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Student led learning centers.  Something to explore relating to peer tutoring?

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Student led learning centers.  Something to explore relating to peer tutoring?

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Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher

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Teachers encourage student-centered learning by allowing students to share in decisions, believing in their capacity to lead, and remembering how it feels to learn.

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Explores the qualities a tutor needs to be successful. Supports careful peer tutor selection.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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The kindergartners tend to ramble and mumble. The second graders are more concise. Each student mentions something they are grateful for as they pass a heart-shaped rock, warmed by many little hands, around the circle in a multiage class at Pine Crest School, in Sebastopol, California.

Near the end of the circle, as the students are starting to fidget, a smallish kindergartner named Aidan begins to regale the group with his video game conquests. The tall second grader seated next to him, Everest, stage-whispers in his ear, "Don't tell a long story. Just do your appreciation, or it will take too much time." Aidan wraps it up quickly.

This is the essence of the multiage classroom: Older students model good behavior and, through continual peer mentoring, stretch their teaching muscles and solidify their own knowledge. And the younger students learn that teachers aren't the only ones who know a thing or two. "I haven't had a student yet who, even six years later, didn't remember whom they helped and who helped them," says teacher Terence Rodgers about the mentoring process. "Really, it's pretty magical."

A Class That's Like a Family

The multiage classroom (the system is also called looping) contains students of different ages and grade levels who stay with the same teacher for several years. In the case of Pine Crest, the classes are K-2 and 3-5. The students learn predominantly in small, heterogeneous groups, and parents often come to class to help lead them. The system provides teachers with a three-year span to get to know their students' strengths and weaknesses and to support the individual growth of each student. Over the years, the class develops into something like a family.

Although the multiage classroom is a rarity in the United States (and getting rarer still as high-stakes testing has taken hold) and requires a special kind of teacher, it offers many lessons adaptable to the traditional classroom -- in particular, student-to-student mentoring.

A landmark study published in June 2007 revealed that older siblings have higher IQ scores than their younger siblings. The cause is not biological, but a result of the interplay between parents and children and the children themselves. In a New York Times article, Robert Zajonc, a psychologist at Stanford University, said he believes the tutoring older siblings give to their younger brothers and sisters has a positive impact on the intelligence of the older children.

"Explaining something to a younger sibling solidifies your knowledge and allows you to grow more extensively," he added. "The younger one is asking questions and challenging meanings and explanations, and that will contribute to the intellectual maturity of the older one."

How to Create a Student-Mentoring Environment

Russell Yates, educational-programming director at the Swan School, in Port Townsend, Washington, and multiage teacher for grades 3-4, offers the following guidelines on how to get students to mentor each other successfully in your class:

Teach students that helping others learn does not mean just giving them the answer. Facilitate good tutoring by modeling effective methods and allowing students to practice them.

All students, not just those the teacher views as capable or who have high test scores, should have the opportunity to be a peer mentor.

Consider buddying up your class with another, probably younger, single-grade class for peer mentoring.

Small-group peer mentoring can take on the form of a jigsaw puzzle, in which the teacher gives an assignment with multiple parts, and each student in the group learns a part and then teaches it to the other students.

In small-group learning, employ the three-before-me rule: Students must check with three classmates before raising a hand to ask for help from the teacher. This approach gives every student the chance to help instruct.

Small-group learning can get loud. To keep the noise level reasonable, check out these tips from Multiage-Education.com on helping young students learn to control their voices. Also, print out and post the site's noise-meter poster -- a visual reminder about appropriate voice levels -- or create your own version.

Peer mentoring should be frequent enough to develop routines but not so often that students lose enthusiasm for it. Once a week is a good start.

Use peer mentoring as a chance to support the development of leadership skills among all students. A student who struggles with reading and writing but excels in art could probably benefit from a self-confidence boost. On an art project, pair this student up with a peer who excels in the core subjects.

By creating a situation that benefits all students, you'll make the mentoring experience genuine. When pairing students, think about their strengths and weaknesses and be sure the exercise will benefit both parties.

Simply having students read to one another isn't as powerful as having them teach each other a discrete skill.

Anda, one of Yates's students, comments on her mentoring experience: "When I am helping other people, I start by showing them how I did it. I do what Russ does. I ask them a question about a part of the problem. They tell me the answer, and I write it down for them on the first and maybe the second section of the problem. Then, they do it all for themselves. If they don't get it, Russ takes over."

Molly Jackel is a freelance writer and editor. She lives in Sebastopol, California.

Multiage Mentoring: Resources for Collaboration Across Grade Levels

To learn more about multiage education and how to use its principles and activities in your classroom, visit these sites:

Multiage-Education.com, Russell Yates's well-written, classroom-proven, encyclopedic site on all things multiage, includes examples, printable graphics, assessment tools, links, and more.

If you're setting up a multiage class or just want to use some of the ideas, go to Choosing Multiage, which features easy-to-follow presentations (in PDF format) on handling the various challenges you'll face.

Ms. T., Inc.: Meaningful Strategies for Teachers provides downloadable exercises you can use in any elementary school classroom.

Teaching Math in the Multi-Age Classroom offers tips on establishing small classroom groups for learning math, and offers links to many more math sites.

-- MJ

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Wisdom of the (Multi) Ages: Students Learn by Teaching | Edutopia

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The kindergartners tend to ramble and mumble. The second graders are more concise. Each student mentions something they are grateful for as they pass a heart-shaped rock, warmed by many little hands, around the circle in a multiage class at Pine Crest School, in Sebastopol, California.

