NODA Journal 22_2.indd SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 61 Training Peer Educators: A Practical Guide to Preparing Student Leaders Amber R. Dickinson Peer educators have become increasingly common on college campuses across America. Peer educator programs have primarily been created to help incoming students transition from high school to college by connecting incoming students to knowledgeable, helpful, and experienced peers. During my time as the first-year experience coordinator at a public institution in the Midwest, I was primarily responsible for preparing a group of students to serve as peer educators. One of the highlights of my duties in this position was to create a training program specifically designed to prepare students to serve as peer educators in classrooms across campus. In this paper, the approach to the training program I developed will be outlined, and some of the materials used in training will be made available. Support for the training program is provided through feedback from student evaluations of the training. Existing literature regarding peer educators is somewhat limited and focuses primarily on the benefits of using students in the classroom and the importance of training these individuals. Most of the literature does not specifically address how to train students to successfully navigate their role as peer educators. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in peer educator literature by offering practical guidelines for use in peer educator training programs and to offer suggestions for training improvements based on the information gathered from the program I was responsible for. Definition and Effectiveness of Peer Educators Institutions tend to develop their own definitions of what it means to be a peer educator in order to align with the goals and unique needs of the university. Most peer educators are there to support and facilitate student learning and encourage open dialogue with students (Adam, Skaliky, & Brown, 2011; Hunter, 2004). Specific to the first-year experience program I worked with, a peer educator was defined as an undergraduate student who has completed his or her first semester of study and has been selected to help incoming students navigate the transition to college. The incoming student population at the institution I worked for was around 600, and one of the university’s goals was to offer a more personal experience for students on campus. Regardless of the size of an incoming freshman population, most institutions are striving to find ways to make students feel at home. It is this goal that makes peer educator programs applicable to both large CAMPUS NOTES Amber R. Dickinson (Amber.dickinson@okstate.edu) is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University 62 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION and small institutions. Peer educators have the ability to connect with college freshmen in ways that faculty and staff may not be able to, simply because they have more recently experienced the high school to college change. Students at my institution found peer educators to be relatable resources on campus, which made them indispensable additions to first-year programming. Incoming freshmen were introduced to peer educators (PEs) prior to the start of the semester through orientation programs. As such, students were familiar with PEs as a resource before the semester even began. Research indicates peer educators are tremendously effective resources for students on college campuses (Catanzarte & Robinson, 2013; Hunter, 2004). For many students new to college, peer educators are simply more approachable than faculty or staff. PEs facilitate more candid discussions with students and, therefore, have a unique opportunity to more accurately address student needs (Brack, Millard, & Shah, 2008). If students are more willing to disclose issues and concerns with peer educators, it is more likely that students will get the actual assistance they need to deal with problems they are encountering; therefore, introducing PEs to new students as soon as possible will help students get comfortable with their resources on campus. I discovered that students found peer educators to be approachable and accessible, and because of this, the value of peer educators should not be underestimated. The many duties assigned to PEs at my institution all proved to be important components of aiding students in their high school to college transition, with no PE role appearing to be more important than another. Peer educators served in the classroom in first-year seminar courses, similar to the way teaching assistants typically serve in college classrooms. Peer educator classroom duties ranged from taking attendance and assisting with classroom management issues, to leading classroom activities and presenting information to students in lecture or discussion-style formats. Additionally, PEs held office hours, during which they hosted meetings with students to assess students’ progress in their first semester of college and attempted to help students solve problems when necessary. Peer educators were expected to get to know students in the course, encourage those students to visit during office hours, and make regular contact with the students face to face, via email, by text message, or through social media. A major goal of PEs was to create personal connections with students and, therefore, contacting students in a manner that was familiar with the student was very important. PEs had a visible presence at special events and activities held on campus and even helped plan and implement events promoted through the First- Year Experience Office. Peer educators were a recognizable, credible, and helpful resource for students on campus. While peer educators certainly contributed significantly to the positive experiences of college freshmen through the duties they carried out, they also stood to gain many benefits from serving in this