2023-Xue Zhou
An investigation of the effectiveness of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) in reducing the attainment gap in business analytics study
Dr Xue Zhou (PI), Queen Mary University of London; and Dr Patrick McGurk (Co-I), Queen Mary University of London - An investigation of the effectiveness of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) in reducing the attainment gap in business analytics study
Grant Ref: 2023-318-MKE
Grant Amount: £3,974.60
Project Summary: Business analytics is becoming an increasingly crucial component of the business world, and as a result, business schools around the world are placing increasing emphasises on analytics within their programmes. Due to the increasing number of students in the business analytics course, it is challenging for business educators to provide enough academic support and address on the attainment gap between students from different entry routes in UK higher education. There are a large portion of students with BTEC qualifications have markedly lower pass rates compared to other groups of students in a business analytics course. Therefore, there is a necessity to explore a proficient teaching method that can enhance academic support under the current staffing restriction in higher education in the UK. PLTL is an active-learning pedagogy that takes a workshopbased approach to student learning, and it has proven effective in increasing student engagement, reducing attainment gaps, and has significantly reduced the number of students who are not eligible to progress (Maxwell and Wiles, 2022). This project will pilot PLTL in the one of business analytics modules in the business school and examine the impact of peer-led team learning (PLTL) on students’ outcomes such as subject interest, critical thinking skills and self-efficacy. The quasi-experiment method will be adopted to collect the students’ academic performance between PLTL treatment groups and control groups. Test analysis will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of PLTL in reducing the attainment gap between students with different entry qualifications (e.g., BTEC and A level).