Gateway Science Workshop Program

Impact of Undergraduate Leadership Experiences in a STEM Workshop Program

This 2-year, multi method qualitative study investigated the ways in which undergraduate small-group peer facilitators understood their own development as learners and as leaders.

Micari, M., Streitwieser, B., & Light, G. (200). Undergraduates leading undergraduates: Peer facilitation in a science workshop program. Innovative Higher Education, 30(4), 269–288.  Available at http:springerlink.metapress.com/content/y685161240924727/fulltext.pdf

Impact of Undergraduate Leadership Experiences in a STEM Workshop Program

This is a qualitative study of peer leaders (facilitators) in a large peer-learning program in the undergraduate sciences, the Gateway Science Workshop (GSW) program. The research was conducted over one academic year and comprised 2 phases, the first one focusing on facilitators' general reactions to the experience and the second on the ways in which these individuals understood themselves to have developed through the facilitation experience. Over the 2002–2003 academic year, we collected 168 surveys, conducted 13 focus groups, and conducted in-depth interviews with 8 facilitators.

We found that facilitators perceived themselves to have progressed in 3 general areas, which we have termed cognitive, personal, and instrumental. These areas represent a fuller picture of the benefit to peer leaders than has been described in previous literature.