What Exactly is Peer Learning? An Exploratory Analysis of Student Class Interaction

Abstract

The study explores a long-standing assumption that students learn from peers, and that this learning can be enhanced through carefully designed instruction. Nevertheless, empirical evidence about in-class peer learning designed by the teacher is lacking: how it is enacted and how students respond. We analysed class recordings, and perceptions of teachers and students in 15 Bachelor and Masters’ class sessions in humanities, social sciences and medicine at one European Union university. We found great variation in how teachers designed peer-learning activities. We saw, for instance, how the same strategy can vary in its effectiveness depending on the degree of teacher’s tactical thinking; also why some designs were more effective than others. By documenting the commonalities and differences across the classes, our study offers an empirical foundation on which to build a more robust understanding of how to recognise and compare manifestations of peer-learning in the classroom.