Peer learning

Collaborative peer learning environments have received increasing attention in classrooms due to the potential for improving learning and achievement. Yet previous research shows that not all students benefit from the collaborative experience. This paper explores the nature of helping behavior within peer-directed small groups that may be most effective for learning, especially for students who have difficulty with the material. Drawing on examples from recent research on student learning in collaborative mathematics classrooms in a US middle school, we identify student behaviors that are necessary for effective help seeking and help giving, as well as responsibilities of teachers in establishing classroom conditions that bring about effective helping behavior. The findings show that effective help seekers ask precise questions, persist in seeking help, and apply the explanations received; effective help givers provide detailed explanations of the material as well as opportunities for help recipients to apply the help received, and monitor student understanding. These critical helping behaviors reflect the constructivist views embodied in Piagetian and Vygotskian perspectives on learning in social contexts. r

The study presents an evaluation of the SI program in five engineering programs within the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) based on data from questionnaires to SI participants and SI-Leaders, credits taken by the students during the first year, and average grade data from high school for the first year students. The results show that participation in SI sessions markedly improves the chances of student success in studies during the first year. Furthermore, there are clear indications that the SI program creates a positive social introduction to engineering studies. The SI sessions also improve the participants' study techniques and develop common skills important for the engineer, such as problem solving, group work, and presenting/discussing results.

Various forms of peer, collaborative or cooperative learning, particularly small group activities, are increasingly used within university courses to assist students meet a variety of learning outcomes. These include working collaboratively with others, taking responsibility for their own learning and deepening their understanding of specific course content. The potential benefits of peer learning have long been recognised and are especially relevant today. However many existing assessment practices act to undermine the goals of peer learning and lead students to reject learning cooperatively. If assessment gives students the message that only individual achievement is valued, and that collaborative effort is akin to cheating, then the potential of peer learning will not be realised. Inappropriate assessment practices may also lead to unhelpful forms of competition within and between groups that prevent groups functioning effectively. This paper examines some of the main assessment issues in connection with peer learning and suggests ways in which the benefits of this approach can be maintained while still meeting the formal assessment requirements of the course. It discusses the use of group assessment, peer feedback and self assessment, assessment of participation and negotiated assessment and concludes with the identification of a number of issues which remain to be addressed.

Statements of commitment to change are advocated both to promote and to assess continuing education interventions. Howevel; most studies of commitment to change have used self-reported outcomes, and self-reports may significantly overestimate actual performance. As part of an educational randomized controlled trial, this study documented changes that family physicians committed to make in their prescribing and then used third-party data to examine actual changes.

There appears to be generally a broad consensus that the multidimensional nature and complexity underlying the critical problems of Africa such as poverty, food insecurity and disease urge for integrated and holistic views and approaches to deal with the challenges successfully. Innovation systems approaches are promising, but in practice they require new mindsets and competences for systemic thinking, institutional interfaces and partnerships. Often curriculum review is seen as a solution to such new demands, but in reality, even before considering curriculum review, it is critical that universities deal with the basic elements of changing mindsets, and building a new vision and new skills for training and research amongst the academic staff. This paper is based on a 'personal mastery/soft skills experiment towards reorienting mindsets and building complementary skills among university lecturers for holistic and interactive learning; and impact oriented research and consultancy. The initiative was conducted with 26 lecturers from three agriculture related Faculties of Makerere University over a period of two years. Overall enhancement it enhanced personal and professional development profiles of the lecturers which resulted in more interactive teaching, a move towards action research, and more marketable development consultants and facilitators. Specifically, the assessment brought out the following outcomes: enhanced self-awareness and taking action to develop their full potentials; the abilities to influence change in the university system through feedback; taking initiative to work in team and promote peer-learning; facilitation skills for interactive learning and collective action processes; overcoming fear to try out new things as reflective practitioners; communication for problem solving -negotiation, conflict resolution; and thinking beyond disciplinary boundaries to influence development impact through action research and process consultancy.

