Our team at Cornerstone: The Center for Advanced Learning at Washington University in St. Louis is passionate about creating learning environments that are as universally accessible as possible. We do this by collaborating with WUSTL students with and without disabilities, faculty and administrators, and our fellow staff members to explore how research can inform effective and respectful practice. With the support of a National Science Foundation grant, Mastery Peer Led Team Learning (MPLTL) is one project with which we are currently pursuing these goals in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Nationally, students with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM disciplines despite the availability of many types of academic supports. MPLTL provides additional training to a small group of chemistry and calculus peer leaders in WUSTL's highly respected Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) program. The training focuses on the 9 Principles of Universal Design for Instruction© (UDI) and characteristics of postsecondary students with LD and/or ADHD. Peer leaders create "templates" during weekly seminars to help make course concepts, procedures, or formulas easier to understand, remember, and apply. Students who participate in MPLTL sections have documented LD and/or ADHD. They cover the same material in weekly sessions as do students in other PLTL sessions. In addition, students attend a weekly Academic Coaching Seminar to learn and practice content-specific learning strategies.
Data will help us evaluate if these supports can make any significant differences in students' completion of chemistry or calculus courses, their final course grades, and the development of study skills and executive functioning skills. Qualitatively, we will evaluate students' overall satisfaction levels with the MPLTL experience. In addition, MPLTL has been designed as a pilot for a larger research project investigating the impact of this training on peer leaders' instructional self-efficacy and a UDI systems change on multiple campuses. We hope you will enjoy the MPLTL products posted here. Please check back for additional products and research findings, too.