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Yang et al.  (2015).  Improving pupils' mathematical communication abilities through computer-supported reciprocal peer tutoring.

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Yang et al.  (2015).  Improving pupils' mathematical communication abilities through computer-supported reciprocal peer tutoring.

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This study explored students' abilities to express themselves mathematically after taking part in computer-based peer-tutoring activities. The study found that communication abilities of the group improved after using computer based peer tutoring, since students were able to express understandings, listen to and comprehend others' explanations, and comprehend others' mathematical thoughts.

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Perrott et al.  (2013).  Academic benefits of peer tutoring:  A meta-analytic review of single-case research.

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Perrott et al.  (2013).  Academic benefits of peer tutoring:  A meta-analytic review of single-case research.

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"The positive effects of peer tutoring have been demonstrated across subjects such as reading, math, social studies, and science, and across a wide range of settings that include general education classrooms, resource rooms, self-containted rooms, alternative placements, and group homes."  (Perrott, 2013, p.40).

The study found that peer tutoring is successful among elementary and middle school students, and is most successful when rewards are involved.

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Tella, A.  (November 1, 2013).  The effect of peer tutoring and explicit instructional strategies on primary school pupils learning outcomes in math. Bulgarian journal of science and education policy.  Volume 7, p.5-24.  

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Tella, A.  (November 1, 2013).  The effect of peer tutoring and explicit instructional strategies on primary school pupils learning outcomes in math. Bulgarian journal of science and education policy.  Volume 7, p.5-24.  

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This study addresses the fact that there is a general poor attitude towards math.  This study aligns with the attitudes presented in Sturdivant & Souhan's 2011 study.

Selection of tutors should be based on:
1. Superior content knowledge
2. Patience and enthusiasm

"Peer tutoring is designed to supplement rather than replace a variety of teacher directed activities." (Tella, 2013, p.10).

The recommendations in this study confirmed that teachers should use peer-tutoring strategies in the classroom to support mathematics instruction.

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The Memphis model of peer tutoring trains students in order to promote quality peer tutoring.  Explore more.

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Students - About Us - Peer Power Foundation

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Peer Power approaches education reform by empowering students themselves to help each other. The dedicated support of parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, and administrators is critical to helping our young people succeed. Peer Power knows that we need to do more, however.

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Geddes, J. (2016).  Peer, pair, perfection.  

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Geddes, J. (2016).  Peer, pair, perfection.  

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"...kids teaching other kids is usually a recipe for success.  Peer-tutoring-- the pairing of students to work together academically--gives individualized attention and instruction to kids who are challenged in a particular subject, often in a friendlier, less pressured manner that can be found in the classroom."  (Geddes, 2016, p.38).

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Whether listening to others sound out words, explaining how to code in Python, or practicing math facts and Latin declensions, kids teaching other kids is usually a recipe for success. Peer tutoring-the pairing of students to work together academically-gives individualized attention and instruction to kids who are challenged in a particular subject, often in a friendlier, less pressured manner than can be found in the classroom.

The practice is on the rise in school and public libraries, particularly as it can be both cost effective and a tremendous time saver for teachers and librarians. "We've found our peer tutoring definitely saves money because teens don't always need to be paid. In fact, many schools currently want their kids to obtain community service hours to graduate, and formal programs like these can fulfill that requirement," says Sarah Hill, an information services librarian at Lake Land College in Mattoon, IL, and a former high school librarian at both Fairfield (IL) Community High School and Paris (IL) High School.

While individual kids who need support are the main beneficiaries, peer tutoring can also have benefits on a much larger scale. One example comes from Camelback High School in Phoenix, AZ, an institution that was on the brink of failure, facing instability, high dropout rates, and gang activity. A new principal named Chad Gestson was able to repair Camelback, in part because of an ambitious, library-based peer-tutoring program he put in place in 2009.

Gestson adapted his solution from a program at the Peer Power Foundation (peerpowerfoundation.org) in Memphis, TN, which included on-the-job training and close supervision from teachers and paid lead tutors. The peer tutors worked one-on-one with their fellow students in the library before and after school, during lunchtime, and on Saturday mornings, while the nonprofit organization Social Venture Partners of Arizona (SVPZ) lent financial support.

The result was nothing short of transformative. Camelback students revived their school's culture and improved its academic record. This peer tutoring has since been developed into a case study called Success Is Mandatory; SVPZ is in the process of determining how to continue Camelback's progress as well as replicate the program at other high schools. Meanwhile, Gestson has been named director of school leadership for the Phoenix Union High School District, where he'll continue his work overseeing 16 schools, principals, and leadership training.

Broadly, peer-tutoring sessions may focus on teaching new concepts, reviewing old ones, leading a project, or discussing a troublesome problem set. Every academic subject is open to peer tutoring, as well as ELL/ESL and tech training. Here's what librarians have to say about the benefits of peer tutoring, the nuts and bolts of their programs, why training is so important, and how to steer the process.