During the last 30 years, Higher Education (HE) has changed a lot. In the Northern part of Europe, until the 1960s, the traditional universities dominated with the ideal of an elitist university with freedom of academic research, which implied searching for the truth, and with an approach to education as presenting research. After the 1960s, with the students' rebellion, the university culture changed. At the traditional universities, students started to formulate demands, and became critical of the decline of the dominant research paradigm. At the managerial level, students had more influence on the boards, and they also applied pressure to develop new educational models such as the project- and problem-based learning (PBL) models that were implemented in Bremen University in Germany, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Linköping University in Sweden, and Aalborg and Roskilde University in Denmark. During the 1970s and 1980s, the predominant picture was still that of traditional universities, but the university system expanded because of increased enrolment numbers (Carter et al., 2003) Often in history, unexpected partnerships occur: one of these partnerships was between the students' movements and industry. Many of the students' criticisms and alternatives, such as peer learning and problem-based and project-based learning, went hand in hand with demands from industry. For example, Aalborg University in Denmark was established in 1974 as a PBL university, due to lobbying from industry as well as being a result of the students' movement. This partnership was founded due to the fact that the largest faculty at Aalborg University was the Faculty of Engineering. It has been well known that there is a need for the ability to manage projects and co-operate, particularly in the technological field

Mathematics is a difficult subject, however, the researcher believes that Mathematics teaching can be made easy depending upon several factors like the teaching strategy in Mathematics instruction. This study investigated the effect of peer tutoring strategy on the students' achievement in Discrete Structures of second year college students at the Pangasinan State University Bayambang Campus, Philippines. More specifically, it attempted to determine and compare the achievements of the students exposed to peer tutoring and conventional teaching. The experimental method of research was used in the study particularly the posttest control group design. Two intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control group and were subjected to six weeks treatment period. Valid and reliable researcher-made achievement test was used as the data gathering instrument. The mean, standard deviation, skewness and analysis of covariance were computed to determine and compare the achievement of the two groups. The result of the study revealed that the students exposed to peer tutoring significantly achieved better than those exposed to conventional teaching. Based on the finding, it is concluded that the achievement of the students is enhanced when exposed to peer tutoring strategy. It is recommended that peer tutoring strategy should be used by mathematics teachers in order to improve the performance of their students in the subject. Furthermore, further studies should be conducted to find out the effect of peer tutoring in other subject areas.

Laboratory and practical work are characteristic features of an undergraduate degree program in any engineering discipline. Trying to incorporate practical work successfully in to the engineering curriculum can present a number of challenges. Laboratory and practical work are expensive to run, sometimes requiring specialist equipment to be purchased that can rapidly become obsolete. Despite the challenges, the application of theory in a practical setting remains an expected and fundamental part of the engineering curriculum. The challenge now is for program teams to consider how the knowledge, skills and attributes that we desire to develop through such practical activities, can be facilitated in an appropriate, effective and efficient way within an engineering degree program for the 21st century. The aim of this review paper is to summarize the literature available in the form of books, journal papers and articles on the alternative approaches for learning, assessment and evaluation of laboratories in the engineering education.

Learning and teaching have been conceptualized and executed in many styles, such as self-learning, peer learning, and interaction between the learner and mentor. Today, openness to alternative ideas and embracing innovative approaches in nursing education are encouraged in order to meet students' learning interests and needs, and to address ever-changing healthcare requests. Problem-based learning has been widely adopted in nursing education, with various positive effects on students' learning, such as motivated learning, team work, problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Role-plays have been demonstrated as an effective learning strategy that includes an active and experiential feature that facilitates students' autonomy in their health-related learning. However, there is a lack of discussion of whether and how role-play can be used in problem-based learning (PBL). This paper shows the development of a classroom-based innovation using role-play in the PBL class for higher diploma year-one nurse students (a total of 20 students, five per group). This paper consists of five sections: a) the literature on PBL and nurse education, and role-plays as the innovation; b) the PBL case scenario with the illustration of the two role-play scripts, c) student evaluation on role-play in the PBL class; d) discussions on both achievements and limitations of this innovation, and e) the conclusion. It is hoped that this paper will be an example to other nurse educators who are keen on exploring interactive and student-driven learning and teaching strategies in the PBL class.

