Peer Teachers Must Be Good Hosts,
Flexible, and Live With Ambiguity
Research on teaching in Lifelong Learning Institutes reveals essence of the craft

The peer education that occurs in Lifelong Learning Institutes represents, in many ways, the epitome of excellence in adult education, according to researchers at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Research Collaborative at the University of Southern Maine.  The study was conducted by E. Michael Brady, Ph.D., Professor of Adult Education and Senior Research Fellow at the Osher Institute; Steven R. Holt, Graduate Assistant at the Institute; and Betty Welt, a member of the Institute’s research advisory group and member of Coastal Senior College. Their research was published in the winter edition of Educational Gerontology: An International Journal.   The study further finds that older students’ great enthusiasm for learning, as well as their expectations for thoughtful and stimulating discourse, presents a daunting challenge for the volunteer peer instructor. As a result, those who are peer teachers must be flexible in their methodology and be comfortable living with situational ambiguity.

Betty Welt	Mike Brady

The research team conducted in-depth focus groups with 48 peer instructors from five of Maine’s Senior Colleges.  These organizations are part of the nation’s more than 500 Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLIs), organizations of older learners dedicated to meeting the educational needs of their members, where courses of study are planned and taught by institute members.  Five methods are primarily used in peer teaching practice:  lecture, group discussion, hands-on experiences, and various hybrids of these three, as well as a course coordination approach. 

Unlike traditional higher education where there is “power over” a student, when the external factors of tests, grades, and diplomas are removed in LLI’s, older adults may find themselves coming together in a spirit of freedom and collegiality to learn with and from one another.  As a result, when a peer teacher enters the classroom in a Lifelong Learning Institute his/her previously held mental model of education and methods of teaching are challenged.  They find that older learners are substantially different from high school or traditional college-age students.  A teacher in a more traditional setting who expressed one point of view on a complex issue may have gone unchallenged, but that probably will no longer occur in this context.  This can also impact teaching methods, according to the study.  One teacher, who was new to the LLI environment after spending a career in the area of financial investments, admitted that he had to quickly make a major adjustment in his plans to teach once he entered the classroom. “I came into this situation with a very structured notebook and one of the things I quickly ascertained is that these students are outspoken about what they want to talk about  . . . the course evolved into sort of a hybrid of lecture and discussion.” 

The researchers also learned that while older students’ great enthusiasm for learning, can be a daunting challenge for the volunteer peer instructor, students are tolerant of faculty limitations.  Older learners do not expect their teachers to have immediate answers to all their questions, opening the door for the co-learning model and the notion of teaching and learning as a “hosting” relationship.  Hospitality invites reciprocity: a teacher’s hospitality to the student results in a world more hospitable to the teacher.

Instructors in LLI’s must learn to live with the ambiguities presented by LLI’s. While “learning for the love of learning” is the stated mission, many students participate in programs for social reasons.  As a result a sense of community develops in many senior college classrooms.  While some instructors encourage this feeling of community, others questioned its role vis a vis a perceived mission of academic rigor.  Similarly, the notion of education vs. entertainment provides a duality among some faculty who wonder how many people [who] seek out the senior college do it just as a release from boredom, not out of a desire as a true learner. see next column

Peer Teaching Research (continued)
Throughout the research, the enthusiasm generated by small groups of faculty who were invited to talk about the craft of teaching itself was palpable.  Those who participated in the focus groups enthusiastically seized upon the opportunity to talk with colleagues about teaching.  When faculty gather together the agenda is often around administrative and other necessary but mundane matters.  One interesting, and unanticipated outcome of the research focus groups, is that in several participating LLI sites, teachers have voluntarily organized faculty gatherings to continue the conversations begun during the focus groups.  This indicates an apparent need and desire among peer teachers to talk with each other and further reflect on the richness and subtlety of the craft of teaching.

The findings were published in the Winter edition of Educational Gerontology: An International Journal. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine provides leadership and education for Maine's Older Learners.  To read the entire research paper visit the website at www.usm.maine.edu/olli and click on “News about OLLI.”