to use library; reflections on academic thinking process; constructing
an academic argument
PAL Leader
advice/
perspective/
methods
PAL Leader using student-friendly language and methods; student-oriented approach;
passing on benefit of experience; learning from mistakes; reinforcement, explanation
and simplification of ideas; advice on assignments; advice on course expectations;
affective closeness and empathy; approachable individual; extra assistance; advice on
second/ third year; reassuring figure; encourages progression; helps encourage
groupwork and group cohesiveness; able to manage group and draw out ideas
PAL Leader –
staff liaison PAL Leader able to raise problems/ questions on behalf of first years; able to
reciprocate for staff
Potential to
increase marks Some limited evidence from statistical analysis - see table 3
Range of
benefits as
rated
See table 2 and figure 1
Table 5: Shortcomings of PAL for first year students
Shortcoming Characteristics (as expressed by students)
Help not required PAL redundant for students perceiving they do not need help or the help of PAL
PAL not helpful PAL ineffectual, or otherwise not perceived as helpful
(Initial)
misconceptions Expectations of re-teaching; expectations of ‘superior’ PAL Leaders
Character of sessions
/ concerns about
productivity
Slow-paced; less content-heavy than other teaching; less serious attitude to
study; only useful when there are ‘problems’ or if workload is light; repetition of
previously covered or understood work; not enjoyable; under-preparedness
leading to heightened confusion; too informal or low priority
Limits to cooperative
basis Reliance on PAL Leader to explain concepts; limits of preparedness or ability to
contribute; more input from teaching staff desired; desire for PAL Leader to
‘teach'
Structure of PAL
sessions Lack of clear format, aims, objectives; excessive informality; lack of preparation;
lack of clarity about future session content
Inappropriate advice Incorrect advice on assignment completion; doubts about knowledge levels; re-
teaching?
Timetabling/
operational PAL susceptible to attendance fluctuations relative to timetable; confusion
about operation of PAL
Insufficient provision
of PAL Desire for more provision (e.g. twice a week) of PAL
Table 6 : Benefits of PAL for PAL Leaders
Benefit Characteristics (as expressed by PAL Leaders)
Revision of first year
material Reviewing and underpinning knowledge of first year material; places current
learning in perspective
Personal
development Increases confidence; enhances presentation, group speaking, communication,
group management, leadership and organisational skills; rewarding sense of
achievement; develops skills for interviews; increased interest in teaching and
experience relevant to this
Utilising the
experience Useful for CV; asked about in placement interviews; evidence PAL has helped
obtain placements
Social aspects Get to know new students
Table 7 : Shortcomings of PAL for PAL Leaders
Shortcoming Characteristics (as expressed by PAL Leaders)
Limitations of
cooperative basis Needing to lead discussion (especially early on); perceptions of student group
needing excessive direction; group dependent on PAL Leader; difficulty in
getting response from students and consequent problems; difficulties
presented by students with differing levels of need and knowledge
Limits of powers Difficulty in keeping students interested; difficulty in covering everything in PAL
sessions; difficulties when PAL Leaders don’t ‘know the answers’; inability to
‘teach’; limits to help that can be offered; limits to pastoral help that can be
offered or extra help that can be provided
Disruptive or difficult
students Students being disgruntled when PAL Leaders will not ‘teach’; lack of
motivation from students; lack of involvement or interest from students;
students not working between PAL sessions
Misconceptions about
PAL from students Expectations by students of ‘teaching’ or amount of direction that can be
offered by PAL Leader; PAL perceived as lacking importance (‘woolly’ part of
the course); misconceptions about what PAL sessions can be used for
Effects on own work Time demands
Changes to course Course changing between years affects PAL Leader’s knowledge of current
demands
Variable attendance Changes in numbers present presents group management difficulties
Discussion and conclusions
The results of this study suggest there are a wide range of benefits for both student
participants and PAL Leaders from involvement in a PAL scheme as well as inherent
or potential shortcomings. This study has critically analysed, and presented more
detailed and substantial evidence for, the types of benefits and shortcomings
previously suggested in the literature, as well as indicating novel outcomes.
From questionnaire survey results (see figure 1), it appears that meaning-oriented
outcomes feature very highly from PAL: meaning-oriented responses feature as first,
third, and eighth out of sixteen potential benefits. Strategic-oriented benefits feature
less strongly, at sixth, seventh and eleventh out of sixteen. This would seem to run
contrary to Ashwin’s (2003) finding that PAL represents a bias towards a strategic-
oriented focus on outcomes. (It should be noted however that this study has
approached the issue in a different fashion; also Ashwin’s study was in Further
Education.)