The benefits

Peer tutoring not only gets kids the help they need, but it also ups their self-confidence, says Pam Harland, a librarian at Sanborn Regional High School (SRHS) in Kingston, NH, and other librarians. Those students doing the teaching reinforce their own knowledge as they instruct. Having students tutor their peers on the finer points of a particular subject also frees up librarians to focus on information literacy skills across the disciplines, says Harland, whose library-based program has been in place for three years. Some students run a technology help desk, and others assist groups of students with video production and 3-D printing. All of that means "offering better tech services for the whole school," she says.

At SRHS, it takes about 20 hours of training to get students up and running and able to tutor others, says Harland, who had five teen tutors last year. "The only costs are the time it takes for me to train our students on these new skills and to work with them on presentation skills," she adds. "The benefits of being able to offer additional services and to empower these student peers are exponential."

Peer tutoring also appeals to library staff and the wider community because of the connected or informal learning that often takes place, Hill says. Plus, there are certain scenarios where only a kid can make something clear to another kid. "A peer may be able to explain an algebra problem better or in a different way than a teacher-and by changing the way something is laid out, a lightbulb just might pop on in the student's brain and the struggle to understand the problem is over," says Terri Grief, a librarian at McCracken County High School (MCHS) in Paducah, KY, and former American Association of School Librarians president.

Success stories

For Robbie Nickel, a librarian at Sage Elementary School (SES) in Spring Creek, NV, a major reward is that kids come away confident in their abilities.

Her school has a tutoring program focused on reading that matches kindergartners with fourth graders, as well as a reading buddies initiative, encompassing students up to age 12, that meets once a month. "The older students help the younger students with reading, writing, and projects in the computer lab," she says. "Kids in the reading buddy program visit the library more than ever, and their teachers say they really feel empowered because they participate," says Nickel. (Also see: " The Buddy System: Everyone Gains When Kids Read Together."

Training sessions for the SES fourth and fifth grade tutors take about an hour, Nickel says, and then those students train others. "With ongoing supervision, the program basically runs itself," she adds. The supervising teacher and librarian keep in touch if adjustments are needed.

Hill has seen relationships between her high school tutors and tutees last long-term. "In one case, a pair was together for two years-effectively improving the understanding of math for both of them," she says. At a high school where she worked, a National Honor Society sponsor trained the tutors and paired them with students, she explained; the school librarian supervised the tutoring and helped when needed.

Grief's school has two types of programs. "We have the paid, after-school type of tutor who offers homework help in the most requested subjects-math and chemistry-and the others are volunteers who help in the special education resource rooms," she says. Pairings include football players who help kids with Down syndrome both academically and physically (they go out and toss a ball around after lessons).

Grief has six 11th and 12th grade tutors working mostly with ninth graders in math, science, social studies, and English. Money for those tutors who are paid comes from the school's Extended School Services funds.

Learners can benefit from a variety of tutors, Grief adds. Offering a tutor with an alternate teaching style can help when students need to review material. "With a different tutor, they don't feel embarrassed that they didn't get it the first time."

Four Peer
Tutoring Models
Schools use these four models the most, according to the Council for Learning Disabilities.
Class-wide | This strategy divides kids of varying abilities into small groups of two to five. Kids teach each other, following a set schedule of work, or collaborate as a team on a group project.

Cross-age | Older students are paired with younger ones, with the older child acting as the "expert" to teach her peer how to listen well in the classroom and develop good study habits.

Reciprocal | Alternating is the name of the game here, with kids switching back and forth between the roles of tutor and tutee. Students are given a format to follow or may develop the material themselves.

Same-age | Kids who are within a year or two of each other's age are matched to review subjects together. Students may be of the same ability level or differing ones, and the roles may alternate, as with the reciprocal method.

Getting started

Helping kindergartners choose library books, stepping in to troubleshoot new technology, or fulfilling a request for extra help from a teacher are just some of the ways peer-tutoring programs can get off the ground. Grief says a plea from the AP chemistry instructor was her impetus. "He knew that some great students were struggling and could use extra help, so we incorporated it in our afterschool hours in the library."

But an official request isn't always necessary, as demonstrated at Harland's high school. "Ours started off informally, but then developed into an actual class last year," she notes. "We had students who were interested in our 3-D printer, and they were willing to check on the printer before and after school, as well as during lunch." Students started off by unclogging extruders, fixing files that wouldn't print accurately, and working with other students to create multidimensional files. After that first year, SRHS decided to offer credit to these eager students and ended up scheduling them to answer technology questions and serve as a first line of tech support for the entire school.

Getting students up to speed is important for a peer-tutoring program to work. Librarians recommend that the first subject students should be briefed on is confidentiality. Discussing another person's academic progress outside the confines of a tutoring session isn't appropriate. Next, suggest that tutors use a written script to facilitate their lessons. Librarians and subject teachers should also instruct tutors on how to provide feedback, both constructive criticism and praise.

When choosing prospective tutors, it's not always enough for them to be fluent in a particular subject. Teachers and their partner librarians may want to look to kids who work hard and have a positive attitude, as well. Compatibility and social skills-which could include good listening abilities, along with being friendly, outgoing, polite, and empathetic-are also worth seeking out. Monitoring tutors and tracking their progress is also beneficial.

"Not every kid with good grades and high test scores ends up being an effective tutor," Hill notes. At SRHS, "We opened up the program to anyone last year, and one of the student tutors turned out to be a poor communicator," says Harland. "In the future, we'll make interviewing a part the selection." Grief echoes this sentiment. "Once in a while we'll get a peer tutor who is so smart that he can't explain the subject-it's just too easy for him, and he'll hurry through the details," she says. In this case, a new pairing is in order.

