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Perception of Undergraduate Freshman Students on Role Models and Correlation with Their Educational Background Abstract This paper reports the latest results of an NSF sponsored program to implement an undergraduate peer-to-peer mentoring model using concept mapping at the College of Technology-Computer Engineering Technology (CoT-CET) program of the University of Houston. Realizing the benefits of combining peer-to-peer mentoring with the use of concept mapping as a learning tool, the CoT-CET program launched a pilot program in fall 2008 to its freshman course in order to implement and assess the impact of incorporating the two models. The study compares skills reported by the students at the beginning of the semester with those collected at the end of the semester. It also presents the results of the performance achieved by the mentored students in the pilot group and the performance of students who were not part of the pilot group. In addition the report presents similar performance analysis from collaborating institutions – Houston Community College and TAMU Corpus Christi. I. Motivation The College of Technology – Computer Engineering Technology (CoT – CET) program at the University of Houston has implemented an undergraduate peer mentoring model as part of an NSF-sponsored program (grant no. DUE 0737526) examining the impact of incorporating concept mapping and undergraduate mentors on student learning at the freshman and sophomore levels. The training for this mentoring model has been adapted from a peer-led team learning program [1] and incorporates concept mapping as a primary pedagogical tool for increasing mentee understanding of key concepts. This paper focuses on the fundamental purpose of this program and the preparation to implement it. The Motivation section describes the objectives of this program. It details the different tasks initiated to achieve the objectives. It states the various assessment activities developed and implemented to track the progress of the project. The section two “Assessment” analyses the results of the surveys. It explains how the students were assessed in order to understand their academic background, their goals, their expectations from the lab and their idea of an ideal mentor. Extensive surveys have proved to be an appropriate groundwork for implementation of the pilot program launched in Fall 2008. It compares skills reported by the students at the beginning of the semester with those at the end of semester. It also compares the performance of the group of students who were mentored with those students who were not. It includes analysis performed by the collaborating institutions – Houston Community College and Texas A & M University Corpus Christi. The analysis evaluates the effectiveness of the program. The section three “Mentor Training Program” outlines how the mentors were trained so that they could communicate well with their group of mentees and maintain a supportive learning environment in the mentoring sessions. The next section “Implementation of the program” throws light on the way in which the program was actually implemented. It explains every minute aspect of the Concept Mapping program right from the workshop conducted for the mentors by the research assistant to the interpretation of the results analyzed. The final section “Outcome of the Program” summarizes how the objectives of the program were met. Thus the paper gives thorough overview of the methodology implemented. The Concept Mapping (C Map) is a graphical representation of concepts which facilitates active learning process [2]. Such spatial arrangement of concepts leads to better retention of concepts. It

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Attarzadeh, F., & Gurkan, D., & Ramos, M., & Moges, M., & Gallardo, V., & Mehrubeoglu, M., & Talusani, R., & Karulkar, S. (2009, June), Perception Of Undergraduate Freshman Students On Role Models And Correlation With Their Education Background Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4700