How to encourage and manage effective peer-led workshops
“Imagine some lionesses who take down a zebra,” my statistics classmate said. “The zebra is lying motionless on the savannah, just like your huge spreadsheet of data is lying motionless on your computer.” Where’s he going with this, I wondered.
“Now,” he continued, “because male lions eat first, imagine the alpha male ambles in and eats his fill of the zebra. The chunk he takes out is like your first ‘factor.’ What’s missing from the zebra at that moment is completely explained by the actions of the alpha male. And what’s left of the zebra is like what’s left unexplained in your data.” Lightbulbs switched on in my head. “The other male lions move in next, and then the lionesses. The specific parts of the zebra that each one of them devours are like your other factors, accounting for smaller and smaller parts of the data, until nothing is left.”
Gore aside, my friend was able to help me grasp factor analysis, the advanced statistical operation I had been struggling to understand for weeks. I had attended all the course’s lectures and met with both the graduate school professor and the teaching assistant during office hours, but neither had been able to explain factor analysis as clearly as my peer. Truth is, peers can be the best teachers. Their fresh (sometimes vivid) way of seeing things can yield epiphanies.
Here’s how to leverage peer tutoring as a cornerstone of this summer’s staff training.