Staying on track

Depending on the scope of tutoring and ages involved, it can take trial and error, plus time and effort on the part of teachers and administration to get a good program up and running. Sometimes procedures need modifying midstream, due to factors that might include a pair who don't get along, scheduling issues, or a need to move more quickly, or slowly, with the material.

Nickel and Hill stress the importance of monitoring and training tutors for optimal success. Having tutors track progress and document the lessons is also useful for teachers and librarians. "We do training on how to keep accurate records since there's a required report at the end of the school year," says Grief. One of the best ways to train peer tutors is by partnering with an organization, recommends Hill. "A school library might bring in a Title I or Special Education teacher to provide the training, or a public or academic library could partner with the person in charge of the tutoring program at a local school," as she did. Once teen leaders are trained and experienced, they become the experts who train new peer recruits.

Assessing the needs of the student population and determining the available resources-space, money, equipment-are among the important considerations. Financial considerations might involve payment for tutors (particularly at the high school age), and paying to open up the space when school isn't normally in session. One long-term bonus: the experience can be especially appealing to those kids who think they may want to become teachers. While "the students who receive tutoring love seeing their test scores and grades go up," Grief says, "working as a peer tutor gives students a little taste of what academic life is like."

Editor Jennifer Kelly Geddes is a New York City mom of two who writes regularly for Parents.com and Highlights.

This article was featured in our free Extra Helping enewsletter.
Subscribe today to have more articles like this delivered to you twice a week.

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Whether listening to others sound out words, explaining how to code in Python, or practicing math facts and Latin declensions, kids teaching other kids is usually a recipe for success. Peer tutoring-the pairing of students to work together academically-gives individualized attention and instruction to kids who are challenged in a particular subject, often in a friendlier, less pressured manner than can be found in the classroom.

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Sturdivant, R. & Souhan, B.  (2011).  Peer-to-peer teaching using multidisciplinary applications as topics. 

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Sturdivant, R. & Souhan, B.  (2011).  Peer-to-peer teaching using multidisciplinary applications as topics. 

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This study focused on using peer teaching to boost motivation and appreciation for mathematics. Sturdivant & Souhan aimed to decrease negative attitudes towards math among students and increase general learning skills through a peer tutoring program.

In the study, peer groups were given a syllabus with guidelines to drive their activities.  Clear criteria were set for peer groups to guide learning.  This aligns with the findings of Wang et al. (2016) suggesting that teachers should have clear expectations and guidelines for peer tutoring in order for it to be successful.

"Instructor guidance is very important to ensure the students understand exactly what is expected of them, and hopefully will alleviate the tendency to just present PowerPoint slideshows." (Sturdivant & Souhan, 2011, p.290.).

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Worley, J. & Naresh, N.  (2014). Heterogenous peer-tutoring:  An intervention that fosters collaborations and empowers learners.

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Worley, J. & Naresh, N.  (2014). Heterogenous peer-tutoring:  An intervention that fosters collaborations and empowers learners.

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Common Core Standards indicate that students must, "Listen or read the arguments of others, decide whether they make sense, and ask useful questions to clarify or improve arguments" in math.  Peer tutoring provides opportunities for students to do so by bringing them together to foster discussions.

This study documents and discusses how a class of algebra students participated in a peer-tutoring program once each week. Tutors were selected based on high achievement on standardized test scores. Tutees were also selected based on the data from test scores. Advanced a algebra learners were then paired with students who were on the pre-algebra level.

"An [heterogenous peer tutoring] learning environment also facilitates peer-to-peer engagement by allowing students to share and evaluate problem solving strategies, which helps students to develop their communication and listening skills." (Worley & Naresh, 2014, p.27).

Through peer-tutoring, "...students exhibited positive changes in their attitudes towards mathematics, their classroom behaviors, and their mathematical abilities." (Worley & Naresh, 2014, p.27).

This study found that peer tutors were able to facilitate a safe, respectful environment and the students were engaged in "purposeful learning".  Through the peer-tutoring experience both tutors and tutees were empowered and motivated to learn math.

To assure the success of peer-tutoring, Worley and Naresh recommend that student pairs be chosen carefully. They also recommend that a balance of traditional and inquiry-based activities be used during tutoring sessions, and that students work to develop communication and organizational skills during this time as well.  They also suggest that teachers take on a coaching role during the sessions to support both tutor and tutee.

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Wang, Hou, & Wu.  (2016).  Analyzing the knowledge construction and cognitive patters of blog-based instructional activities using four frequent interactive strategies (problem solving, peer assessment, role playing and peer tutoring): a preliminary study.  Education technology research development.  Association for educational communications and technology.

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Wang, Hou, & Wu.  (2016).  Analyzing the knowledge construction and cognitive patters of blog-based instructional activities using four frequent interactive strategies (problem solving, peer assessment, role playing and peer tutoring): a preliminary study.  Education technology research development.  Association for educational communications and technology.

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"With peer learning based instructional strategies, such as peer assessment and peer tutoring, learners must think through the work of peers before they can provide feedback in the form of either assessment or tutoring.  This reasoning process can promote learners' meta-cognitive ability which helps them better learn." (Wang et al., 2016, p.302).

"The results of this study showed that students exhibited different behavioral patterns under the four instructional strategies." (Wang, et al., 2016, p.312).

