PASS LEADER MENTORING
Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) are group-based mentoring sessions that are offered to all students who are undertaking difficult units at Deakin University, as well as many other universities. PASS is free and voluntary, with two sessions a week, running for 50 minutes. These sessions held online via Zoom, and are facilitated by a PASS leader, which has been my role for both Trimester 1 and 2 of 2024. At the end of 2023, I was encouraged to apply to become a PASS leader for the unit ‘Cognitive Psychology’ due to the high grades I had achieved in the unit earlier that year. I saw this as a wonderful opportunity to develop my leadership skills and try something new, and I simply couldn’t ‘pass’ it up. I then continued my role into Trimester 2 to become the PASS leader for the unit ‘Introduction to Psychology: Individual and Social Development’.
My role as a PASS leader is to not simply re-teach the content, but rather, facilitate an environment which allows students to think critically about the content, and bringing together the ideas of the group to consolidate their learning. Not only does this help students become independent learners and take control of their learning, but it also allows for me to develop my leadership, through building on my questioning skills. I have cultivated the ability to ask meaningful and insightful questions that encourage students to find answers to their own questions, rather than taking control of the group myself and answering their questions for them. As an example, I will often redirect specific questions back to the whole group to facilitate an open conversation where students can build off of each other’s answers. I have found that using phrases such as “Great question, what does everyone else think of this?” or “How could we build on this?”, can allow students to feel comfortable to share their ideas. Upon reflecting on this, I am able to see how crucial it is to understand that leading is not necessarily about taking control of the group, and being the only voice that is heard. Instead, leading is about creating an environment in which others feel supported and confident to share their ideas and perspectives and guiding them in the right direction.
When planning the PASS sessions, I find it useful to draw on my prior knowledge of the unit content, and use this to develop activities that are fun, creative, and useful for students. To do this effectively, however, it is important that I not only rely on my own knowledge, but also seek and use feedback from students, to understand what they want from the sessions. One such example was during Trimester 1, in which students gave feedback about wanting to focus more on assignment preparation. To implement this, I created dedicated activities to both of their assignments including going over the rubrics, how to identify reliable literature and a number of others. Through implementing students’ feedback into the sessions, I saw greater engagement in the activities, retained a high number of returning students each week, and I was able to build better rapport with students. Not just viewing this feedback, but actually applying it in the sessions, and finding ways to improve as a PASS leader has been essential to my development as a leader.
For many students who attend PASS, it is their first year of university, so I find it helpful to remember how I was feeling during my first year and draw on these memories and experiences to create a welcoming and friendly environment for students. Through this journey of mentoring I have come to understand how important being an empathetic person is to being a good leader. To show my support and understanding to students, I ensure each week that we conduct a ‘Check-in’ in which students can share how they are feeling, often through a scale and 1-10. When students are feeling down or stressed due to assignments or exams, I have found that demonstrating kindness and understanding really goes a long way. In my experience, I have learnt that showing empathy allows students to feel heard and understood, and builds greater rapport, which is again, crucial to the foundation of leadership.
