Essay On Peer-Assisted Learning

In schools today, many teachers influence Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) on their students in various classrooms to show the importance of group work and how working with others can be significantly helpful and also effective towards the improvement of grades. Peer assisted learning strategies have not only shown an improvement in students’ grades in school, but also serve the purpose of helping students learn to listen to others perspectives besides their own, and develop their own voice resulting in an increase in their own self-confidence. Peer-assisted learning strategies were created to serve the needs of those having difficulties in various academics, and are also used to aid English Language learners. These peer-tutoring programs are

Some instructional practices are taught through reading or math activities given in the classroom to ultimately benefit each student’s individual needs (WWC Intervention Report, 2010). An example of how teachers use reading peer-assisted learning strategies in the classroom is by using “peer-mediated instruction” which is a method where students are split up in pairs or small groups and provide help to one another on areas of reading such as retelling, paragraph shrinking and prediction relay to improve reading comprehension. Students are also required to check each other’s work, look for mistakes as well as correct answers and provide positive feedback where necessary (WWC Intervention Report, 2010). An example of how teachers use math peer-assisted learning strategies in the classroom is by pairing students up, passing out PALS tutoring folders that contain materials such as gameboards, number lines, ect. to each pair and then conducting math activities for the students to solve by working together and working with the