Incorporate Peer-to-Peer Learning to Acquire Maximum Learning Benefits
Education
12-14
Learning, as we know it today, has undergone several evolutions to reach its current stage. After all, learning did start from children sitting buckled under trees, ready to be blown away by the immense amount of knowledge that their gurus possessed. And look at where we have reached now- learning through screens, with physical presence no longer being an absolute necessity to be imparted with knowledge.
In fact, as per a recent study, 72% of K-12 students alone currently use cloud-based educational tools for a smooth learning experience. Moreover, more than 3 million students are enrolled in full-time online courses for higher education. Now, students do not just rely on teachers for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, peer-to-peer learning has opened many doors for students that genuinely want to learn.
However, does the term peer-to-peer learning ring any bells for you? If yes, are you aware of all that it entails? Well, read on to learn more about peer-to-peer learning, and its many benefits and gain insightful information about implementing successful peer-to-peer learning for your children through online learning.
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Online Learning Concerns
There is no denying that online learning has emerged as a saviour for most of us. Online learning was the one important change that made sure that education does not get compromised during the pandemic. And since then, the concept of online learning has come a long way, especially in India.
Yet, there are still many concerns about online learning. Concerns are raised especially around how distracting online learning might be for a lot of children as children, no wonder, do not take much time to get distracted from studies. However, there are many online learning platforms that have proved otherwise, successfully presenting how online classes can, in fact, turn out to be a better approach than offline learning in some aspects, especially when it comes to peer-to-peer learning. One such online learning platform is Spark Studio.
What is Peer-to-Peer Learning?
Peer-to-peer learning is an approach to learning, the origin of which can be traced to cognitive psychology, and which can be found in practice within the mainstream framework of education. Peer-to-peer learning is an interesting approach that facilitates learning through communication among peers. In peer-to-peer learning, students guide each other as they discover and explore new concepts together, learning from each other in the process. Peer-to-peer learning comes especially in online classes wherein children learn not only from their instructors and educators but also through interaction with their peers.
Peer-to-peer is rapidly emerging as a much more successful approach to learning as it helps students to teach and get taught by one another, helping them experience and discover aspects of learning that they might otherwise have remained unaware of. It is a form of learning that has been gaining quick traction not only in the educational sphere but also in the developmental sphere.
Benefits of Peer-to-Peer Learning
Peer-to-peer learning has established itself to be of great value, especially in the school setting. Here are a few pointers that highlight the many benefits of peer-to-peer learning for students.
- Aids in Active Learning: Peer-to-peer learning is a two-way learning process that transforms the act of learning from a passive activity to an active activity. Rather than just listening to what they are being taught, peer-to-peer learning encourages children to debate and discuss the teachings, thus ensuring that children understand whatever is being taught in class.
- Develops Social Skills: As students learn to collaborate and interact with their peers through peer-to-peer learning, thus experience the development of their social skills. Peer-to-peer learning is specifically beneficial for children who find it difficult to communicate with people and are socially awkward as peer-to-peer learning helps build their confidence by making them open up with their peers.
- Guaranteed Personal Growth: Peer-to-peer learning opens doors to personal growth. As students prepare to engage in guiding their peers, they are, in the process, growing responsible enough to be held accountable for their actions. As they dive into peer-to-peer learning, students experience a sense of self-confidence and self-worth, seeing themselves as capable of making a difference in the world.
- Improved Academic Performance: As students teach each other, the ones teaching and the ones being taught benefit from the act. As peers learn with each other, they are more open with each other regarding their doubts and confusions. Peer-to-peer learning further facilitates improved academic performance as the act of teaching-learning promotes essential skills like critical thinking and creativity.
Check Out: Importance of Life Skills in Preparing for a Better Future
Incorporating Peer-to-Peer Learning in Online Classes
Let’s face it, learning can get a tad bit boring at times. Sometimes it might lead students into letting out a yawn or two during lessons, and there’s no denying the fact all of us have been in that situation at least once in our lives. However, learning does not necessarily have to be boring, instead it can be a rather fun activity.
Sure, there are many ways that can help one to transform a boring lesson into an interesting one. However, there are many people who seem to believe that doing so is much easier in a physical classroom rather than in an online classroom. And we’re here to put such rumours to rest.
