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Advocate Online
Thriving in Academe
Issues to Consider
What You Should Expect
How much work will PLTL be? And how do I
start?
 Is
PLTL a lot of work?
It’s a lot of work to prepare and run PLTL the first time, so it’s
important to have a group of people from your department working with you.
We had to choose leaders, train them, reserve rooms for the workshops, prepare
problem sets, get administrative support and funding, talk with support groups
around campus such as our Education Department and our experiential learning
people, not to mention troubleshooting and weekly meetings with leaders. We
also had to plan lectures to cover all the material in three hours per week
since the fourth was given over to the PLTL workshops. Our lectures became
more efficient, and workshops were used to present additional illustrative
examples that would have been presented in lecture.
All this work pays off in subsequent
semesters though. The second time around we braced ourselves for another
major effort, but it never came. Experienced leaders make all the difference.
How do I find student leaders?
Peer leaders are from your or your colleagues’ classes. They range from
students who have had many courses to those who have only had the PLTL course.
All have worked out equally well. Leaders should be knowledgeable in the subject,
have good people skills, and be enthusiastic. Leaders are not tutors; they
are facilitators.
Where do I get problem sets?
Most of our problem sets were available from Prentice Hall books. We developed
several sets. The general approach for developing problem sets is to decide
on a single topic for each week’s PLTL workshop drawn from the week’s
lecture and then to develop problems on that topic. Questions should range
from simple to more sophisticated. Before exams some of us even used practice
tests in workshops. Workshop questions are not magic. Their function is
to get students talking, thinking, and working together. Peer leaders will
let you know if the questions are working. They can probably even suggest
improvements.
Is it worth all the effort?
Emphatically, yes! Besides the feeling of the classroom being much more communal,
student performance has been impressive. Thus far no one has failed in
a PLTL section, and the number of A’s and B’s has increased
dramatically.
Are PLTL students doing better
in subsequent courses?
We are studying this.
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References & Resources To
learn more, visit the PLTL Web site, www.pltl.org,
or contact Victor Strozak at the CUNY Graduate
Center or David Gosser at the City College of New
York. On the PLTL Web site you can find other PLTL
users and a schedule of PLTL workshops, conferences,
and presentations. You can also find an experienced
PLTL practitioner who will give a presentation
at your school.
If you host a workshop on
your campus, or attend a PLTL conference, get
administrators and other department people involved.
You will need their support.
Read the PLTL Guidebook,
a detailed “how to” book from Prentice
Hall. They also publish other PLTL books. Ask
your sales rep. These books should help assure
you that PLTL questions don’t look different
from ones you would ask in class or give on an
exam or quiz.
Another source is Thomas Berke, “Good
Students Become Great Leaders,” in Strategies
for Success workshop series (Spring 2003).
Benjamin-Cummings Publishing. Go to www.AWL.com/bc for
back issues.
For more information on guided
inquiry, visit the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry
Web site at www.POGIL.org.
For more information on problem-based
learning, visit the University of Delaware PBL
Web site at www.udel.edu/pbl/ or
see the Thriving
in Academe section of the December 2002 issue
of the Advocate.
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