Service-Learning Assistant Mentors (SLAMs): undergraduate peer mentors embedded in service-learning courses¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

SLAMs are undergraduate students with prior service-learning experience who serve as peer mentors to enrolled students and as liaisons between faculty and students. They "either met one-on-one with students to individually mentor them in their experience or conducted group mentoring through guided reflections during structured class time." SLAMs worked closely with professors to structure in-class critical reflection activities. Faculty helped SLAMs build alliances with students through support and motivation, based on prior findings about successful faculty mentoring.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Undergraduate students with prior service-learning course experience
• Application and matching via interest and skills survey
• Faculty support for building student alliances

Constraints¶

• Integrating peer-mentoring into a service-learning classroom is not common practice

Target Learners¶

• Undergraduate students enrolled in service-learning courses

Target Learning Goals¶

• Civic engagement attitudes, professional development, and critical reflection on service experiences

Affordances¶

• Critical Service Learning Three Component Model

Claims¶

• Peer mentoring shows a trend toward higher posttest social justice attitudes [+W]
• Service-learning students with a SLAM peer mentor scored higher on posttest civic action than non-mentored students, in a non-randomised comparison [+W]
• Positive relationships with professors, community partners, and peer mentors are associated with increased intention to be civically engaged [+W]
• Positive SLAM-student relationship qualities correlate with civic action [+W]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Harkins, D. A., Grenier, L. I., Irizarry, C., Robinson, E., Ray, S., & Shea, L.-M. (2020). Building relationships for critical service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 26(2), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.3998/mjcsloa.3239521.0026.202