role. Benefits of Serving as a Peer Educator In addition to feeling as if they are making a genuine difference in the lives of their peers, students who serve peer educators have the potential to gain SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 63 many personal benefits. PEs see an improvement in their public speaking and organizational skills and learn valuable tools such as how to facilitate discussions and manage a classroom (Wawrzynski, LoConte, & Straker, 2011; Owen, 2011). Furthermore, students in a peer educator role tend to improve their writing skills, enjoy a boost in confidence, and find an increased sense of self-worth (Adam, Skalicky, & Brown, 2011; Hunter, 2004). While still in school, these skills will aid PEs in being successful with their own academic endeavors. After college, these skills may be transferable to experiences students will encounter when they enter the professional world. Many PEs use the experience to engage in self-discovery and take advantage of the wide variety of opportunities that come from being a peer educator (Dennet, 2011). For example, PEs often find they truly enjoy helping people through their work in the program. Some discover a passion for teaching they never knew existed. Additionally, students serving as a peer educator see an overall increase in self-esteem (Wawrzynski, LoConte, & Straker, 2011). General leadership skills and growth in problem-solving abilities are also gained by students who take on the role of peer educator (Vorhees & Petkas, 2011). Being a peer educator is hard work, but the many benefits students will come to reap as a result of working with other students is worth the effort. Personal benefits of serving in this capacity range from the emotional satisfaction of knowing they are positively contributing to another person’s life, to obtaining or improving skills that will help them be successful well into their professional lives. Through personal observations, PEs in the program I worked with experienced many of these benefits through their work in the first-year experience program. In order to be in a position to receive such benefits, peer educators needed to be trained for the role they were expected to fill. Peer Educator Training Data In order to measure the level of effectiveness the training program had on peer educators, students who completed peer educator training were asked to complete a student evaluation form. The evaluation form was created to allow the students in the peer educator program the opportunity to rate their experience, give feedback regarding how prepared they felt upon completing the training, and provide information regarding the learning outcomes of the training. The complete evaluation instrument may be found in the Appendix. This information was gathered in order to determine where improvements to the training could be made and to draw conclusions regarding the success of the piloted training sessions. There were 21 peer educators who were accepted into the program, and all 21 completed the survey. Students in the training program were also given the opportunity to provide written comments regarding their experience. Samples of written comments will be reflected throughout this paper. Prompts for the written comments were as follows: • What could be done to improve the quality of peer educator training in the future? • Any additional comments? 64 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION Peer Educator Demographics The demographics of students in the peer educator program are reflected in Table 1. What is most interesting about the demographic information is that even though 10 peer educators were returning to the program, only one stated they felt they knew “an exceptional amount” about their duties prior to the training session. This particular returning peer educator found training helped them understand their duties “a lot.” Six returning PEs felt they knew “a lot” about their duties prior to training, but of those six, all of them stated training helped them understand their duties “a lot” or an “exceptional amount.” Three returning peer educators claimed they knew “some” about their expected duties, and they reported training also helped them “a lot” or “an exceptional amount.” Students who had previously served as PEs had attended a very brief and somewhat informal training session that did not go into extreme detail regarding the nature of the position. This feedback indicates that students who had already served as a peer educator greatly benefitted from a more structured and detailed training program. Peer Educator Training Feedback Evaluation findings indicate the pilot semester of peer educator training was a success, with 90% of students indicating their training experience was “very good” or “excellent.” Students were asked to rate their overall experience, how well training prepared them for being a peer educator, and to what degree training helped them understand their duties. Table 2 indicates the percentages of students who felt training prepared them “very well” to “extremely well.” No students indicated they felt training prepared them “not at all,” “a little,” or “somewhat,” which were options on the survey instrument. From the perspective of the students going through peer educator training, the goals and intentions of the program were a success. Students felt prepared as a result of the training program and, as such, were given the confidence necessary to handle their duties as peer educators. A reflection of the data collected regarding student learning outcomes in the training course may be found in Table 3. As this table indicates, the first semester of peer educator training was a success. Overall, students felt training helped them gain knowledge about their expected duties and learn classroom management techniques, how to create effective in-class activities, how to understand working with students one on one, and how to effectively work on a team; however, the