Peer Learning: What is It?

The current shift from the instruction to learning paradigms in institutions of learning arises from the recognition that certain benefits may be derived from instructional methods involving ‘active’ learning. Active learning presents opportunities for students to formulate their own questions, discuss issues, explain their viewpoints and engage in cooperative learning by working in teams on problems and projects. ‘Peer learning’ may be described as a form of cooperative learning that enhances the value of student-student interaction and results in various advantageous learning outcomes for the student.

The Teacher’s Role

To realise the benefits of peer learning, teachers must provide ‘intellectual scaffolding’ in the form of adequate preparation, ‘cognitive structuring’, and ‘role structuring’. Students may be ‘prepared’ by selecting for discussion, topics which all students can safely be presumed to have some relevant knowledge of. In ‘cognitive structuring’, the teacher provides students with questions or issues that prompt them towards more sophisticated levels of thinking. ‘Role structuring’ includes devising collaborative processes that get all group members to participate meaningfully.

Peer Learning Strategies

At the Faculty of Architecture, Building & Real Estate, staff utilise a variety of cognitive and role structuring strategies to facilitate successful peer learning:

1. Buzz Groups: A large group of students is subdivided into smaller groups of 4-5 students to consider the issues surrounding a problem. After say, 20 minutes of discussion, one member of each sub-group presents the findings of the group to the whole group.
2. Affinity Groups: Groups of 4-5 students are each assigned particular tasks to work on outside of formal contact time. At the next formal meeting with the teacher, the group, or a representative of the group, presents the group’s findings to the whole tutorial group.
3. Solution and Critic Groups: One sub-group is assigned a discussion topic for a tutorial and the other groups constitute ‘critics’ who observe, offer comments and evaluate the sub-group’s presentation.
4. ‘Teach-Write-Discuss’: At the end of a unit of instruction, students have to answer short questions and justify their answers. After working on the questions individually, students compare their answers with each other’s. A whole-class discussion subsequently examines the array of answers that still seem justifiable and the reasons for their validity.

‘Crit’ sessions, role-play and debates are other exciting and effective teaching strategies used within the Faculty. These strategies never fail to stir the enthusiasm of the students. They offer opportunities for students to experience in a reasonably ‘safe’ and unconstrained context, (while perhaps being evaluated by another group and/or the teacher) reactions to complex and ‘real’ problems they may face later in their careers as architects or other professionals in the real estate and construction industries.

Successful Peer Learning and Its Benefits

For peer learning to be effective, the teacher must first put in place the prerequisites which contribute to the success of cooperative learning groups: e.g. positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, group processing and individual and group accountability. ‘Positive interdependence’ emphasises the importance and uniqueness of each group member’s efforts. When students share resources, support and encourage each other to achieve, important cognitive activities and interpersonal dynamics are quietly at work, enhancing each other’s learning outcomes. These include the assuming of leadership roles, acquiring conflict-managing skills, discussing concepts being learnt and clearing misconceptions by simply communicating with one another, thereby discovering many of the complexities of human relationships within a given context.

A major concern about peer learning is the possible existence of ‘freeloaders’—team members who fail to fulfil their team responsibilities but are awarded the same (high) grade as their more responsible team mates. ‘Freeloading’ may be minimised by using peer ratings to assess individual performance of team members, or conducting a ‘post-test’. Thus, there will be two levels of accountability: the individual and the group.

Conclusion
Research indicates that peer learning activities typically result in (a) team-building spirit and more supportive relationships, (b) greater psychological well-being, social competence, communication skills and self-esteem, and (c) higher achievement and greater productivity in terms of superior learning outcomes. Consequently, peer learning strategies present some of the most valuable tools educators may utilise. However, merely placing students in groups and telling them to ‘work together’ will not magically yield the benefits of peer learning. Peer learning would be most successful where some of the strategies outlined above for small group teaching are exercised. It is also imperative that the teacher structures lessons such that students do in fact engage in peer learning.

References

Felder, R. M. ‘Active and Cooperative Learning’. http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Cooperative_Learning.html. 28 November 1999.

Johnson, D. & R. ‘Cooperative Learning’. University of Minnesota, College of Education & Human Development. http://www.clcrc.com/pages/cl.html. 28 November 1999.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E. J. Circles of Learning. Edina, MI: Interaction Book Company, 1993.

Kaufman, D. B., Felder, R. M., & Fuller, H. ‘Peer Ratings in Cooperative Learning Teams: Proceedings of the 1999 Annual ASEE Meeting, ASEE, June 1999’. http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/kaufman-asee.PDF. 28 November 1999.

Shaftel, F. & T. Role Playing for Social Values: Decision Making in Social Studies. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1967.

Stafford, K. ‘Role Play’. PDQS: Publications: Teaching Ideas – Instructions. http://www.cityu.edu.hk/pdqs/publish/t_ideas/roleplay/roleplay.htm. 28 November 1999.

‘Critical Thinking and Collaborative Learning’. Stanford University. Tomorrow’s Professor #173. http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/173.html. 30 December 1999.