Peer learning

The Practice of Poetry Among a Group of Heroin Addicts In India: Naturalistic Peer Learning

by Amar Dhand

Interaction between learners in an interactive learning environment

by Jacob Davidsen

ICT as a tool for collaboration in the classroom: Challenges and lessons learned

by Jacob Davidsen

Through the Eyes of Children. The Implementation of a European Dimension by Peer Learning in Primary School

by Martin Musumeci

Schmeinck, D., Knecht, P., Kosack, W., Lambrinos, N., Musumeci, M. & Gatt, S.
mensch und buch. Berlin (2010).
ISBN: 978-3-86664-753-4

Peer Assessment in Popular Music Group Performance

by Mark Pulman

In: Assessing Musical Performance, 11-12th September 2002, Carrickfergus, University of Ulster. (Unpublished) Item availablity restricted

'Knowing yourself through others': peer assessment in popular music group work

by Mark Pulman

Pulman, Mark (2008) ‘Knowing yourself through others’: peer assessment in popular music group work. Doctoral thesis, Sheffield Hallam University.

by Mark Pulman

                                 ... more                                         Abstract
This enquiry investigates the experiences and responses to peer assessment of group work involving cohorts of undergraduate popular music students over a five-year period. Working within the context of band rehearsing and performing, the enquiry focuses on how intra-peer assessment impact on students’ personal attributes and their learning.
The literature review presents an overview of peer learning, group work, peer assessment processes, and a survey of the peer assessment literature on music in Higher Education reveals a lack of research into popular music group work.
An action research design was established to study developing peer assessment activities of group work involving nineteen rehearsing and performing cycles. This allowed interventions and refinements to be made from cycle to cycle from which qualitative interview data and quantitative peer assessment data were collected.
The analysis and interpretation of this data explain the key themes that arose from the students’ experiences of peer assessment in the action research. These include the development of awareness and knowledge about their personal attributes. Confidence, feedback and a moral dimension, often involving honesty and trust, were of particular significance.
A new process model of intra-peer assessment is proposed. It offers a sequence of graduated stages of personal attribute usage, which create experiences over a period of time, that support students’ learning about themselves and about others through intra-peer assessment activities. The key activity, which also gives the model its particular distinctiveness, involves bands decide for each of their members appropriate personal attributes to be used as criteria for intra-peer assessment.
The enquiry emphasises the importance of providing experiential and interactional contexts for intra-peer assessment, as important learning opportunities arise from such settings. This study provides a social constructivist explanation for the development of students’ personal attributes and the building of trust and honesty in the rehearsing and performing cycles.

Examining how an Online Mentoring Model may support new Supplemental Instruction Leaders

by Phillip Dawson

PhD thesis completed in 2010 at the University of Wollongong Faculty of Education. Supervised by Lori Lockyer & Brian Ferry.

This study investigated online mentoring as a method of supporting inexperienced, geographically-dispersed... more This study investigated online mentoring as a method of supporting inexperienced, geographically-dispersed Supplemental Instruction Leaders (SILs). Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic support program that employs successful senior students as SILs to facilitate regular peer learning sessions. Over 250,000 tertiary students attend SI each year worldwide (Arendale, 2002). Students who attend SI are more likely to succeed in their studies, achieve higher grades, and be retained at their institutions (Martin & Arendale, 1993). The Australian higher education sector has a need for initiatives like SI that support the success of non-traditional students (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008); however such programs can be difficult to implement in multi-campus institutions (Winchester & Sterk, 2006). In this study, online mentoring was examined as a method of addressing some of the difficulties in supporting inexperienced SILs who are geographically isolated.

There is minimal research literature about the use of mentoring or community to support SILs, and none addressing the problem of supporting geographically-dispersed SILs. Online mentoring and community models have been used successfully in other contexts to support novices that are geographically isolated from potential mentors and their peers. SILs are different from mentees in most mentoring literature; traditional mentees are either career employees or students being mentored for their academic success. In this study, SILs are being supported for a part-time, fixed-term role that few intend to continue as a career.