The following paper describes learning processes that occurred in six classrooms of approximately 97 advanced and novice English composition students studying at an American university in the Middle East. The students came from multicultural backgrounds; including African, Middle Eastern, Asian, European and American. Due to scheduling issues (long breaks and accelerated lectures), students were highly encouraged to integrate technologies to extend their learning outside of the classroom and to develop collaborative learning groups. Assigned tasks required students to use a collaborative editor to provide support in synchronous and asynchronous learning contexts. Peer feedback on writing errors and content was requested. The learning objectives were to develop skills in locating and classifying data, summarizing literature, and reviewing and applying composition formatting and content information provided. Learners were expected to produce individual compositions in narrative form (Novice Writers) and academic report formats (Advanced Writers). Throughout the courses, self-correction of writing errors increased in quantity and quality. Autonomous Learning was evidenced in the individual compositions produced. Student Satisfaction was high with learning experiences across the groups described, as supportive of critical thinking and highly motivational. Retention and pass rates for the six courses reported were significantly higher than the average outcomes reported typically for those courses by the institution. A key factor in these successful outcomes appears to be the participation in online collaborative learning both self-directed and instructor assigned. Convenience factored greatly in what technologies were selected and used by individuals.

This study sought to investigate the effect of peer learning on attitude toward mathematics of the second year college students at the Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus. More specifically, it attempted to determine and compare the attitude toward mathematics of the students before and after their exposure to peer learning and conventional teaching strategy. The experimental method of research was used in the study particularly the pretest-posttest control group design. Valid and reliable researcher-made attitudinal scale was the data gathering instrument. Weighted mean, Mann Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were the statistical tools used in analyzing and interpreting the research data. The findings revealed that the students in the peer learning group had a significant change in their attitude after their exposure to the peer learning strategy which was not observed among those students in the conventional teaching group. Based on the findings, it is concluded that the students' attitude toward mathematics was improved when exposed to peer learning strategy. It is recommended that peer learning strategy should be used by mathematics teacher in order to improve the attitude toward mathematics of the students. Furthermore, further studies should be conducted to find out the effects of peer learning in other subject areas or other group of respondents or another peer grouping.

This study investigated online mentoring as a method of supporting inexperienced, geographically-dispersed Supplemental Instruction Leaders (SILs). Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic support program that employs successful senior students as SILs to facilitate regular peer learning sessions. Over 250,000 tertiary students attend SI each year worldwide (Arendale, 2002). Students who attend SI are more likely to succeed in their studies, achieve higher grades, and be retained at their institutions (Martin & Arendale, 1993). The Australian higher education sector has a need for initiatives like SI that support the success of non-traditional students (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008); however such programs can be difficult to implement in multi-campus institutions (Winchester & Sterk, 2006). In this study, online mentoring was examined as a method of addressing some of the difficulties in supporting inexperienced SILs who are geographically isolated.

There is minimal research literature about the use of mentoring or community to support SILs, and none addressing the problem of supporting geographically-dispersed SILs. Online mentoring and community models have been used successfully in other contexts to support novices that are geographically isolated from potential mentors and their peers. SILs are different from mentees in most mentoring literature; traditional mentees are either career employees or students being mentored for their academic success. In this study, SILs are being supported for a part-time, fixed-term role that few intend to continue as a career.

The following research questions were investigated:
Research Question 1: What models are appropriate for mentoring geographically-dispersed Supplemental Instruction Leaders?
Research Question 2: In what ways does participation in an online SIL support program impact on mentors, mentees and community members?

The study consisted of two phases, each addressing the corresponding research question. In Phase 1, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted into the development of an online mentoring model for geographically-dispersed SILs. A new theoretical framework was developed from Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) and Social Exchange Theory (Emerson, 1976; Homans, 1958) to inform the design of the model. This framework assisted in understanding how mentoring happens, and why mentors and mentees might participate in it.

In Phase 2 the model was investigated twice using a qualitative, multiple-case study methodology. There were 30 participants from six campuses of five Australasian universities in the first study, and 67 participants from 27 campuses of 25 academic institutions from three continents in the second study. Data were analysed using a deductive approach based on the theoretical framework. Key findings of this research were:

A model for the mentoring of geographically-dispersed SILs.

An understanding of the impacts of the model on participating SILs. Role modelling was found to be the component of mentoring most used for SIL development; this is interesting given Ensher, Heun and Blanchard’s (2003) proposition that “role modelling may be the function of mentoring that is least efficiently done in a virtual setting” (p. 273).

