GEM NO. 463Peer education, Exercising, and Eating Right (PEER): Training of Peers in an Undergraduate Faculty Teaching Partnership
Introduction
Peer Educators (PEs) are people from the target group who are trained to assist in an educational program. The theoretical roots of peer education can be traced back to Social Cognitive Theory. The theory proposes that behavior and attitude can be influenced, in part, by interactions and observation of others.1 The concept of using PEs has been successful in extension and outreach programs such as the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) breastfeeding promotion.2, 3 These successes suggest that PEs may be a good solution in other areas, including large undergraduate courses.
Studies have demonstrated that student-assisted teaching in undergraduate classes can have positive outcomes for both instructors and PEs.4 Peer educators, unlike teaching assistants, provide a less expensive and renewable source of teaching support. One of the major barriers in using a peer educator system is development of adequate training and monitoring methods for PEs for quality control. Training models developed in the past have been short and implemented between 2 and 3 days.5 The use of PEs to deliver nutrition or exercise education is not novel. However, the aim of the present project was to develop and evaluate a training module for peers that combined teamed senior-level nutrition and kinesiology students to act as PEs to a general education course. This project developed and evaluated a training module for peers that combined nutrition and kinesiology in the training and selection of students to reflect the course content.
Section snippets
Program Description
“Peer education, Exercising and Eating Right (PEER): An Undergraduate Faculty Teaching Partnership” was a 1-semester feasibility study to support the development of an undergraduate general education course. The first 8-week session focused on training peers; the second 8-week session reflected a general education course with a faculty and graduate student lecture and a peer-led discussion for tandem concepts in nutrition and kinesiology. The first goal was to develop a training model for
Acknowledgment
This project was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grant.
References (7)
Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory
(1986)- et al.
Uses of process evaluation in the Maryland WIC 5-A-Day Promotion Program
Health Educ Behav
(2000) - et al.
A formative evaluation in maternal and child health practice: the Partners for Life Nutrition Education Program for Pregnant Women
Matern Child Health J
(2003)
Cited by (10)
Peer-led training and assessment in basic life support for healthcare students: Synthesis of literature review and fifteen years practical experience
2012, ResuscitationCitation Excerpt :Of 369 publications on the subject of peer teaching or assessment by healthcare students, 169 were excluded from the review because they failed to assess, or teach, a tangible, instructed skill. Following exclusions, 28 were retained for final analysis and are described in Appendices 2 and 3 (modified QUOROM flow diagram in Appendix 1).4–31 Articles reported peer teaching of groups of 28–358 participants, covering numerous topics including anatomy, physiology and basic science.
The distance learning tool 'Food Composition Study Guide' contributes to global capacity development in food composition
2011, Journal of Food Composition and AnalysisCitation Excerpt :Learning by completing the modules is very different from listening to lectures. Lecture-based classroom courses allow interaction and take less time to address subjects, but there is no time to deepen the knowledge or to apply it, and normally knowledge acquisition is not assessed.14 The learning approach of the Study Guide is in line with non-lecture based learning styles such as ‘Learning-by-doing’ or peer education (Khan et al., 2009) or interteaching (Goto and Schneider, 2009) using learning through exercises and discussions. The Study Guide fulfils most of the quality criteria for distance and e-learning proposed by Baker (2003) and Mihai (2009) as it was developed using instructional design (Smith and Ragan, 1999) and Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive learning (Bloom et al., 1956).
Making Large Classes Feel Small: An Examination of Student Interactions With Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
2021, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology
The fourth author of this article (Chapman-Novakofski) serves on the JNEB staff as Editor-in-Chief. Review of this article was handled, exclusively, by the Associate Editors to minimize conflict of interest.