Peer learning is an educational practice that allows students to learn by explaining their ideas to classmates and by contributing to activities in which they can learn from fellow students (peers). Peers are other individuals who do not occupy a role as a teacher or expert; they possess the status of fellow learners and are accepted as such. Peer learning encompasses a range of different learning activities (Boud 2002). As an example, students can be asked first to think individually about the answer to a conceptual question and then try to convince another student of the correctness of their own response (Crouch and Mazur 2001).

References

Boud, D. (2001) ‘Introduction: Making the move to peer learning’, in D. Boud, R. Cohen and J. Sampson, J. (eds.) Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other, London: Kogan Page and Stylus Publishing, pp. 1-18.

Crouch, C. H. and Mazur, E. (2001) ‘Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results’, American Journal of Physics 69:9, pp. 970-977, available at: http://web.mit.edu/jbelcher/www/TEALref/Crouch_Mazur.pdf.