TITLE: Peer Interaction (PI), and the interplay of different types of research on it
SPEAKER: Steve Draper
DATE: 28th November 2024
TIME: 15:00-16:00
ABSTRACT:

"Peer Interaction" (PI) refers to the important ways that a learner interacting with not a teacher but a fellow student or "peer" can be more productive of learning than interacting with a teacher one-to-one.

There is a long history of publications on peer interaction (PI) in education (although the earliest I will cite is 1982, important points were published in the 19th century and possibly before).  Some of this literature was written, and still more has been used and explored, by CCSE members.  PI is important and applicable in all disciplines.  It has been used quite extensively in computer science, and some of the most powerful uses have been in Maths and in Physics.

One purpose of this talk is to frame education research as to do with universal theories that apply across disciplines, rather than seeing it as a craft that works differently in different disciplines.  A second aim is not only to introduce and discuss some of this literature, but also to show the different kinds of research PI has attracted, each with different merits.  (Another seminar might care to discuss how we could or should combine some of these types of research into a better overall program of research on one learning design or one course.)

The talk outlines five contrasting types of contribution to PI in the literature:

  1. Insights from theory, suggesting how and why PI can produce better quality and quantity of learning.
  2. The variety of successful Learning Designs using PI (examples of different course or lesson plans)
  3. The best quantitative evidence of learning gains from PI
  4. The wider importance of PI in education and especially in HE:  pervasive, but seldom studied or measured.
  5. Radical PI:  Connectivism, and approaches where learners, not teachers, decide the curriculum and the learning activities.

First published: 19 November 2024

<< Activities


Speaker: Steve Draper