Success For All Through Maximizing The Power of Peer Learning Essay

Success For All Through Maximizing The Power of Peer Learning - Essay Example Students and pupils that work groups are said to be more successful in reasoning and critical thinking skills which ultimately improves their general performance (Cohen, 1994). Peer education is a complex expression and as result it is not easy to pin down a simple definition and one can only attempt to describe it. Peer education can be described as an approach through which youths can operate in collaboration with their contemporaries which draws upon the positive aspects of peer dynamics; through appropriate training and exposure, peers can learn how to play an active part in the education process rather than simply be passive recipients of the same. I was motivated to try out peer learning models because as a teacher it was easy for me to appreciate the advantages they held both as result of experience and from a study of research and literature on the same. Peer education is becoming an increasingly popular process of providing not just advice and social information but as a method of pedagogy which is seen as an all-inclusive involving and benefiting pupils the peer educators and the school in general. Among the many benefits of peer teaching is that it brings about positive changes in response to knowledge, skills and confidence all which a critical in academic and personal development. Peer educates are also likely to acquire the unique benefit of up to date information and life skills that the convectional teachers may not provide and it is easier for them to identify and build positive relationships with them. Brown and Campione argue that a community of learners in classroom can be conceived in terms of various proximal development zones through which participants can navigate at their different paces and routes. Piaget who is one of the foremost experts on development and education concurs in his social-cultural learning theory which proposes that people acquire new skills and