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A team of researchers in the School of Health and Natural Sciences (SHNS) have published new research that examines positive outcomes among student leaders engaged in an academic support program at Mercy. The article, “The Perceived Impact of Leading Supplemental Instruction on Student Leaders at a Hispanic-Serving Institution,” led by first author Irina Ellison, Ph.D., associate professor in SHNS, was published in November in the journal Education Science.

Supplemental instruction (SI) is an evidence-based, non-remedial academic support program that targets courses that many students have difficulty passing. The method relies on the participation of “near-peer leaders,” students who have been through the program and return to offer support to newer classmates.

Joan Toglia, Ph.D., professor emerita and former dean of the SHNS

In the fall of 2022, Ellison collaborated with co-authors, Joan Toglia, Ph.D., professor emerita and former dean of the SHNS, and Gabriele Haynes,  an education consultant from Melbourne, Florida. The team studied 31 students acting in supportive roles in Mercy’s SI program, and observed positive outcomes among those who mirrored the diversity of the undergraduate population at Mercy. Their findings showed the SI leaders experienced self-improvement in key areas that are typically linked with higher retention and graduation rates.

“Although the impact on students enrolled in an SI program has been well documented, not much research has examined the effects on the SI leaders themselves,” said Ellison. “Our research found a strong positive impact on SI leaders, especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds.”

The study, which was funded by a Title V grant known as Advancing Curricular Change to Enhance Student Success (ACCESS), aimed to uncover the perceptions of students providing academic support to other students. “During the years that Mercy has offered an SI program in various forms, the outcomes have been uniformly positive,” said Ellison. “In this study, we demonstrated that having student leaders who look like our students is a powerful and important element of creating a supportive atmosphere for learning.”

Ellison said she looks forward to more research in this relatively uncharted area. “We are discovering more about the social model of learning that helps students by building a stronger sense of belonging,” she said. “We hope this research will open the door to further study of learning modalities that support positive experiences, not just for participating students but also for student leaders and the community as a whole.”