data collected indicates some areas of the training need to be improved upon to ensure that peer educators are fully comfortable and prepared to fulfill their designated role. Students felt they could have used more information on working with students one on one. This is not a surprise considering this is one of the most intimidating tasks students in a peer educator program will face. I will offer suggestions regarding improvement in this area subsequent to discussion regarding the training agenda. SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 65 Peer Educator Training In order to be considered to serve as peer educators, students applied to the program and completed an interview process with several staff members. Students who exhibited exceptional academic and organizational skills, appeared to be well adjusted to life as a student and were genuinely interested in helping fellow students were chosen for the position. Students accepted into the peer educator program attended a mandatory 16-week training course. Students enrolled in the training sessions as a zero-credit, no-cost course. The course was led by the first- year experience coordinator and met once a week for 50 minutes. To accommodate the schedules of all participating peer educators, two sections of the course were available. Every week, a new topic was discussed to prepare the students to take on their duties as peer educators. The training topics included • General welcome to the program • Getting to know fellow PEs and the first-year experience coordinator • PE duties and expectations • Classroom activity creation • Working on a team • Working with students one on one As previously discussed, this training was a great success, as evidenced by student evaluations in which 52% of PEs claimed training helped an “exceptional amount,” and 48% claimed training helped “a lot” when it came to gaining knowledge about what is expected of a peer educator. In addition to being helpful, PEs in the program seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience. When given the opportunity to add additional comments, four peer educators said the training made them “excited” to serve in the classroom. Others said they found the training to be “fun,” “awesome,” and “wonderful.” Many said they wished the class met more, and one “looked forward to it” every week. The evaluations reflected that 100% of students in the peer educator training found that training helped them to some positive degree, which indicates that a training program is vital to the overall success of a PE program. A more detailed discussion regarding the effectiveness of the training will be discussed later. For now, I will focus on what actually happened during training in order to offer a practical guide to developing and implementing a peer educator training program. The first several weeks of training were dedicated to welcoming the peer educators to the program, discussing with them the personal benefits they could expect to receive from serving in the program and the rate of effectiveness PEs are proven to have on college campuses nationwide. I felt it was vital to the success of the First-year Experience program that peer educators understood their role was crucial in helping new students acclimate to college life. Furthermore, I believed that students who understood not only how important their role was, but what they stood to gain from serving in that capacity, would result in a more dedicated group of peer educators. Promoting an incentive to being invested in the peer 66 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION educator program was important to fostering a sense of commitment. I knew students serving as peer educators were taking on a major responsibility that would significantly add to their personal workload, and reinforcing how important they were and what they meant to the institution as a whole seemed important. The first few weeks of training were also an opportunity for the peer educators and the first-year experience coordinator to get to know one another. Evaluations indicated that 95% of students taking the peer educator training course felt a high level of comfort when asking me, the first-year experience coordinator, for assistance during the training program. It is important for peer educators to feel a level of comfort with the person responsible for their training and semester- long supervision; therefore, it is vital to the success of the PE program to allow time for the peer educators to grow comfortable with the person responsible for guiding their training experience. One of the first things we did in training was an icebreaker game in which students had 10 minutes to gather answers to 20 questions designed to be a little silly and fun. The questions had to be answered by fellow PEs or staff members, and students were not allowed to ask a PE or staff member more than one question (full instructions for the game and the list of questions may be found in the Appendix). This activity got the students up and moving around the room, finding out each other’s names, and getting to know a little something about their peers and supervisors. It was a light-hearted way to begin training, and I believe it helped students relax, feel comfortable, and laugh with one another. Fostering a sense of community is important because PEs need to feel comfortable approaching their supervisor and reaching out to fellow peer educators for support and advice. PEs take on a significant amount of responsibility in addition to managing the demands of their own coursework and other obligations. As such, they need to feel as supported as possible by being connected positively to peers and supervisors. Following discussions regarding the benefits and rate of effectiveness of peer educators and icebreakers, training time was devoted to covering the basic peer educator duties and expectations. While this portion of the training dictated that I lecture to the