Underneath
the buzz at the recent National Summit on Teaching in Minneapolis, there was a
desire for a more crisp statement about the difference between cooperative
learning and peer teaching. This came up in several ways, and the following is
some thinking I've done since then on this issue.
As always, your input is appreciated and desired.
As always, your input is appreciated and desired.
A note about the hyphen in Cooperative Learning-Peer Teaching:
The teaching strategies of cooperative learning
and peer teaching have more in common than in contrast. Both are used to
advance students' engagement, and improve academic achievement through peer
exploration, discovery, and sharing of knowledge and motor skills. Both
emphasize structure, individual roles, and group recognition of achievement.
Both aim for deliberate methods to build knowledge, skill, and insight in peer
students. Both have considerable research support and wide use in schools at
all levels, business, government, industry, the trades, and social and
religious organizations.
The verified benefits of both are well
established and well known.
However, any time people are paired or grouped
to accomplish a goal, social stratification develops and power relationships are
likely to become salient unless managed.
In cooperative learning, the assumption is that
members of the pair or group are roughly at the same level of expertise with
respect to the content.
In peer teaching, the assumption is that one
member of the pair or group knows more than the other(s) before the classroom
activity begins.
These assumptions drive the distinction in the
ways power relationships are handled differently in the two strategies.
In cooperative learning, destructive power
relationships are ameliorated by shaping in advance the interactions among the
participants. This is accomplished by establishing parity among members in
their assignment to groups and guiding the members' functions, actions, and
expectations once the group is formed.
In peer teaching, an 'expertise gap' is either
present in the assignment of participants, or is created during classroom
strategies such as the jigsaw activity. Destructive power relationships are
ameliorated by training the more knowledgeable member(s) of the groups in how
their information and insights can be learned most effectively by others.
In sum, cooperative learning and peer teaching
share the overall purpose of student achievement. They differ in the ways that
the professional educator structures the classroom activity and charges pairs
and groups with their functions and tasks.
Cooperative Learning and Peer
Teaching
|
||
Cooperative Learning
|
Peer Teaching
|
|
Advance
student engagement
|
X
|
X
|
Improve
academic achievement
|
X
|
X
|
Promote
student-generated exploration
|
X
|
X
|
Encourage
discovery learning
|
X
|
X
|
Share knowledge
|
X
|
X
|
Share
motor skills
|
X
|
X
|
Learn
teaching skills
|
X
|
X
|
Used
widely in the US schools
|
X
|
X
|
Used in
government, industry, business, etc.
|
X
|
X
|
Used in
social and religious organizations
|
X
|
X
|
Benefits
are well established
|
X
|
X
|
Has solid
research support
|
X
|
X
|
Teacher
structures the groups, sets parameters
|
X
|
X
|
Guide
members' functions, actions, expectations thru training
|
X
|
X
|
Establish
knowledge parity of group members before activity
|
X
|
|
Establish
an 'expertise gap' before activity begins
|
X
|