The Integrated Peer Leader Program: Empowering Students as In-Class Leaders*

Active learning pedagogies are known to lead to better student outcomes on exams, formative assessments, and course grades compared to traditional lectures. Despite the benefits, many instructors hesitate to embrace active learning, relying primarily on lecturing, with active learning used only as a supplement. This can be due to implementation challenges such as limited resources, lack of support, and large class sizes. The Integrated Peer Leadership Program (IPLP), inspired by peer-led team learning models, provides a structured approach where students in the course assume leadership roles within the class. IPLP is an active team-based format where enrolled students act as Peer Leaders for 1 week out of the semester. This talk will present the IPLP format and compare learning outcomes from the program with a Learning Assistant (LA) program. Data from multiple semesters in an introductory physics course reveal that IPLP can yield student outcomes comparable to or exceeding those of the LA model, while decreasing associated costs and instructor support.