students, effort was made to incorporate student discussions into the meeting periods. In order to determine what the peer educators did not fully understand and to determine what areas needed more emphasis during the training, much of the discussion focused on what students found to be the more difficult concepts to grasp. Concrete tasks such as taking attendance, holding office hours, sending email updates, and attending team meetings were discussed and easily understood by the students. This type of task-oriented duties were clear to students participating in the training. Students commented on the evaluation sheet that training made them feel “well-prepared” and “helped them understand” their role as peer educators, which indicated to me that students easily grasped the well-defined duties associated with their roles. It was the more intangible concepts they would encounter in their position that seemed a bit difficult for students to initially grasp. More abstract concepts, such as creating activities, working on a team, and working one-on-one with students, required more expansion during the course SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 67 of the training sessions. During training, many questions arose regarding how to develop classroom activities, successful one-on-one interactions with students, and managing classroom behavior. These topics dominated the discussions during the periods devoted to discussing the duties and expectations of a peer educator. As a result of these discussions, many days were subsequently devoted to classroom activity development, working with students, and managing a classroom. The training sessions had shortcomings in these particular areas, which will be discussed in detail later, and recommendations for improvement will be made. Students were tasked with developing classroom activities to accompany the topics taught in the first-year seminar courses. The first-year seminar courses covered topics like goal setting, time management, study skills, and civic engagement. Students were split into groups of two or three, assigned a specific topic, and given a class period to design an activity related to their topic. During training the following week, students tested out their activities on the other peer educators, and feedback was provided regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the activity. Suggestions for strengthening activities were always provided in a positive and constructive manner. Students in the training seemed to particularly enjoy activity-building days, and they did a phenomenal job of creating innovative and fun activities for students in the first-year seminars to participate in. For example, one group of peer educators was asked to create an activity that would introduce the diversity unit in the first-year seminar courses. The students wrote random words, such as “hamburger,” “lion,” “chair,” and “chicken,” on little strips of paper and placed the strips in a bowl. Students participating in the activity were split into groups of two and told to draw a slip of paper from the bowl. Without showing their slip of paper to their partner, the students were given pipe cleaners to create the item listed on their slip of paper. Once completed, the students asked their teammate to guess what they had made with their pipe cleaners. With the pipe cleaner creations ranging from spot-on depictions to comically bizarre creations, some had a difficult time understanding what their partners were trying to make. The goal of the activity was to prompt students to realize that not everyone sees things in the same way, thus introducing the segment on diversity. This activity was piloted in the first-year seminar classroom and was met with great enthusiasm by students participating in the activity. During training, the peer educators came up with at least two creative and exciting activities for all of the topics covered in the first-year seminar courses. Students left the training with fully realized classroom activities, which gave them an important sense of feeling more prepared to step into their roles in the classroom. Activity creation during training also lightened the load of the peer educator during the semester, allowing the PE to focus more on making individual contact with students needing assistance. In addition to creating classroom activities, students spent time learning how to effectively work on a team. We discussed how to approach their faculty members respectfully with questions or concerns, how to be a contributing member of a team, and how to positively communicate and interact in a team setting. Students seemed to benefit largely from the portion of the discussion devoted to navigating working with a faculty member while still having a voice 68 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION in the process. We discussed building credibility with faculty, the importance of preparation and organization, and the significance of consistently presenting ideas for the classroom. PEs were encouraged to meet with their faculty members one on one to get to know them and discuss the faculty member’s expectations of the PE. This type of initiative was greatly appreciated by faculty members and seemed to encourage positive and consistent communication between the PEs and the faculty members they were working with in the classroom. Students in peer educator training also participated in discussions regarding working with students one on one, both in and outside of the classroom. This particular discussion topic seemed to be the most daunting for students in the training, and they expressed concern over their ability to handle certain situations. Students were apprehensive about their ability to give students sound advice or help them solve problems. This was a learning moment for me, as it became clear that peer educators need specific direction when it came to working individually with students. Written comments on evaluations