Peer-Assisted Learning in a High School Suicide-Prevention Intervention: An Exploratory Qualitative Study (Poster 24)

• In Event: Saturday Poster Session 3:05 pm
  In Poster Session: Learning and Motivation in Social and Cultural Contexts 3

Abstract

This exploratory qualitative study examined the experiences of high school students in a high school suicide prevention program (the Hope Squad program) for whom high school peers taught a suicide prevention curriculum in an instructional model of peer-assisted learning. Applying the lens of Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1977, 1986), this study examined how student tutees experienced peer-assisted learning instruction and to what extent they experienced social congruence and cognitive congruence with their tutors in their respective Hope Squad chapters. Peer-assisted learning tutees shared that some tutors showed signs of nervousness when tutoring. Still, participants felt comfortable in the peer-assisted learning environment and appreciated the tutors’ conversational instruction. The study discovered that the study participants experienced social congruence and cognitive congruence.

Author

• Sterling Morris, Utah State University