A set of design variables for the development and expression of mentoring models. These variables address an identified need in the literature for clarity in academic communications about mentoring.

A new theoretical framework for understanding mentoring. This framework provides a more comprehensive understanding of mentoring than either of its components.

This research has significance for online mentoring and higher education in general, and more specifically, the support of geographically-dispersed, part-time staff, such as SILs and university tutors or teaching assistants.

Retention of engineering students from the freshmen year to the sophomore year is a concern of many engineering institutions. Also of concern is the ability of students to take knowledge learned in one application and transfer it to another application. To address these issues the Engineering program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) has recently redesigned its freshmen Introduction to Engineering Design course (IED) to excite students to independently learn, to create an environment for peer learning, to increase student in-class and out of class participation, and to emphasize and connect the role of graphical communication in the design process. It is believed that these objectives are instrumental for exciting students about engineering, for increasing student retention, for motivating learning, and for improving students' knowledge transfer capabilities especially in the application of engineering design. This paper provides an overview of the UTC IED course, its objectives and project structure and how students use projects and technology, specifically, computer-based systems such as SolidWorks software to enhance learning.

This article gives an overview of a piece of qualitative research conducted at a women’s university in the United Arab Emirates. The aim of the study was to evaluate the English language peer tutoring programme in order to highlight benefits and challenges, and to make informed improvements. The study drew particularly on participant perceptions and observations of the programme. It identified various benefits for tutors such as learning through teaching and becoming more responsible while doing something worthwhile to help others. Benefits for tutees included improved levels of self-confidence and English language aptitude. The study also highlighted several challenges associated with the high dependence and low metacognitive awareness demonstrated by the tutees. In addition, tutors were not always able to offer appropriate assistance. Improvements to the programme could include increasing faculty involvement, improving tutee awareness of the aims of the programme, and providing additional assistance to tutors.

This article focuses on the process of collectively translating a short text by Carlo Lucarelli, a prominent Italian crime writer. Lucarelli’s novels explore a range of problems affecting contemporary Italian society, including corruption, state violence and organised crime. Consequently they are deeply rooted in their culture of origin, while also fitting into a recognisable globalised genre. This makes Lucarelli’s writing a challenge to translate while also, potentially, making it quite marketable in translation, since it can hold considerable appeal for overseas audiences. I reflect on the translation challenges from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The practical angle is based on my experience leading a group of translators, together with Lucarelli himself, at the 2013 Translation Winter School, dedicated to crime fiction, in Melbourne. Over a number of days, workshop participants prepared a consensus translation of an excerpt of Lucarelli’s work, exploring practical...

... from others), and Task Value (judgments of how interesting, useful, and important course content is to the student). ... We conducted MANOVA to determine the effect of PBL on students' self-reported use of learning strategies. We found a statistically significant mean difference ...

Las actuaciones educativas inclusivas favorecen la adquisición de los aprendizajes, así como la creación de un clima de convivencia igualitario. En este contexto de aula inclusiva, este trabajo nace del interés por describir una experiencia de aula desarrollada en un centro público de Educación Infantil y Primaria, mediante una propuesta de aula inclusiva. Para ello, se ha organizado en dos partes: la primera, donde se desarrolla el marco teórico que sustenta, desde un punto de vista científico, la importancia de implementar estrategias sobre aprendizaje entre iguales que ayuden a obtener el éxito de todo nuestro alumnado y la segunda, donde se detalla la experiencia identificado estrategias didácticas y organizativas de aula que favorecen la inclusión, como medidas que persiguen la igualdad de oportunidades así como de aprendizaje para todo el alumnado.

Learning is said to take place all the time. In our daily lives, we are constantly seeking new information during our interaction with the people around us, especially our peers. Often, this form of peer learning is ad-hoc and informal. It is not structured or designed with specific learning outcomes in mind.