Contrary to what popular opinion seems to suggest, one can employ several techniques to pique the students’ interests in an online classroom. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the many ways to transform a boring classroom into one that is bustling with energy and activity, be it online or offline. However, incorporating peer-to-peer learning to its advantageous effects can be difficult to achieve in an online learning scenario.
However, to help you gain the maximum benefits out of peer-to-peer learning, here are a few tips on how peer-to-peer learning can be effectively integrated into online classes.
- Facilitate a Feedback Mechanism: Facilitating a constructive feedback mechanism in the wake of peer-to-peer learning can be a tricky feat to achieve. Students should be encouraged to provide criticism that is either positive or constructive, and not rude or demeaning. It must also be emphasized that the feedback should be specific to the goals of learning.
- Creation of Peer Groups: One of the best ways to make peer-to-peer learning work is to ensure the formation and maintenance of peer groups. Students should be clearly instructed on how they are to cooperate and collaborate with each other. Active learning groups, committees, debates and discussion groups can be formed to maximize the peer-to-peer learning model.
- Put Technology to Good Use: Facilitating peer-to-peer learning in online classrooms allows students to get more interactive as they teach their peers. They can make use of video lessons, presentations and other interactive displays to capture the attention of their peers. Several tools can be found on the Internet that facilitates peer-to-peer learning activities in online classrooms and makes learning effective.
Spark Studio is one good example when it comes to effectively integrating peer-to-peer learning in online classrooms.
Spark Studio has rapidly established itself as one of the widely recognized platforms for online learning in India that provides incredible certification programs and online extracurricular training for children. With a focus on developing children’s creativity and confidence through high-quality online learning programmes, Spark Studio caters mostly to children belonging to the age group of 5 to 15 years old.
What makes Spark Studio a popular choice among parents is its creation of structured lesson plans that are tailored to meet the needs of each child, with each of the kids having access to their own individualized lesson plans. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the many approaches that the educators at Spark Studio use to promote independent learning while also making sure that the classes are engaging and interactive. With peer-to-peer learning, Spark Studio gives the kids a chance to interact, learn and co-create with other kids. The students at Spark Studio, thus, not only learn effectively but are also able to gain several other benefits from peer-to-peer learning, such as the ones listed above.
The Probable Future of Peer-to-Peer Learning
It is safe to say that the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of learning. As the pandemic brought the entire world to a halt, the Internet emerged as a savior as almost everything had to be done via the Internet, including education. As online learning gradually became a new norm, peer-to-peer learning too established a strong footing in the wake of the promotion of independent learning.
Now, as things are somewhat back on track, to what it was like pre-pandemic, online learning is no more a trend but still a very persistent norm. Just take a look around, the online learning scenario has truly evolved with a huge number of companies being solely dedicated to the cause of online learning. In fact, several pieces of research point out that the online learning industry will most likely make $198 billion by the end of 2030.
Peer-to-peer learning is not an entirely new approach. It has been a part of the teaching-learning process for decades now and was only boosted further due to the advent of online learning. As students got isolated from their peers during the pandemic, peer-to-peer learning helped them to cope with the isolation and become active participants in the learning process rather than being passive receivers in online classes that were usually very dull due to the lack of physical presence.
However, people have now come to realize that peer-to-peer learning does a lot more than just engaging students in an otherwise boring online class. As students teach and learn from peers, they themselves become independent learners in the process. These students no longer have to depend on someone to be fed with the knowledge and grow capable enough to make themselves learn. This is one great benefit that makes it easy to believe that peer-to-peer learning is here to stay. Especially with the growing popularity of online learning, peer-to-peer learning will soon become an indispensable part of the learning process.
Now that we are discussing the future of online learning, Spark Studio is one imminent organization that is consistently putting in efforts towards securing the future of online learning in India. Spark Studio is unique from the other online learning platforms as they do not offer regular academic courses but extracurricular training that can unlock your child’s creativity and imagination. They recognise extracurriculars to be an essential prerequisite for holistic development and put in their best efforts to help students with all the help they seek in different extracurricular training programmes such as animation, guitar, photography, public speaking, spoken English, storytelling, western vocals and so on.
So, what are you waiting for? Go book that free trial and discover the benefits of peer-to-peer learning for yourself.