The consistency of benefits of PAL between courses is high (see table 2). This may
suggest that outcomes of PAL are not, at least as suggested by these measures,
course or discipline-specific. It would also suggest inter-observer reliability of the
measurement scale, and the reliability of the scale is further supported by the finding
that the ‘control’ measure (i.e. a potential outcome which it was neither intended nor
expected would emerge) comes out consistently as having a low presence (table 2)
and is the least-rated outcome of PAL (figure 1).
Many of the results of this study are replicated by different methodology and this
triangulation of findings offers validity to the results presented. Questionnaire, survey,
interview and discussion group, and reflective diary results indicate a wide array of
benefits for first year student participants. Direct and specific effects include
heightening awareness of course expectations and understanding of course material.
Students also reported a range of benefits which they saw as being associated with
cooperative learning and the open, informal character of PAL. It might have been the
case that cooperation, interaction and informality in PAL was either seen as a given,
or as a means to an end, but students appear to perceive and recognise that the
relaxed, participative character of PAL is itself a valuable feature of the scheme.
Indirect and transferable benefits of PAL include aspects of PAL assisting with
adjusting to university, heightened confidence and the development of transferable
skills. The value of the PAL Leader perspective is also seen as of value to students.
Thus PAL is portrayed (when it works) as an open, informal, cooperative
environment, in which students are able to set the agenda and raise their concerns,
which is overseen by a trusted and approachable individual, and is of value in
adjusting to university, understanding course material, enhancing the ability to do
well in assessed work and building confidence. This fits with the model as identified
by previous researchers (e.g. Wallace, 2003) though findings here expand further
upon and support often notionally proposed benefits. Some significant benefits of
PAL not well-reported in the literature and revealed by this study include that:
• PAL can help with adjusting to university in a range of ways, such as by reducing
anxiety through sharing initial experiences, reviewing induction matters,
developing group and course coherence, and creating early awareness of
university and course expectations
• PAL can assist with understanding course material in a range of ways, such as
by ascertaining gaps in knowledge and how to address these, consolidating and
reviewing taught material and by assisting understanding relations between
different course elements
• PAL can offer a unique and positive environment (student-centred, student-
determined and overseen, open and informal, discursive) in which to enhance the
overall learning experience
• PAL can operate as a truly cooperative environment in which there is positive
interdependence through open exchange of ideas and mutual support
• PAL can develop confidence of students to handle and discuss the subject matter
of their course and regarding progression
• The quality of PAL is greatly enhanced through the role and methods of PAL
Leaders, many of which are unique within the course structure (e.g. the affective
closeness of the PAL Leader)
Table 4 describes in greater detail the characteristic features of each of these
beneficial outcomes of PAL.
This study also reports what are seen by some students as shortcomings of the
scheme. For some, PAL is simply seen as unnecessary for them. There are also
suggestions that there are misconceptions about the scheme on the part of first year
students. Students suggested that at times PAL was ineffectual, for example
because it was slow-paced, lacking seriousness or repeating previously covered
work. There were also difficulties in interaction in PAL, with some PAL Leaders taking
what seems an excessively instructive role, or with a cooperative environment not
emerging. A common criticism of PAL has been that PAL sessions lacked clear
structure, or aims, which may in turn lead to lack of productivity. There was also
mention from first year participants that they had had inappropriate advice through
PAL.
Lack of productivity or structure of PAL as perceived by students may perhaps be an
inevitable comment, when compared with formal teaching: it is unlikely that PAL will
(or should) ever develop the formal structures of transmission of content of other
taught parts of a course. Also it is clear that informality in PAL has clear functions
and value. Nevertheless, it is likely to be the case that at times, a lack of structure
contributed negatively to student perceptions of and to the productivity of PAL
sessions. Some students suggest a greater involvement by the course teaching team
would help ameliorate a lack of structure or purpose in PAL and staff are indeed
encouraged to become involved with assisting PAL Leaders with planning and
content for PAL sessions. Generic PAL activities such as devising and giving
presentations in class, quizzes, lecture review activities, generic study skills activities,
etc. will help encourage productive PAL sessions but it also important to encourage
teach staff involvement where possible.
It is clearly of concern where students report misleading advice to PAL Leaders. This
may often be related (as reported by PAL Leaders) to a certain pressure felt to teach,
re-explain, etc. Because of the serious implications of such conduct and because of
the clear risk that is demonstrated that this may occur in PAL, it is clear that the co-
ordination of a PAL programme and associated training of PAL Leaders be sensitive
to this issue.
PAL Leaders mentioned benefits of the scheme to themselves, including that PAL
assists with a review of first year material, and that PAL increases a range of
personal skills as well as being rewarding in its own right. PAL Leaders have also
been able to utilise the experience in CVs and to obtain placements. These benefits
are in keeping with Donelan’s (1999) portrayal of PAL Leaders as ‘the real winners’
though it is clear in this study that first year students are also acquiring a full range of
benefits.
