Resource & Research Guides Vol.

1 #7 2009

How to Implement Peer Learning in Your Classroom

Jennifer Johnston

What is Peer Learning?

Peer Learning is a teaching and learning factor, the problems must promote higher
strategy that involves groups of students order thinking and critical analysis. Not just
working together to solve a problem, ‘plug into a formula’ problems.
complete a task, or create a product. Each
What Makes Peer Learning Work?
member of a team is responsible not only for
Simply putting students in groups and telling
learning what is taught but also for helping
them to work together does not mean they
team-mates learn, thus creating an atmosphere
know how to work cooperatively. Working
of achievement. Students work through the
cooperatively is much more than being
assignment until all group members
physically near other students. Johnson et al
successfully understand and complete it.
(1990) state that five elements must be
Why use Peer Learning? included for a lesson to be cooperative. These

Research has shown that Peer Learning five elements include: 1. positive
techniques: interdependence, 2. face-to-face promotive

Promote student learning and academic interaction, 3. individual accountability, 4.
achievement. social skills, and 5. group processing.

Increase student retention. Basic Elements of Peer Learning

Enhance student satisfaction with their 1. Positive Interdependence – A group
learning experience. member can’t be successful without the other

Help students develop skills in oral members also being successful. The problems
communication. need to be structured in such a way that,

Develop students' social skills. students need each other (sink or swim

Promote student self-esteem. together) to complete the task and to

Help to promote positive race relations. maximise their learning. This can be
achieved by: using shared resources, getting
Preparing for Peer Learning
the students to agree on a single, consensus
Many students have learned with and are
answer from the group, one set of material for
accustomed to a traditional teaching style.
the group.
Good planning and preparation are essential
to a successful Peer Learning (PL) lesson 2. Individual Accountability – each group
(Johnson et al. 1994). The success of the PL members effort is needed, there is no
lesson is largely dependent on two factors: ‘hitchhiking’. Teachers structure individual
accountability by having the group learn
1. Formation and maintenance of well- together but give individual tests, checking
functioning groups the learning of individual group members at
2. The type of problems the students are random, or assigning the role of checker to
asked to solve. each group.

For the first factor, PL groups are structured 3. Face to Face Promotive Interaction -
and managed to maximise the active and group members promote other’s learning by
appropriate participation of all students in the helping, sharing and encouraging efforts to
group (Johnson et al. 1994). The second learn. Students need to be knee-to-knee and

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© Jennifer Johnston & NCE-MSTL, 2009
 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 1 #7 2009

for acquiring and processing information

eye-to-eye to explain, discuss, teach and increases.
encourage specific cooperative behaviours. b) The shorter the period of time available
4. Interpersonal and Small Group Skills – the smaller the learning group should be.
The teacher needs to continually define, teach c) The smaller the group, the more it is for
and encourage specific cooperative students to hide and not contribute their
behaviours (i.e. leadership, trust-building, share of the work.
communication, decision-making and conflict d) The larger the group, the more skilful
resolution) by stating expectations, assigning group members must be.
roles, and giving specific feedback. e) With increasing group size, there is a
decrease in face-to-face interaction among
5. Monitoring, Intervening and Processing teammates and a reduced sense of
– Group members need to be aware of how intimacy.
their group is functioning. While students f) The materials available or the specific
work in Peer Learning groups, the teacher nature of the task may dictate a group
monitors their work and interactions and size.
occasionally intervenes to improve teamwork g) The smaller the group, the easier it is to
and task work and help groups with strategies. identify any difficulties students have in
Formation and Maintenance of Well- working together.
Functioning Groups (Johnson et al. 1994)
Numerous issues relating to the formation and The benefits of groups of three or four are
maintenance of well functioning groups are numerous. This group size is large enough
explored by Johnson et al. (1994). These pre- for the generation of ideas and approaches,
instructional decisions include group size, but small enough that all members can
ability grouping, seating arrangements, role contribute to solving the problems and the
assignments, group self-evaluation, group situation of a ‘hiding’ student is diminished
testing and individual testing and are all (Johnson et al. 1994). There is no ideal
found to contribute to the performance of the method of assigning students to groups. A
groups. groups teamwork skills determines a group’s
Group size and ability grouping productivity. Johnson et al. (1994)
For students to work together, they must be recommend that the teacher assigns the
assigned to groups. To assign students to groups. This can be done a number of ways,
groups, the teacher must decide how large a at random, by ability, either mixing the
group should be, how students are assigned to abilities or groups of the same ability.
groups, how long the group will stay together Whatever suits the task.
and what combination will be used during the Seating arrangements
lesson. There is no ideal size for a Peer The physical arrangement of the classroom
Learning group. The typical size of a Peer differs greatly to the traditional ‘facing the
Learning group ranges from two to four. teacher’ arrangement. Where possible
Johnson et al. (1994) advise to follow the students should sit in a horse shoe shape,
basic rule of thumb, the smaller the better. ‘knee-to-knee and eye-to-eye (Johnson et al.
When forming groups there are several 1994), while all the groups face in a similar
factors that need to be considered, such as the direction towards the front of the room or
following: towards the blackboard, as illustrated in
a) As the size of the learning group
increases, the range of abilities, expertise,
skills and the number of minds available

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© Jennifer Johnston & NCE-MSTL, 2009
 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 1 #7 2009

Recorder - writes down the group's

Figure 1 below. consensus answers to the questions.
Reporter - makes sure the group discusses
Blackboard how it functioned, reports the group's answers
during the class discussion.

