Studying with friends is more fun than learning alone. However, educational research has found that the benefits of working with peers extend far beyond the social. By helping one another in the classroom and outside of it, you are more likely to fully understand and remember the topics you share.
Catherine Shirley ACMA, CGMA, Lecturer of Accounting at Newcastle-under-Lyme College, explains further.
All types of
peer learning have been shown to be highly effective in terms of boosting
motivation, focus and depth of understanding. You could be revising with your
peers in the final weeks to your exams, interacting using Facebook or a study
group, or helping out a perplexed classmate.
You may have
already been in a situation where a friend was struggling with a difficult
accounting problem in class and, if you knew the correct method, you may have
taken them through it to help them understand. Clearly, this is of great
benefit to your friend because they can move on with their work, but do you
realise how many benefits it can offer you?
Learning by teaching
Studies have
shown that the cognitive process of explaining solutions, and dealing with
questions and misunderstandings will help to embed knowledge further into your
memory and enhance your own understanding of the subject. This process can result in ‘deep learning’,
which is retained by your long term memory, rather than ‘surface learning’,
where information can dissipate from your memory shortly after class.
If you are
fortunate enough to study in a classroom, your tutor will understand the
benefits of peer work and may well integrate peer related tasks into your
learning process. You may find yourself delivering presentations, marking and
feeding back the strengths and weaknesses of a classmate’s work, producing quiz
questions or even interacting in team debates.
These student
centred activities have been linked to more effective learning because you need
to actively engage with the material in order to participate. This engagement
is missing in ‘passive learning’ where you are reading, listening or taking
notes, either alone or in a lecture based class.
Inclusion of
activity based learning makes for a more varied and interesting experience,
which can also boost motivation levels, encourage group cohesion and ultimately
result in a better comprehension of the topic.
Retaining key information
Not everyone
welcomes the chance to participate in peer related tasks. You may feel it is
your tutor’s job to provide knowledge, and that is the reason you attend classes.
However the process of listening to a classmate’s interpretation of a subject,
hearing it spoken in a familiar voice and expressed in a different manner can
actually enable that information to be internalised more readily.
Research has
shown that complex ideas can be processed more easily when communicated via a
range of sources – your tutor’s explanation is just one of these.
Some of you may
worry whether you can trust the opinions or views of your peers. Is their
feedback based on their relationship with you and therefore subjective? If this
is the case, opt for tasks that provide a level of anonymity, by blind marking
one another’s written work, or by using online interactive platforms.
Increase your employability
Working with
others – in classroom based activities, by online study group participation, or
as part of ‘live online’ type study options – will not only offer you a
supportive environment in which to learn, but can also help you develop
business and interpersonal skills which will add to your employability.
Peer work
develops communication skills and confidence, and instils the use of effective
language. These are traits that employers are actively seeking alongside exam
results.
Benefits of peer assessment
If you get the
opportunity to extend your peer interaction into the area of assessment, you
can learn a lot. Marking one another's work can provide a fantastic insight
into how exam candidates can miss marks - through easily correctable errors in
exam technique, for example.
As
you provide feedback on your classmate’s work, you will begin to generate ideas
and see from a different perspective how you might improve your own grades.
With practice,
you can start to view your own exam script through the eyes of the marker. Your tutor may often stress the importance of
allocating the correct amount of time to questions based on marks available, but
nothing proves it like seeing a classmate fail to complete a paper or lose
marks because they haven’t answered enough questions or spent too long on some.
Providing honest
feedback on a classmate’s efforts and delivering it in a sensitive way can
develop business skills you may need in future - for example, if you appraise
staff or have to communicate sensitive issues in a boardroom. Finding a way to
criticise results without offending is a delicate balance that requires strong
interpersonal skills.
Receiving
constructive feedback from a peer assessment will help you develop the ability
to respond positively to criticism and utilise comments to improve.
Furthermore, you will develop the key quality of resilience, which is important
to support the continuous cycle of self-improvement that underpins professional
and academic success.
So next time you
are stuck needing help, don't hesitate to ask a nearby classmate if they will
talk through the method. They are likely to be happy to help and you will be
benefitting their learning and your own.
Contact us
What did you
think of this article? Please email lagos@cimaglobal.com
to give us feedback. For more information on CIMA and on how to register, log
on to www.cimaglobal.com or call
07002462644.