The Appropriateness and Effectiveness of Cross-aged Peer Mentoring in the Learning Environment
Volume 4, Issue 2 Cheryl Luczak, Arjun Kalbag
Published online:13 April 2018
Abstract
This four-year study seeks to identify and analyze the impact of a cross-aged peer mentoring program. The research addresses mentoring in business education and involves the use of undergraduate business students as mentors and role models for participating high school students. Through collaboration with local high schools and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a Midwest University sponsored a series of workshops in which high school students were mentored by undergraduate business students. Over a span of four years 167 high school students and 167 college students participated in these workshops. Data was collected from the peer mentoring program participants and analyzed to determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of cross-aged peer mentoring in the field of business education. It was observed that mentoring increased high school students perceived level of future success in college, the perceived effectiveness of their business plan, and their level of comfort on a college campus. The data showed that students that had one or more family members that attended college had higher levels of perceived success in college, felt more confident in the effectiveness of their business plan, and experienced a higher level of comfort on a college campus at the start of the mentoring program as compared to students that did not have immediate family members that attended college. This research not only adds to the mentorship literature but may also be useful in allocating resources to schools that have a greater demographic of first-generation college students.
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To Cite this article
Luczak, C., & Kalbag, A. (2018). The appropriateness and effectiveness of cross-aged peer mentoring in the learning environment. International Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 4(2), 76-84. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijhss.4.10003-2