Tools and tips

Incorporate movement into learning activities to reinvigorate tired participants. Consider strategies like:

• Moving Multiple Choice
• Idea Line out
• Posters & Gallery walk.

If needed at the start of the meeting, use Check-in/Ice-breaker strategy cards

Provide a clear and concise explanation of SI-PASS during the first session or sessions with many new participants. This helps participants understand their role, the purpose of the sessions, and what to expect.

Need inspiration? Here is one example:

"During the SI-PASS sessions we will work together with the material in the course and focus on what you find difficult or unclear. I will structure the meeting, but you decide the content and do the work – mainly by collaboration and asking questions to each other. This way of working has been shown to lead to better understanding of course material for students participating in SI-PASS compared to those who don’t. Plus better performance on examinations.”
 

Redirecting questions can be considered the process most central to the SI-PASS programme. While the natural tendency is to answer questions yourself, resist that urge and redirect them back to the group. It encourages more student-to-student interaction, as we learn best by explaining things to others. It is based on the concept that we all learn better when we have to explain something to someone else. 

Reference

SI Supervisor Manual, The international Center for Supplemental Instruction, University of Missouri Kansas City 2014
 

To foster a good and productive discussion climate, establish ground rules in the first SI-PASS session and display them in the classroom during sessions. Some ideas on possible rules:

• Listen to what your discussion partner has to say
• Do not interrupt
• Challenge or support ideas, not people
• Support your ideas with example and facts from the course material
• Keep an open mind
• Make sure everyone has a chance to talk
• Look at the person who is speaking

Reference

Santa C.M., Havens, L.T. & Valdes B.J., (2004). Project Criss - Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies. Helping teachers teach and learners learn. Third Edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Dubuque, Iowa
 

Regularly collect feedback to improve future sessions. 

Here are some methods:

• Plus/Minus Activity: hand out a piece of paper to each participant and tell them to put a + and a – sign on the left-hand side. Let them write one positive thing with the session and one thing they think could be improved upon. Collect the papers and look through.
• Muddiest point: ask the participants to write down the most unclear/difficult concepts from the session. Summarize the most common responses and address them in the next session. For instance, as a problem/task/question activity.
• Participant poll: use online polling tools (for instance SurveyMonkey, EasyPoll, Doodle online voting). Write the link on the white board and let participants answer the poll as a closure to the session.
• 2D survey: If you are curious to know on how the participants felt regarding a couple of things in the session, you can draw a 2D graph like below (where the two things you want to check is pace and degree of difficulty of the session). Let each student put a mark while you look away.
   

Collaborative learning is a learning method where students work together in groups to achieve a common academic objective. The patterns of interaction in a collaborative learning environment, like SI-PASS sessions, should be primarily student-to-student rather than student-leader or leader-student.

Strategies and tips

• The SI-PASS leader should actively plan for student-to-student interactions. Without careful planning, sessions will tend to be leader-to-student interactions.
• There is limited time in a session, so the number of possible interactions is finite. Student-leader interactions only benefit one student at a time. Aim to increase the number of students actively discussing.
• Students should ask and answer questions among themselves. 
• Using good wait-time helps increase student-to-student interactions.
• The SI-PASS leader should redirect the questions back to other students so that students will talk to each other to learn.
• Students should work in small groups whenever possible.
• The SI-PASS leader should encourage students to form study groups outside of SI-PASS sessions.

Reference

SI Supervisor Manual, The international Center for Supplemental Instruction, University of Missouri Kansas City 2014
 

Wait-time is the time that elapses between an SI-PASS leader asking a question and the next action (student response or the leader speaking again). There are two kinds of wait-time: the time the leader waits after asking a question and the time the leader waits after a response.

Wait-time is an important factor in successful SI-PASS sessions. Research has shown that the quality and quantity of student responses increases significantly when educators (including SI-PASS leaders) consistently use at least three seconds of wait time. Wait time after a student response appears to be even more impactful than wait time after asking a question. 

If SI-PASS leaders resist the natural temptation to jump in with answers or rephrase questions, student learning improves.

References

• Rowe, M. B. (1974). Wait-Time and rewards as instructional variables, their influence on language, logic, and fate control: Part 1— wait-time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 11(2), 81-94;
• SI Supervisor Manual, The international Center for Supplemental Instruction, University of Missouri Kansas City 2014