for the training sessions reflected the students’ desire to spend more time discussing working one on one with students. Comments requesting more time discussing “dealing with students” and “more on techniques” concerning working with students one on one were common. While we engaged in scenario work in which PEs were given a scenario and asked to discuss how they might handle the situation, evaluation feedback indicates that was not sufficient enough to make the PEs feel comfortable (scenario examples may be found in the Appendix). It is clear that an effective peer educator training course must devote considerable time to making sure peer educators are comfortable with their role when it comes to dealing with students one on one. Clearly, there were areas of the training that required revision and improvement. Experiencing the training program first hand and gathering feedback from students in the training program has made it possible to brainstorm ways to improve upon certain topics addressed in the training course. Future Recommendations for Training Programs While the peer educator training program was successful in many aspects, there is room for improvement in some important areas. Peer educators participating in the training did not feel as prepared to deal with students one-on-one as they felt about other things covered in the training, such as creating classroom activities. Written comments requesting “more on techniques dealing with students,” “practice handling different situations,” and opportunities to “discuss more about working one-on-one with students” indicated that more training time should be devoted to this particular topic. Perhaps roleplaying and mock office hours would allow students going through peer educator training to develop skills in this area and allow them to feel a higher level of comfort and understanding concerning working individually with students. I would recommend incorporating roleplaying into a peer educator training program. If I were to do this again, I would pair PEs up and assign one a problem to bring to the other. For example, issues of homesickness, problems effectively communicating with professors, roommate SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 69 conflicts, and peer pressure issues are just some of the topics I would ask the PEs to role play with. Coordinators at other schools may tailor these roleplaying games to fit the specific needs of their university, especially if there is a known widespread issue on campus. This would allow students to troubleshoot problems in real time with an actual person, as opposed to thinking about how they might handle a situation if it were to arise. Many peer educators will come to find that learning how to deal with students one on one is best learned through experience. In training, we discussed topics such as how to approach students, how to build rapport with students, and how to identify academic and emotional warning signs, but it is not possible to cover every single “what if” situation that peer educators might encounter. While we may find ways through scenario work to make students feel more prepared, actually serving in the classroom will be the best method of preparation for the peer educator. Because classroom experience is so vital, it may be beneficial to hold a question and answer period with former or returning peer educators. This session would allow new PEs to gather information about working with students one-on-one from the perspective of an experienced peer educator, which may differ significantly from the experiences of a seasoned faculty member or program coordinator. PEs in the program appeared to be very nervous about giving out incorrect information or failing to help a student. A tremendous amount of support from supervisory staff is imperative to ensure students serving as peer educators feel as if they have the resources they need to help students in the most productive way possible. That support, combined with confidence in their abilities, will allow the peer educator to enjoy more successful interactions with students during the semester. According to PE feedback, training sessions could have included more opportunities to help the peer educators get to know one another and form connections. Evaluation data, as displayed in Table 4, indicates that students in the peer educator training program did not overwhelmingly feel as if they got to know other peer educators in the program. As previously mentioned, two sections of the training program were offered to accommodate the students’ schedules. As a result of being forced to hold two separate training sessions to accommodate student schedules, some PEs might have felt as if they did not get the chance to know all of their peers. Additionally, this could be a result of simply not spending a significant amount of time during training encouraging students to get to know one another. Several students wrote on their evaluation forms that they would like to “meet with the peer educators in the other section” and engage in more “team building” activities. When asked to leave feedback regarding areas that could be improved upon, three PEs specifically cited “team building” as an area of focus for improvement. One of the greatest resources the peer educators have is each other. If they feel comfortable with one another and feel like they are on a team together, it stands to reason they will be more likely to approach one another when they need help with a student or when they need to collaborate on classroom activities or discussions. Information sharing in the peer educator community is extremely important, and personal relationships between the PEs should be established and positively reinforced. 