This study found that within the four instructional strategies (problem solving, role-playing, peer assessment, peer tutoring) studied, peer tutoring promotes the cognitive ability of "understanding".  It is recommended that students using all four of these instructional strategies be guided with specific look-fors, guidelines, and rubrics to make the strategies most effective.

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Weimer, M.  (2017).  The benefits of peer learning.

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Weimer, M.  (2017).  The benefits of peer learning.

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"What stands alongside those concerns is all sorts of evidence documenting that students can and do learn from and with each other. It’s something they seem to understand intuitively, if not explicitly. When students have a question about something that’s happening in a course, who do they ask first? Most of the time, it’s not the professor. They talk to another student who answers the question, offers advice, shares information, or registers an opinion. That dynamic means that students are regularly learning from other students." (Weimer, 2017, para. 3).

"Peer learning is an instructional strategy, one approach among many available to teachers. No one is advocating that peer learning replaces the teacher. Students still need teachers, and teachers still need to teach." (Weimer, 2017, para. 8).

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Three articles in the February issue of the Teaching Professor newsletter deal with peer learning-a large category that includes activities through which students learn from and with each other. Peer learning gets troublesome for many faculty due to the idea that students are teaching each other. Isn't that our job? Students aren't paying all those tuition dollars to learn from other students and they aren't shy about saying as much. Students are paying to be taught by experts. If we're not the ones teaching, we sometimes feel guilty.

Beyond professional obligations and feelings are worries as to what and how students are learning from each other. They don't have content expertise, which makes it highly likely that they are teaching content at a superficial level. Chances are also good that students are teaching and learning some of the content incorrectly.

What stands alongside those concerns is all sorts of evidence documenting that students can and do learn from and with each other. It's something they seem to understand intuitively, if not explicitly. When students have a question about something that's happening in a course, who do they ask first? Most of the time, it's not the professor. They talk to another student who answers the question, offers advice, shares information, or registers an opinion. That dynamic means that students are regularly learning from other students.

So, we must start by accepting that peer learning is not something easily preventable, but is it something we should cultivate? What does peer learning have going for it that's missing from the instruction teachers provide? For starters, peers speak each other's language. No, it's not academic discourse; it's often not articulate or erudite. But it is a language and a perspective that makes sense to students, which can help novices gain a foothold toward understanding. We can't always say the same for the language academics use.

Then there's the advantage that comes with just having learned something. What accompanies recent learning experiences are memories of what led to the understanding-the example that helped, the problem that made it clear, the part of the text that explained it well, or the way another student described it. If what you're trying to explain is something you learned 20 years ago, chances are good your memory of what it looked like when you first encountered it is unclear. "It's easy," says the professor who can't understand why the student doesn't get it. But to the student struggling to understand, it's not easy; another student may have more empathy and a way to explain it that perhaps wouldn't occur to the professor.

In addition, students feel safer going to a peer than to the professor. Peers are equals, fellow learners. Professors know so much more that it can be intimidating. Who wants to look stupid, confused, or unable to understand something in front of the professor? What if the professor remembers the encounter when giving out grades? If students go to another student, he or she may not know the answer, but at least there is no risk of looking stupid or having it affect your grade.

So, peers have some teaching advantages unavailable to teachers. But what if a student passes along wrong information or teaches the content incorrectly? The reality of that happening rounds us back to the need for teachers and students to think differently about mistakes-seeing them as opportunities for learning, more powerful than first landing on the correct answer. Yes, mistakes can be costly, but they aren't as costly in college as they will be on the job and in life. Moreover, courses have teachers present to ensure that the correct answer is part of what's learned from making the mistake.

Peer learning is an instructional strategy, one approach among many available to teachers. No one is advocating that peer learning replaces the teacher. Students still need teachers, and teachers still need to teach. As with all instructional strategies, peer learning works when it's selected purposefully, when its use is planned carefully, and when the learning it promotes is evaluated. How teachers design assignments, how they structure the activities in which students work together, and how they use the criteria to assess peer learning all create the context in which peer learning occurs. Those parameters direct both what is learned and how it's learned. The design and management of learning experiences is not a diminished role or one about which teachers need to feel guilty. It requires sophisticated teaching expertise.

© Magna Publications. All rights reserved.

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Three articles in the February issue of the Teaching Professor newsletter deal with peer learning-a large category that includes activities through which students learn from and with each other. Peer learning gets troublesome for many faculty due to the idea that students are teaching each other. Isn't that our job?

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Topping, Miller, Murray, & Colin.  (2011).  Implementation integrity in peer tutoring of mathematics.

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Topping, Miller, Murray, & Colin.  (2011).  Implementation integrity in peer tutoring of mathematics.

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This study explored the effects of peer-tutoring using the Duolog Math Technique.  The Duolog Math Technique focuses on dialogue among students to find answers.  "The Duolog Math technique promotes dialogue between the pair and seeks to restrain the tutor from simply providing the right answer immediately.  In this it has commonalities with tutoring techniques in reading..." (Topping et al., 2011, p. 580).

Three guiding research questions:  "1.  With what level of integrity was the peer tutoring programme implemented?
2.  Was implementation integrity greater of less between Year 1 and Year 2?
3.  To what extent were general classroom context indicators associated with the quality of implementation of individual technique, both within the observation schedule?" (Topping et. al, 2011, p. 580).

