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Connections 
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| Description: |
| This principle calls for creating opportunities for students to serve as instructors of their peers. Playing the role of the instructor has many advantages, whether the instruction is done individually or by peer-teaching and whether the learners are a small group or the whole class. |
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Theoretical background:
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Peer-instruction activities, when designed appropriately, can encourage students to deepen their understanding of contents, become more attentive to ideas brought up by peers, take responsibility for their own learning, enhance metacognitive skills, lower anxiety and increase motivation (Topping, 1996). Students who can reflect on their way of thinking and learning can set up learning goals and carry them out, choose appropriate learning strategies, and supervise their advancement towards achieving these goals (Linn & Hsi; 2000).
Supported (or "scaffolded") exploration through social and cognitive interaction with a more experienced peer in relation to a task of a level of difficulty within the tutee's "zone of proximal development" remains a theoretical cornerstone of peer assisted learning (Vygotsky 1978).
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| Tips (Challenges, Limitations, Tradeoffs, Pitfalls): |
It is important to note that having students play the role of the instructor sometimes involves arousing in them a certain degree of anxiety. Levin-Peled, Kali & Dori (in press), indicate that although this role was stressful to many students, they eventually saw this stress as positive. For instance, a student says "This was a difficult period for me due to the high pressure I was in. I almost left the course, but was encouraged to stay, and today I am very thankful for that!"
Nevertheless, many students feel that their learning is somewhat limited when they are taught by peers instead of the expert teacher (Topping, 1996). Levin-Peled, Kali & Dori (in press) suggest minimizing this limitation by employing in the design of the learning environment to additional principles - "Encourage construction of artifacts" and "Reuse student artifacts as resource for further learning" - by accompanying the peer instruction with the creation of an artifact that would be used by the tutees for further learning. |
| References (Off-line): |
Levin-Peled R., Kali, Y & Dori, Y.J. (in press). Promoting Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Design Principles for Hybrid Courses. Proceedings of the Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL) International Conference, 2007, New Jersey, USA, July 16-21, 2007.
Y.J. Dori, R. Levin-Peled, and Y. Kali (2006). Learning and Assessment in IT-based Environments: Design Principles for Hybrid Courses in Higher Education. Proc. E-Learn World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Health Care and Higher Education. Honolulu, HI, USA, Oct. 13-17, pp. 1933-1939.
Topping, K.J. (1996). The Effectiveness of Peer Tutoring in Higher and Further Education: A typology and review of the literature. Higher Education 32 (3) 321-345. (see URL bellow) |
| References (Online): |
| http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/seda-publications/topping.cfm |
| Summary of changes (wiki): |
references added
word order improved
enhancing the tips with the connection to other principles |
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History
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