70 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION In an attempt to respond to the students’ desire to work more closely with other members of the peer educator team, I implemented a Peer Educator Boot Camp that took place prior to the beginning of the semester. PEs spent the day together in the woods, where they participated in a ropes course and other fun team-building activities designed to promote cohesion among the group. This served as an opportunity to build camaraderie and promoted excitement for the upcoming fall semester. At the end of the camp, students came back to campus to eat pizza together and socialize. I could tell that, while students were exhausted from the day, they were excited to have had the opportunity to bond with the people they would be sharing experiences with for an entire semester. Boot Camp was a fun experience for all involved, but more importantly, it made peer educators feel connected to one another and gave them a sense of being part of a team. Fostering a sense of community among the men and women serving as PEs will give them a sense of belonging and comfort. Time should be devoted, both during and after training, to get peer educators together to socialize and bond in order to strengthen the support network they will need to rely on throughout the semester. Conclusion Valuable feedback was gathered that proves the importance of an organized, meaningful peer educator training program. Training is vital in helping peer educators feel prepared to help students by clearly outlining duties and how to perform them. Students serving as PEs will be done a tremendous disservice if they are not trained appropriately. Training gives peer educators the information they need to develop classroom activities, work on a team, and deal with students, both in and out of the classroom. Additionally, training instills a sense of confidence in the peer educators that is necessary to aid them in the duties they perform and expectations they are to meet. Information provided by peer educators proves they perceived the training program outlined in this paper to have helped them prepare for the tasks before them. While there was clearly room for improvement in the program, overall it was a success. Students in the PE program felt they had been a part of a meaningful training experience, which gave them the tools necessary to fulfill their duties to the best of their abilities. Through the 16-week course, peer educators worked on developing the skills necessary to excel in their positions on campus. In addition to learning how to navigate their important role, peer educators enjoyed their time in training. I believe this helped spark excitement for the upcoming semester and fostered commitment to the task at hand. I also learned a great deal from this experience. Through training, I was able to learn about the individual personalities of each peer educator and, as a result, built special relationships with these students. I believe our time together in the training sessions renewed in me a sense of enthusiasm and optimism for working with the freshmen population on campus. The ultimate goal of training was to prepare peer educators to support students on campus, and in that goal, we found success; however, it was the unexpected side effects of the training that made the experience amazing. Getting to know students and seeing their passion for helping their SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 71 peers was inspirational, and what began as a job became a joy. The importance of training peer educators should not be minimized, and one may expect to gain much more than a reliable group of student leaders capable of aiding their peers. Refrences Adam, A., Skaliky, J, & Brown, N. (2011). Planning sustainable peer learning programs: An application and reflection. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 2(2), 9-22. Brack, A. B., Millard, M., & Shah, K. (2008). Are peer educators really peers? Journal of American College Health, 56(5), 566-568. Catanzarte, J. A., & Robinson. (2013). Peer education in campus suicide prevention. New Directions for Student Services, 141, 43-53. Dennett, C. G. (2011). Peer educators in a theoretical context: Emerging adults. New Directions for Student Services, 133, 7-16. Hunter, D. (2004). Peer to peer: Effective college learning. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 36(3), 40-44. Owen, J. (2011). Peer educators in classroom settings: Effective academic partners. New Directions for Student Services,133, 55-64. Vorhees, R., & Petkas, S. 2011. Peer educators in critical ccampus discourse. New Directions for Student Services,133, 77-86. Wawrzynski, M. R., LaConte, C.L., & Straker, E. J. (2011). Learning outcomes for peer educators: The national survey on peer educators. New Directions for Student Services,133, 17-27. 72 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION TABLE 1 Peer Educator Demographics Gender Male: 2 Female: 19 Year in School Freshman: 3 Sophomore: 8 Junior: 8 Senior: 2 Prior Service as a Peer Educator Yes: 10 No: 11 Knowledge of PE duties prior to training None: 2 A little: 3 Some: 9 A lot: 6 An exceptional amount: 1 *Data collected from 21 student evaluations of a semester long training program at a public institution in the Midwest. APPENDIX TABLE 2 Student Perception of Preparedness and Understanding of Duties Evaluation Question: Not at all A little Somewhat Very Extremely Since going through Peer 0% 0% 0% 52% 48% Educator training, how prepared do you feel to serve in the classroom as a Peer Educator? How well do you feel you 0% 0% 0% 67% 33% understand the duties of a Peer Educator? *Data collected from 21 student evaluations of a semester long training program at a public institution in the Midwest. SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 73 TABLE 3 Assessment of Peer Educator Learning Outcomes Evaluation Question: None A Little Some A Lot An Exceptional Amount To what degree has training 0% 0% 0% 48% 52% helped you gain knowledge about what is expected of you as a Peer Educator? To what degree has training 0% 0% 14% 62% 24% helped you learn classroom management techniques? To what degree has training 0% 0% 5% 62% 33% helped you understand how to create effective classroom activities? To what degree has training 0% 5% 24% 28% 43% helped you to develop an understanding of working with students one-on-one? To what degree has training 0% 0% 9% 48% 43% helped you gain knowledge about working on a team? *Data collected from 21 student evaluations of a semester long training program at a public institution in the Midwest. TABLE 4 Peer Educator’s Perceptions of Getting to Know Other Peer Educators Evaluation Question: None A Little Some A Lot An Exceptional Amount To what degree have you 0 2 6 11 2 gotten to know other Peer Educators in your training session? *Data collected from 21 student evaluations of a semester long training program at a public institution in the Midwest. Numbers reflect the amount of students selecting that particular answer. 