Findings:  "Teachers and pupils in both years managed to implement some but not all of the techniques effectively....The pupils in Year 2 were somewhat better and implementing the techniques." (Topping et. al, 2011, p. 589).

Study finds that peer-tutoring training for teachers and tutors is key in the success of using peer tutoring techniques in the classroom.

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Baiduri (2017). Elementary School Students' Spoken Activities and their Responses in Math Learning by Peer Tutoring.  International Journal of Instruction.  

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Baiduri (2017). Elementary School Students' Spoken Activities and their Responses in Math Learning by Peer Tutoring.  International Journal of Instruction.  

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Study found that peer tutoring had many benefits on both tutors and tutees. The study determined that peer tutoring improved the quality of questions students asked to the tutor, and the motivation and confidence were boosted among all students. The study also mentioned Zaini's (2002) study that determined the most effective learning method is teaching others, supporting the idea that peer tutoring has benefits for both tutors and tutees.

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Briggs, S.  (2013).  How Peer Teaching Imrpoves Student Learning and 10 Ways to Encourage It. informED.

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Briggs, S.  (2013).  How Peer Teaching Imrpoves Student Learning and 10 Ways to Encourage It. informED.

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"Research also indicates that peer learning activities typically yield the following results for both tutor and tutee: team-building spirit and more supportive relationships; greater psychological well-being, social competence, communication skills and self-esteem; and higher achievement and greater productivity in terms of enhanced learning outcomes." (para. 5).

Criticisms of Peer Teaching
" She cites lack of evidence as a primary concern, mentioning a 2008 National Mathematics Advisory Panel which reviewed instances of instruction in which students were primarily doing the teaching. The panel found only a handful of studies that met its standards for quality." (para. 19).

Other concerns regarding peer teaching include student hesitancy, quality of instruction, and use of classroom time.

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How Peer Teaching Improves Student Learning and 10 Ways To Encourage It

Peer teaching is not a new concept. It can be traced back to Aristotle's use of archons, or student leaders, and to the letters of Seneca the Younger. It was first organized as a theory by Scotsman Andrew Bell in 1795, and later implemented into French and English schools in the 19 th century. Over the past 30-40 years, peer teaching has become increasingly popular in conjunction with mixed ability grouping in K-12 public schools and an interest in more financially efficient methods of teaching.

Not to be confused with peer instruction-a relatively new concept designed by Harvard professor Eric Mazur in the early 1990s- peer teaching is a method by which one student instructs another student in material on which the first is an expert and the second is a novice.

Goodlad and Hurst (1989) and Topping (1998) note that academic peer tutoring at the college level takes many different forms. Surrogate teaching, common at larger universities, involves giving older students, often graduates or advanced undergraduates, some or all of the teaching responsibility for undergraduate courses. Proctoring programs involve one-on-one tutoring by students who are slightly ahead of other students, or who have successfully demonstrated proficiency with the material in the recent past. Cooperative learning divides classmates into small groups, with each person in the group responsible for teaching others, and each contributing a unique piece to the group performance on a task. Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT), a more specific version of cooperative learning, groups classmates into pairs to tutor each other.

The main benefits of peer teaching include, but are not limited to, the following:

Students receive more time for individualized learning.

Direct interaction between students promotes active learning.

Peer teachers reinforce their own learning by instructing others.

Students feel more comfortable and open when interacting with a peer.

Peers and students share a similar discourse, allowing for greater understanding.

Peer teaching is a financially efficient alternative to hiring more staff members.

Teachers receive more time to focus on the next lesson.

Research also indicates that peer learning activities typically yield the following results for both tutor and tutee: team-building spirit and more supportive relationships; greater psychological well-being, social competence, communication skills and self-esteem; and higher achievement and greater productivity in terms of enhanced learning outcomes.

The Evidence

Various peer teaching programs have cropped up at universities around the world in the past few decades, promoting the notion of peer-assisted learning. Nearly every institute of higher education in the world provides peer tutoring opportunities for struggling students and teaching assistant positions for advanced students.

Students in the Advanced Chinese Studies program, Intensive Chinese Language program, and Summer Intensive Chinese Language program at Peking University (PKU) in Beijing are required to meet for a minimum of three hours per week for one-on-one sessions with their Chinese language tutor. The Peer Language Tutor program at PKU is a unique hallmark of these programs that help ensure its students' linguistic and cultural fluency progresses throughout the program. These tutorials provide students extra conversation practice in Mandarin and guidance with homework assignments, while giving students an opportunity to befriend and be a part of the lives of their Chinese peers. Past students have stated that their peer tutors were one of the favorite aspects of the program.

Tutors in Australia can gain a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) certificate in the course Literacy Volunteer Tutoring (Schools) Theory and Fieldwork. Senior students enroll with TAFE and are trained in reading assistance by participating in set modules on theory. At school, the tutors participate in fieldwork by supporting junior students in the reading of the actual classroom texts from their various subjects during Drop Everything and Read sessions on four days per week. The program demonstrates significant success in the full range of government schools including coeducational, girls, boys, central, collegiate and primary schools. The success achieved by Aboriginal students and by boys is particularly significant.

The Peer Tutoring Program at Duke University in North Carolina offers up to twelve hours of free tutoring each semester to Duke undergraduates who are in enrolled in select introductory-level courses. Students meet with a tutor weekly in a convenient public location on campus such as an empty classroom, the library, or a dorm common area. All peer tutors receive on-going training both in best current tutoring practices and on tutoring strategies relevant to their tutoring discipline.

