Abstract:

This paper demonstrates how undergraduate students may act as teaching assistants, i.e. peer student assistants (PSAs) in higher education within the public administration course. The pilot study was designed and performed in an undergraduate first cycle study in 2016/2017 academic year at the Faculty of Administration (FA), University of Ljubljana. Peer student assistants were leading groups of 4–7 students who were from the same year as their PSAs. The basic idea of including PSAs in the classroom was to increase the collaboration of all students and the teacher through PSAs. The empirical results of the content analysis research demonstrated that the use of PSAs had positive and increasing effect on the quality and the effectiveness of the overall course. It increased students’ motivation for work within the pedagogical process and their motivation for studying the subject. The results also showed other multiplicative effects of PSAs like increasing collaborative learning activities, better organizational climate and project results within different students’ groups and increased leaders’ competences of PSAs.

Keywords:

pedagogical innovation, student competences, teaching methodology, peer teaching, undergraduate students, active participation.