Group roles can be rotated so that each group

member plays each one several times. At
times there can be students who refuse to
participate in a cooperative group or who do
not understand how to help the group. This
problem can be solved or prevented when
Student each group member is given a specific role to
play in the group. Roles are assigned when
Figure 1 Illustrates students in groups of three, in a each person is given a specific task or
‘horse shoe shape’, while all facing in a similar problem (Johnson et al. 1994)
direction towards the blackboard or the teacher.

This arrangement promotes communication Group testing and individual testing

between each member of the group and has a ‘What children can do together today, they
positive influence on the functioning of the can do alone tomorrow’ (Vygotsky 1978)
PL groups. The groups leave space between Group accountability is structured by
them and the other groups. So they do not assessing the overall performance of the
interfere with each other, and to allow the group and giving the results back to group
teacher to circulate the room with ease. This members to compare to a standard of
seating arrangement is flexible enough to performance. Common ways to structure
allow students to move quickly if they need individual accountability include:
to. For example from working in pairs to
Keeping the size of the group small
working in three’s or four’s (Johnson et al.
Give an individual test to each student.
1994).
Give random individual oral examinations.
Role assignments
Observe each group and group member.
As the majority of students are not
Assign one student in each group the role of
accustomed to or skilled in group roles, checker of understanding.
assigning specific roles that students are to
Have students teach what they learned to
perform during the lesson helps ensure someone else.
positive interdependence. In addition to their
Have group members edit each other’s
work.
responsibility to learn, each group member
can be assigned a responsibility to help group
Have students use what they have learned to
solve a different problem.
members work together effectively. The
following is a description of the individual (Johnson et al. 1994)
tasks within a group. Specified desired behaviours:
Group Roles The following is a list of activities required by
Facilitator -makes sure everyone understands each group member.
each worksheet question before the team
Each member should be able to explain
begins to discuss it, encourages everyone to how to arrive at the answer.
participate, helps the group reach consensus.
Each member should be able to relate what
Monitor - keeps everyone on task, monitors is being learned to previous information
time, moves the group along to assure that the learned.
tasks are done in the allotted time.
Everyone in the group should comprehend
the material and agree with the answers.
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© Jennifer Johnston & NCE-MSTL, 2009
 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 1 #7 2009

Everyone participates. Learning Strategies

Each listens accurately to what other group There are many learning strategies that can be
members are saying. used in a PL lesson. Here is an example of
two of these strategies:

Members do not change their minds unless
they are logically persuaded (majority rule Think-Pair-Share
does not promote learning). In Think-Pair-Share is where the teacher

Criticise ideas, not people. poses a challenging or open-ended question
and gives students a minute or two to think
Promoting Effective Problem Solving
about the question individually. Students
The types of question used in the lesson have
then pair with a cooperative group member or
a major impact on the group and individual
neighbour sitting nearby and discuss their
learning outcomes. Good questions (Concept
ideas about the question for several minutes.
questions) require the student to decide what
After several minutes the teacher solicits
concepts and principles should be applied to
student comments or takes a classroom
the problem and not just simply answer the
"vote." Students are much more willing to
question by deciding on what formula to use.
respond after they have had a chance to
Problem solving approach/strategy discuss their ideas with a classmate because if
Some guidelines on how the student could the answer is wrong, the embarrassment is
breakdown the problem into manageable shared.
pieces are as follows: Discovery Method
• Evaluate the problem, characterise it, and This method is similar to the structured
identify components that are familiar to problem solving method except that student
you. teams are asked to find the information they
• Identify what you do know about the need to solve the problem on their own
problem and what you do not know. without the benefit of a mini-lecture. The
• Allocate the group’s time; specifying instructor can structure a multi-layer
which group member will do which task. discovery task. This method ensures that
• Reform the group and share the knowledge groups that work faster than other groups can
each has gained. delve more deeply into the problem.
• Collect the group’s information and bring
it to bear on the problem. Solve the References:
Johnson D. W., Johnson R.T., and E. J. Holubec, (1994) The Nuts
problem. and Bolts of Cooperative learning,
Edina: MN: Interaction Book Company.
• Reflect on the knowledge gained from the Johnson D. W., Johnson R.T., and E. J. Holubec, (1986) Circles of
problem and how the group functioned in Learning: cooperation in the Classroom, Edina: MN: Interaction
Book Company.
evaluating the problem. NISE (National Institute for Science Education) – College Level
(NISE 1997) One, (1997) Collaborative Learning: Small Group learning Page
[online], available: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/cl/
[accessed 27 August 2009]
Concept questions are often seen as difficult Peer Learning website resources:
for even the best students as they involve Collaborative Learning: small group learning:
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/cl
applying concepts and making decisions. Cooperative Learning Centre:
http://www.co-operation.org/
However, they make ideal PL questions as the
group can work together, pool their ideas and
share the problem. For Example,
Ms Jennifer Johnston
Q1. If you drop an object in the absence of air Senior Projects Officer in Teaching and
resistance, it accelerates downward at 9.8 m/s2. If Learning (Physical Sciences)
instead you throw it downward, its downward
acceleration after release is
NCE-MSTL
a). less than 9.8 m/s2. E-mail: [email protected]
b). 9.8 m/s2.
c). More than 9.8 m/s2.
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© Jennifer Johnston & NCE-MSTL, 2009