PLTL National Dissemination: Building a National Network

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As the faculty, staff, and administrators of institutions of higher learning respond to the call to shift to student-centered pedagogy, there is a need to inform them of robust and flexible curriculum reforms that have documented success. This project seeks to create a national dissemination network for the Peer-Lead Team Learning (PLTL) teaching strategy. PLTL is an instructional model that emphasizes student achievement through active learning in a peer-led workshop. The workshops are integrated into regular coursework and provide an opportunity for students to engage in the workshop discussion and problem solving activities under the guidance of a trained undergraduate leader. In prior work, the PLTL Workshop Project has managed to stimulate interest, deepen understanding, assist implementation, and develop new leadership in PLTL in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics across a wide range of institutions. The project has also built partnerships that enable science students to broaden their career and professional interests and has introduced the pedagogy to the high school sector. In this phase of the project, the emphasis is on consolidating this informal network and engaging this faculty fully in the national dissemination effort. The network of faculty committed to PLTL will also conduct research regarding student learning in the context of a well-defined pedagogical model. A final goal of this project is to mobilize the project network to increase the number of peer-leaders who join a teacher preparation program, thus creating a large nationwide pool of science and mathematics majors who may become highly qualified teachers.