74 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION SAMPLE 20 Questions • You have ten minutes to get answers to all of the following questions. • You may not ask a person more than one question! • Make sure to write down the name of the person next to the question they answered. 1. What is your favorite breakfast cereal? 2. What job would you never want to have? 3. Who is your celebrity crush? 4. Which season is your favorite? 5. What sound annoys you the most? 6. If you could be any animal what would you be and why? 7. What is your least favorite subject in school? 8. Which do you prefer: rainy or sunny days? 9. What is your hidden talent? 10. Which of the following would you rather give up forever: salty food or sweet food? 11. What is the first thing you would do if you won the lottery? 12. Would you rather go to the beach or to the mountains? 13. What is your favorite smell? 14. If you had a superpower, what would it be? 15. What is scarier: clowns or snakes? 16. Are you a dog or cat person? 17. What is your favorite board game? 18. If you could get one thing for free for the rest of your life, what would it be? 19. What movie makes you laugh out loud? 20. Would you rather be the President of the United States or a movie star? SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 75 SAMPLE Classroom Management Scenarios • You are presenting a classroom activity. The description is detailed and students will not do the activity correctly if they do not pay attention. Two students are talking throughout your description of the activity. What are some techniques you could use to get them to stop talking, without disrupting the flow of class? • Your lead faculty has instituted a policy of no cell phones. You see several students who continue to text during class periods, even though the class as a whole has been reminded of the cell phone policy. How do you get the students to stop texting? • The librarian is presenting important information about academic honesty. There is a student in the front of the class who has put her head down and fallen asleep. How do you address this situation without disrupting the librarian? • The lead faculty has allowed the use of laptops in the classroom. You sit in the back of the room and witness several students abusing this privilege by being on Facebook and Twitter. How do you solve this issue? • A student comes in five minutes late almost every class period. The lead faculty has attempted to correct this behavior. How could you approach the student about the constant lateness? • A student who sits in the front row frequently interrupts the lead faculty during lectures. How can you deal with this situation without interrupting the class or the lead faculty? • There are two students who sit together in the back of the classroom. They pay attention and do not disrupt class. However, when it is time to do group work, they refuse to participate. How can you get the students to participate knowing you are not the authority figure in the classroom? 76 THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE ORIENTATION AND TRANSITION SAMPLE Peer Educator Training Evaluation Please read the following questions carefully and circle your answer. Your answers will remain anonymous and confidential. What is your gender? Male Female What year are you in school? Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Prior to training, have you served as a Peer Educator at this university? Yes No Prior to training, how much knowledge did you have about what would be expected of you as a Peer Educator? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree has training helped you gain knowledge about what is expected of you as a Peer Educator? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount How well do you feel you understand the duties of a Peer Educator? Not at all A little Somewhat Very Extremely To what degree has training helped you learn classroom management techniques? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree has training helped you understand how to create effective classroom activities? None A little SPRING 2015 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 77 Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree has training helped you develop an understanding of working with students one- on-one? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree has training helped you gain knowledge about working on a team? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree have you gotten to know other Peer Educators in your training session? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount To what degree did you feel comfortable asking Dr. Dickinson for help during Peer Educator training? None A little Some A lot An exceptional amount Since going through Peer Educator training, how prepared do you feel to serve in the classroom as a Peer Educator? Not at all A little Somewhat Very Extremely How would you rate your overall Peer Educator training experience? Poor Below average Good Very good Excellent What could be done to improve the quality of Peer Educator training in the future? Any additional comments?