Peer-supported learning groups: a collaborative approach to supporting students learning in engineering and technology

peer-reviewedThis paper describes a non-traditional tutoring programme based on collaborative peer-support learning approach, and reflects on two years of its implementation to specific subjects in engineering and information technology based courses at the University of Limerick in Ireland. The programme, known as the Peer-Supported Learning Groups (PSLG), is an academic enrichment scheme which has been developed by adapting the SI model such that it meets the needs of the students in Ireland and, at the same time, fits into the Irish third-level education system. The paper begins by giving a rationale for the introduction of the PSLG to the targeted subjects and the reasons for choosing the SI model. This is followed by description of the operational structure of the programme highlighting the difficulties encountered at the initial stages and the measures taken to alleviate these difficulties. Quantitative measures for evaluating the effect of the PSLG on student’s performance, as well as analysis of feedback collected from the students and the leaders, are presented and discussed. The paper concludes by outlining issues for improving the current programme and associated further developments.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

Concepts of spatial criticism in the architecture " The Role of Critical Concepts in Contemporary Design”

The place that identified the ways of thinking is responsible for formulating the physical existence of human space that is linked to the users' social and psychological memory. Where the research clarified the spatial concepts in architecture, which required a critical study for the previous literature to reach the difference in the effectiveness of place in contemporary design, especially the previous literature that differs in its views and lacks comprehensiveness. Accordingly, the research problem was represented by the following: "There is a lack of knowledge about the role of spatial criticism concepts in contemporary design". This research aims to firstly reveal the unknown area to distinguish between the states of "place and space" in architecture, and to secondly clarify the vocabulary of spatial criticism and its variables responsible for the formation of the place. This work has adopted the ground theory approach as a methodology aimed at building an intellectual model for the vocabulary of spatial criticism from the study of the previous literature and systematically analyzing it by using a comparative analysis