The Active Ingredients in Peer-mentoring: an exploration of the relationship between peer-mentoring, self-affirmation, and self-efficacy

Peer-mentoring is increasingly used in education settings because of its claimed benefits for learners (Ehrich et al. 2004; Hattie 2008), and especially in universities, where it is part of a wider discourse of active learning (Kane 2004; HEA 2008), as a mechanism for developing graduate attributes. Little is known, however, about the underlying processes that link peer-mentoring to positive benefits: there is an absence of clear evidence and theory. The proposed project will explore this link between peer-mentoring and educational outcomes using theory that is well-established in psychology but less well used in real world educational settings. The project will investigate peer-mentoring as a self-affirming social interaction with benefits for the recipients and mentors leading to enhanced self-efficacy and confidence and so to stronger educational outcomes.

Graduate attributes all involve a willingness to act rather than know and are limited by the extent to which a student has confidence they can succeed. That confidence is enhanced by increasing self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to carry out a given behaviour and is an important determinant of engagement in successful behaviours (Bandura 1977; 1986; 1997). People with high self-efficacy are more likely to be motivated and achieve their goals. Self-affirmation theory proposes that people have a need for global self-integrity which can be achieved by reflection on positive behavioural approaches (Steele 1988). Research suggests strongly that self-efficacy can be increased by self-affirmation (Epton & Harris 2008; Zhao & Xiaoli 2010; Sherman & Cohen 2014). For example, it has been shown that affirming experiences can successfully promote academic achievement (Cohen et al. 2006) and positive health behaviours (Bandura 2004; Zhao & Xiaoli 2010; Harris et al 2014).

The research questions can be broken down into two broad phases. In the first phase, the aim is to investigate whether peer-mentoring enhances educational outcomes because it induces self-affirmation and enhanced self-efficacy.
1. To what extent and how does the relationship between educational outcomes and peer-mentoring involve self-affirmation and self-efficacy?
In the second phase, the aim is to relate these to the experience of the individuals involved. The various changes in self-efficacy, learning and educational outcomes may occur before the individual can perceive and recognise them.
2. When and how is the development of academic knowledge and graduate attributes experienced in the process of peer-mentoring?
3. How does that experienced time course relate to the occurrence of self- and social-affirmation and to changes in self-efficacy?
In each question, I will also be asking how these effects are influenced by student background factors such as: baseline grade point average; socioeconomic status; and graduate generation.