Vygotsky proposed the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) but did not elaborate the concept of "peer," leaving open the question of how capable a peer should be and how practice or outcome might differ according to a peer's level of capability. These issues were investigated in a sociocultural study of first-year Vietnamese…

Students use the Internet for schoolwork in ways that reach far beyond what schools require or support, and they conceive of information literacy in paradigms different from those of adults. Recent surveys by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Levin and Arafeh 2002) on the role of the Internet in schools suggest that there is a…

This study compared perceptions of personal and leadership life skills development of high school 4-H leadership activity participants by whether they participated in the 4-H Junior Leader Club (JLC) and/or the CHARACTER COUNTS! (CC) peer teaching program. The target population was all high school students who participated in either the CC or JLC…

Background: Research on Sport Education (SE) has shown the curriculum model to be effective in motivating students to undertake specific role responsibilities and engage in the student-led tasks of the curriculum. Despite this level of engagement, emerging evidence suggests that student leadership within the peer teaching tasks of the curriculum…

Researchers reviewed 20 articles on peer tutoring research in secondary settings and addressed demographics of tutors and tutees, content areas in which peer tutors were employed, tutor training required for implementing effective tutoring programs, and the effects of peer tutoring on tutee performance. Generally, peer tutoring in secondary…

In contrast to "Just Say No" lectures on drug use common in K to 12 drug education programs (e.g., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E.), this activity used peer teaching in an Introductory Psychology course to promote active learning and open discussion of controversial issues about drug use. Working in small groups, students researched…

This report is an evaluation of "Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies," an instructional program for use in elementary school classrooms to improve student proficiency in reading and math. It was developed for use with students with diverse academic needs, including English language learners. Although other programs emphasize peer-to-peer…

A project was conducted at Western Wisconsin Technical College to create a peer tutoring handbook to provide guidance to tutors. This handbook contains a code of ethics, general guidelines for tutoring, ideas for organizing a tutoring session, questioning strategies, communication skills, and special considerations for limited English proficient…

CHAMPS Peer Leadership is a program designed to prepare school and community teams to empower youth to take responsibility for themselves and to prevent abusive behaviors. Students who master process skills such as goal setting, team building, communication, self-responsibility, self-esteem, and empowerment, also have the capability to respond…

A study investigated whether peer tutoring in writing would lead to writing improvement. In a kindergarten-first grade classroom three children were tutored by fellow students, while three other students worked alone. The children's writing samples were collected and evaluated in three areas: spelling, longer sentences, and greater number of words…

The aim of this study is to develop a new approach to help both 4th year students and 1st year students to get the utmost benefit from application activities. This new approach will provide 4th year students with an experience of teaching practice and also preparation of 1st student teachers to teaching practice process before they start their…

An explanation of a cooperative peer-teaching model includes the four steps: focus on the teacher, focus on the student, the student's presentation, and the teacher's evaluation. (BP)

In the metals program at Rincon High School in Tucson, Arizona beginners in the metalshop can benefit from the assistance of advanced students. (BP)

At Hofstra University, peer teachers are students who are paid participants in class discussions, as well as being responsible for advising and tutoring outside the classroom. The success of the peer teaching program at Hofstra is described. (Author/PG)