Despite the continued popularity of college student peer tutoring, there exists little comprehensive research on its effectiveness and benefits. What research does exist, however, has found that peer tutoring is highly cost-effective and usually results in substantial gains for participants, both academically and socially.

A reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) program at California State University, Fullerton has been evaluated extensively. The program requires students in a large introductory psychology course to meet with student partners periodically throughout the course to quiz each other and discuss the main ideas for each unit of the course. Largely a commuter college, the program seeks to increase academic success, as well as to increase the social integration of the students. The program has been highly successful in both respects: when compared to control students who participated in other supplementary activities, RPT participants showed higher academic achievement on unit tests, rated themselves as more satisfied with the class, were better adjusted psychosocially, and frequently used their RPT partner as a supportive resource in the course.

Carsrud (1984) describes an example of a surrogate teaching method in which doctoral students supervised undergraduate psychology students in conducting research projects. One of the major goals of this program was to encourage highly motivated and well-prepared students to become interested in pursuing research through skill development and exposure to first-hand experience. The undergraduates worked closely with the graduate students in designing and implementing the research, and were required to produce a professional-style report at the end of the study. The program was considered a success, based on participants' self-reports.

In addition, it was noted that 20 of the 25 undergraduate students entered graduate programs in psychology within one year of graduation. (However, the study lacked a control group of comparable students without exposure to surrogate teaching and it is therefore possible that those who entered graduate school were already graduate school bound.)

A different type of surrogate teaching program was used in an introductory psychology class at Washington State University. Students were given the choice of attending weekly supplemental discussion sessions led by senior undergraduates or participating as subjects in various research projects within the department. Those who opted for the supplemental discussion sessions were assigned to either a maximal group (six students to one tutor) or a minimal group (twenty students to one tutor). Students who were in the tutoring groups performed significantly better on the class exams than did the control subjects who merely served as research subjects.

In early learning institutions, the effectiveness-if not the widespread use- of peer teaching is equally apparent. In one study conducted in an Ohio school in 2011, four sixth grade students of the same reading level engaged in reading passages from the Quality Reading Inventory (QRI). The QRI is an informal assessment instrument containing graded word lists and numerous passages designed to assess a student's oral reading, silent reading, and comprehension abilities (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006).

One pair of students engaged in a peer tutoring activity as they read a passage together, actively discussing and talking about the passage as they read. The students then individually gave a retelling of the story to the investigator. The second pair of students read the same passage separately and individually gave a retelling of the story to the investigator. Each pair of students engaged in this procedure twice a week, resulting in a total of eight times, over the course of four weeks.

The students who had engaged in peer learning scored significantly higher on the QRI (Quality Reading Inventory) test than the students who had not, indicating the effectiveness peer tutoring can have on academic achievement.

The accuracy of the retellings was examined using the QRI retelling scoring procedure to determine whether there is a relationship between peer tutoring and higher retelling accuracy. The retelling data was scored using the QRI retelling scoring sheet, and retellings were assigned a numeral score. The scores over the four week period were graphed and examined to determine whether there is any relationship between the pair of students engaged in peer tutoring and individually-working students.

The students who had engaged in peer learning scored significantly higher on the QRI test than the students who had not, indicating the effectiveness peer tutoring can have on academic achievement. This is just one example; to name them all here would take far more time than you or I have to spare.

The Criticism

Despite its popularity, peer teaching has come under considerable scrutiny in recent years, especially in the K-12 community. One blogger writes, "This practice has significant downsides for both parties" and goes on to describe the story of frustrated teachers in Manhattan who created a buddy program, enlisting older students to help teach struggling readers. She cites lack of evidence as a primary concern, mentioning a 2008 National Mathematics Advisory Panel which reviewed instances of instruction in which students were primarily doing the teaching. The panel found only a handful of studies that met its standards for quality.

"I'm imagining a scenario where one student is helping another in drilling math facts," the blogger writes. "I can buy that. Otherwise, peer teaching seems to be a waste of precious classroom time."

Her primary issue with peer teaching, though, is the return on her investment. "I want expert teachers, not other students, teaching my kids," she says, referring to the expenses associated with quality schooling.

Another blog cites "student hesitancy" as a potential issue. Some students may feel that being tutored by another makes them inferior to that student, setting up an adversarial relationship from the start. If a student develops this feeling of inferiority, he may be less than eager to work with his assigned peer and, as a result, not put his full effort into the tutoring program. The blog also mentions lack of confidentiality, parental concerns, time and scheduling conflicts, and improper tutor selection as possible problems.

All valid points, to be sure. But, as is the case with most educational strategies, the boons outweigh the burdens if it is implemented correctly. Below are a few suggestions for employing peer teaching in your own classroom.

10 Tips On How To Pull Off Peer Teaching
1. Be sure your tutors are trained.
Existing research identifies adequate tutor training as an essential component of peer tutoring programs.

One after-school peer tutoring program implemented in a middle school in California, called Student-2-Student, offers tutoring in a variety of subjects to students with the help of high-achieving eighth graders. Student-2-Student is selective in its recruitment of tutors. Qualified eighth graders meeting a minimum GPA requirement and demonstrating high citizenship must complete an application process and obtain approval from their teachers before being paired with struggling students. The program advisor then matches tutors to students based on who seems to be a good match academically and socially. Tutors receive quality training in effective ways to work with their tutees.