Shortcomings for PAL Leaders of PAL Leaders included a difficulty in achieiving the
intended cooperative character of PAL, this in some instances resulting in PAL
Leaders adopting a more directional role than was perhaps appropriate. It is clear
that misconceptions or expectations of students may cause PAL Leaders to feel
pressured in this way, with some responding by adopting this type of role. Even
where PAL Leaders try hard to enable participation, they have not always been
successful, and as well as this resulting in students’ negative appraisal of PAL, this
may also have a negative impact on PAL Leaders, such as lowering motivation or
becoming disheartened with their involvement. Again, PAL co-ordinators should be
sensitive to this issue. Where sessions do not go well in this way, a further problem
for the scheme and for PAL Leaders may be a recuction in attendance which can be
demoralising for PAL Leaders. A careful setting of expectations about PAL with the
first year group (that PAL is participative, for example) may go some way to helping
avoid later problems, as will a carefully considered training programme for PAL
Leaders.
This study demonstrates some statistical evidence for a positive influence of PAL
upon performance in one course, dependent on the success of operation of groups
(and not simply on frequency of attendance). The correlation between PAL and
marks is consistent with previous UK studies (Bidgood, 1994; Coe et al., 1999)
though the analysis here uses more convincing control data (attendance at other first
year course units rather than A-level data) and also indicates that group productivity
needs to be taken into account in statistical analysis of this sort.
This study puts forward far more detailed and wide-ranging data than could emerge
through numerical analysis of the link between attendance at PAL and performance.
Whilst such analysis will be of value and should be undertaken, it is suggested here
that an excessive focus on statistical effects of PAL (which are often because of
research design flawed in any case) can potentially be self-defeating because of the
amounts of rich qualitative data that may be ignored or played down where
quantitative aspects are emphasised.
A limitation of this study is that all qualitative research data was gathered during the
Spring term. Whilst students were able to reflect upon such matters as PAL assisting
with adjusting to university and there was some mention of later course demands
(such as exam revision) it would be of value in future to better describe the changes
occurring in PAL over the course of an academic year, so as to better operationalise
the scheme. For example, it appears that early PAL sessions will benefit from a high
level of structure and group management by the PAL Leader to enable participation,
with this gradually giving way to a more informal and ‘natural’ character of discussion
as the year progresses. Similarly, PAL sessions will produce different benefits and
run in different ways depending on students’ current demands (such as adjusting to
university, understanding course subject matter, preparing for assignments and exam
revision).
A further limitation of this study is that it divides the outcomes of PAL into ‘benefits’
and ‘shortcomings’. This may a somewhat blunt division of the effects of PAL but it
was felt to be important to present to as great an extent as possible the positive and
negative nature of the scheme from students’ perspective. Much however about how
outcomes emerge from PAL will relate to the context of learning, for example the
informal character of PAL has clear benefits but this may also be perceived by some
students and at some times in a negative light, such as presenting a lack of structure
to PAL sessions.
So why should PAL be resourced?
Inevitably, and properly, any consideration of whether PAL should be set up or
continued to be resourced will ask what the value of the scheme presents (and
contrastingly, what might be the downsides)?
This study demonstrates that the benefits of PAL are multitudinous and wide-ranging,
and that where PAL is carfeully set up its benefits will far outweigh its negatives.
Indeed, with the exception of a rare concern that PAL may convey inappropriate
advice, most of the shortcomings reported here reflect difficulties with trying to get
PAL to work well, rather than PAL negatively affecting the student experience. Whilst
there may be evidence found that PAL can affect performance and retention, this
study argues that much, or even most, of the value of PAL lies in its enhancement of
student experience of university.
The question might then be asked - could not many of these benefits accrue anyway
through formal structures? Yes, PAL may develop understanding, but so can reading
a textbook. The point to make here is that there are many unique, or at least
uncommon aspects to PAL that distinguish it: in a sense all of the above benefits of
PAL can be considered particular to the scheme because of their delivery and in the
context in which arise: for example, the achievement of understanding of the
difference between hexidecimal and binary through lively students-only discussion,
where those experiencing difficulty or worries feel able to raise concerns that they
may feel inhibited to in seminars, with the contributory perspective of a PAL Leader
who is at that time experiencing how this material is being applied in the second year,
and so on, is comprehensively different from the achievement of understanding of the
same course topic through a lecture or even a discursive seminar.
Such aspects of PAL lend the scheme its strength and give it its ‘added value’. PAL,
in short, offers a truly distinctive way of enriching the learning experience of both first
year students and PAL Leaders.
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