The following research questions were investigated:
Research Question 1: What models are appropriate for mentoring geographically-dispersed Supplemental Instruction Leaders?
Research Question 2: In what ways does participation in an online SIL support program impact on mentors, mentees and community members?

The study consisted of two phases, each addressing the corresponding research question. In Phase 1, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted into the development of an online mentoring model for geographically-dispersed SILs. A new theoretical framework was developed from Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) and Social Exchange Theory (Emerson, 1976; Homans, 1958) to inform the design of the model. This framework assisted in understanding how mentoring happens, and why mentors and mentees might participate in it.

In Phase 2 the model was investigated twice using a qualitative, multiple-case study methodology. There were 30 participants from six campuses of five Australasian universities in the first study, and 67 participants from 27 campuses of 25 academic institutions from three continents in the second study. Data were analysed using a deductive approach based on the theoretical framework. Key findings of this research were:

A model for the mentoring of geographically-dispersed SILs.

An understanding of the impacts of the model on participating SILs. Role modelling was found to be the component of mentoring most used for SIL development; this is interesting given Ensher, Heun and Blanchard’s (2003) proposition that “role modelling may be the function of mentoring that is least efficiently done in a virtual setting” (p. 273).

A set of design variables for the development and expression of mentoring models. These variables address an identified need in the literature for clarity in academic communications about mentoring.

A new theoretical framework for understanding mentoring. This framework provides a more comprehensive understanding of mentoring than either of its components.

This research has significance for online mentoring and higher education in general, and more specifically, the support of geographically-dispersed, part-time staff, such as SILs and university tutors or teaching assistants.

Does mobile technology support peer learning for Key Stage 3 children?

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
Alsugair, B.A., Hopkins, G., Brailsford, T. and E. FitzGerald (2011) Does mobile technology support peer learning for Key Stage 3 children? Paper accepted to the 7th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE'11), Nottingham, UK, 25-28 July 2011, pp 362-365.

It has been estimated that 85.5% of school aged children own a mobile phone in the UK from which 29% of them access... more It has been estimated that 85.5% of school aged children own a mobile phone in the UK from which 29% of them access the Internet. It is assumed that this ownership provides the children with the opportunity to establish and maintain social connections with their fellow peers. According to Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory this social interaction with peers plays a role in children’s cognitive development that has been exploited in modern educational systems in various ways.
This ongoing research aims to make further use of this association between ownership of mobile devices, social interaction and learning by ultimately introducing a technological solution for children to communicate with their peers and access peer generated content. It will investigate whether the mobility and the information source; peer versus non-peer, enhances children’s learning. Two separate investigations have been conducted, so far, to determine the sources and the tools children use to obtain support for their learning. A survey of 74 Key Stage 3 children and two focus group sessions with 34 similar age children found that they actively use technologies, such as Facebook, SMS and email, to establish peer interaction.

Peer production and peer support at the Free Technology Academy

by Hanneke Potters

Investigating Peer Tutoring

by Jo Mynard

Co-authored with Iman Almarzouqi in ELT Journal, Volume 60, Number 1, January 2006 , pp. 13-22(10)

This article gives an overview of a piece of qualitative research conducted at a women’s university in the United Arab... more This article gives an overview of a piece of qualitative research conducted at a women’s university in the United Arab Emirates. The aim of the study was to evaluate the English language peer tutoring programme in order to highlight benefits and challenges, and to make informed improvements. The study drew particularly on participant perceptions and observations of the programme. It identified various benefits for tutors such as learning through teaching and becoming more responsible while doing something worthwhile to help others. Benefits for tutees included improved levels of self-confidence and English language aptitude. The study also highlighted several challenges associated with the high dependence and low metacognitive awareness demonstrated by the tutees. In addition, tutors were not always able to offer appropriate assistance. Improvements to the programme could include increasing faculty involvement, improving tutee awareness of the aims of the programme, and providing additional assistance to tutors.