This program led to a significant improvement in core subject letter grades for all participants. In an evaluation of the program, participants also demonstrated increased responsibility, completion of homework assignments, and significantly improved work habits.
2. Use a reward system.
In another peer teaching program, sixth grade students enrolled in general reading education classes in a Midwestern, urban middle school were assigned to tutoring pairs of either equal ability or pairs in which high-achieving students modeled successful learning with lower-achieving students. Similar to Student-2-Student, the students received training prior to tutoring.

What sets this peer tutoring program apart from common peer tutoring practices is the inclusion of a reward system for students to encourage participation and on-task behavior. During the sessions, the teacher supervised all activities and passed out raffle tickets to students exhibiting good tutoring or on-task behavior. Students wrote their names on earned tickets and placed them in a collection throughout each week. At the end of each week, the teacher would draw several names of students who could each choose a small prize from a box of inexpensive toys.

Evaluation of the class-wide peer tutoring model with rewards for good behavior showed substantial letter grade improvements for the students. The lottery system for reinforcing participation and on-task behavior was show to overcome challenges to student motivation.
3. Emphasize confidentiality, positive reinforcement, and adequate response time.
The tutors at Student-2-Student are taught to demonstrate three important things during any given tutoring session: confidentiality, positive reinforcement, and adequate response time when asking questions. The training process also instructed tutors on explaining directions, designing work for extra practice, watching for and correcting mistakes, and providing positive feedback and encouragement.
4. Choose the learning exercise and the appropriate vehicle for it.
Simply placing students in groups or pairs and telling them to "work together" is not going to automatically yield results. You must consciously orchestrate the learning exercise and choose the appropriate vehicle for it. Only then will students in fact engage in peer learning and reap the benefits of peer teaching.
5. Use group strategies:
To facilitate successful peer learning, teachers may choose from an array of strategies:

Buzz Groups: A large group of students is subdivided into smaller groups of 4-5 students to consider the issues surrounding a problem. After about 20 minutes of discussion, one member of each sub-group presents the findings of the sub-group to the whole group.

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 sub-group, or a group representative, presents the sub-group's findings to the whole tutorial group.

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.

"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.

6. Use role playing and modeling.
During the first week of the sixth grade reading program, project staff explained the tutoring procedures and the lottery, modeled each component of the program, and used role-playing to effectively demonstrate ways to praise and correct their peers.
7. Emphasize the importance of active learning.
Many institutions of learning now promote instructional methods involving "active" learning that present 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. Critique sessions, role-play, debates, case studies and integrated projects are other exciting and effective teaching strategies that stir students' enthusiasm and encourage peer learning.
8. Teach instructional scaffolding.
To reap the benefits of peer teaching, tutees must reach a point when they are practicing a new task on their own. Tutors can help prepare students for independent demonstration by providing instructional scaffolding, a method by which the tutor gradually reduces her influence on a tutee's comprehension. See our guide on instructional scaffolding here for further explanation.
9. Explain directive versus nondirective tutoring.
A tutor who engages in directive tutoring becomes a surrogate teacher, taking the role of an authority and imparting knowledge. The tutor who takes the non-directive approach is more of a facilitator, helping the student draw out the knowledge he already possesses. Under the directive approach, the tutor imparts knowledge on the tutee and explains or tells the tutee what he should think about a given topic. Under the non-directive approach, the tutor draws knowledge out of the tutee, asking open-ended questions to help the student come to his own conclusions about the topic. Both are valid methods, but different levels of each should be used with different students and in different scenarios.
10. Explain how to provide feedback.
Positive verbal feedback: Teach your tutors the importance of positive verbal feedback. Prompt students to come up with a list of standard statements which they feel may be positively reinforcing. They also need to be taught how much positive feedback to give. Giving feedback after each and every response can take too much time and diminish its effect. Teach tutors to give genuine praise after every third or fourth correct response and after particularly difficult problems. Make sure to have them practice.

Corrective feedback: Teach your tutors how to respond when an incorrect answer is given. When an incorrect answer is given, the tutor should promptly give and explain the correct answer or draw the correct answer out of the tutee without being critical of the tutee, and then give the tutee an opportunity to repeat the correct answer.

It should be noted that the majority of peer-tutoring programs for students are intended to complement, not substitute for, regular classroom instruction. Tutoring should never be a substitute for professional teaching. An ideal learning atmosphere is as a rich blend of peer and adult instructional strategies.

Resources To Find Out More About P2P Teaching
https://www.nea.org/tools/35542.htm https://peers.aristotlecircle.com/uploads/NTA_Peer_Tutoring_Factsheet_020107.pdf https://www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/pdfs/schoolresearch/2012_PolicyBriefs/Nguyen_Policy_Brief.pdf https://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/middleyears/students/index.htm https://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/success/sl37.htm https://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/peertutor.pdf https://www.reed.edu/nsfaire/nsfaire_sciencePsych4.html Image source

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How Peer Teaching Improves Student Learning and 10 Ways To Encourage It - InformED

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Peer teaching is not a new concept. It can be traced back to Aristotle's use of archons, or student leaders, and to the letters of Seneca the Younger. It was first organized as a theory by Scotsman Andrew Bell in 1795, and later implemented into French and English schools in the 19 th century.