The literature review indicated that learning style has an important role in self-regulated learning process, so the purpose of this study was to examine relationship between cognitive learning style, a kind of learning style, and self-regulated learning strategies _resource management, help seeking, peer learning, effort regulation and metacognitive strategies. Participants were 170 undergraduate students (19-25 years old) who were registered in psychology courses in 2013 at Islamic Azad university Azadshahr branch. Measurement tools were the Group Embedded ) and Motivated Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, &McKeachie,1991). Result showed distribution of all variables tends to normal distribution. Students' scores in all variables were about middle except resource management and help seeking. Path analysis with Amos 21 showed that cognitive learning style scores significantly affect only the students' help seeking strategy scores (path coefficient = -0/262), and the goodness of fit of model was adequate(CMIN=29/9, CMIN/DF=2/9, RMSEA=0/055. GFI=0/89 and AGFI=0/87).

The present paper presents an eight-week project which promote the language learning of primary school children using reciprocal peer learning with the support of the ICT .The project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners in Catalonia with Englishspeaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish primary school. Each week, the children wrote or corrected a text, depending on their role, tutor or tutee, and sent messages to their peers. Before, during and after the intervention, data was collected in order to analyze the children's improvements. The results of this study show how Internet technology can be leveraged with reciprocal peer tutoring to enhance first and foreign language learning. The project has given the children the opportunity to exchange cultural knowledge and to see the differences as a positive resource for learning.

The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in addressing global development agenda, including the key Millennium Development Goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women, is being increasingly recognised. ICTs, by themselves, however cannot be effective if they do not address the central issue of women’s access and control over technology, which relates to the opportunity available to them to use the resources in their own contexts. This paper examines the use of, attitudes towards and barriers to ICT access amongst female learners in a Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Computer Application offered through distance mode by Indira Gandhi National Open University. The paper highlights the local contexts within which attitudes towards the use of technology are shaped and barriers to access are embedded. Finally, based on the discussion, the paper points to the need for ICT‐enabled learning to be cognisant of the above aspects and suggests interventions to increase female participation in open and distance learning to enable the move towards gender equality.

""The Telemachus Ancient History Mentor Program (informally known as Tele’s Angels) has been offering peer-led transition services to first-­year students in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University since 2002. Tele’s Angels volunteer Mentors create a ‘learning community’ by providing their first-­year colleagues with transition assistance, academic support and resources, and networking for and amongst students and staff. Individual mentoring is offered, as well as free peer-­support services that focus on developing academic skills and building social networks. The program also focuses on student leadership – a key objective is that Mentors themselves are beneficiaries of all activities, embodying the program motto: “to give is to receive”. This paper will discuss how the program encourages and supports the diversity of the student cohort, cultivates learning and leadership opportunities, and facilitates connections that assist with resilience.""

This paper describes a collaborative action research study in which peer assisted learning was deployed simultaneously across a range of disciplines in two institutes of technology in Ireland.The aim of the research was to determine if peer assisted learning enhances the learning experience of first year participants. An action research approach was selected and involved three phases between 2009 and 2011. The implementation of each phase was informed by a review of the previous phase. The third phase also incorporated the rollout and evaluation of a new peer assisted learning student leadership module (an elective 5 ECTs European Credit and Accumulation Transfer System) in both institutes.This paper focuses on both quantitative and qualitative data from the first year experience student survey, which was designed and deployed in phase one and repeated in phase two. The survey is supplemented by data from focus groups with student leaders and session reviews. Qualitative data was an...

Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing places undergraduate students in peer learning partnerships: 3rd year students as tutors, and 1st year students as tutees during practical skill learning. A study was designed to investigate this peer learning project. One of the research questions in particular on the role of the tutors: How do 3rd year nursing students carry out their role as supervisors for 1st year students in the skills laboratory? The study had an exploratory design. Qualitative data was gathered by three members of a research team, using video recordings of the supervised sessions and focus group interviews with both 1st and 3rd year students. Data collection was repeated in 2006e2007e2008 in different groups of students. Four identified themes illustrate how the 3rd year students supervise during the performance of the procedures in the skills laboratory:

This case study uses the How People Learn (HPL) framework as the conceptual model to examine an online course in a teacher licensure program for evidence of high level learning outcomes that involve collaboration, reflection, mentoring, and problem solving. The HPL framework focuses on the learning environment and indicates that effective learning takes place to the extent that the learning environment is learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. Analysis of the data resulted in themes that coincide with the elements of the HPL framework: professional growth, peer learning, teaching presence, and collaboration. The design of the course appeared to have a positive impact on student learning as far as complex problem solving and collaboration with peers. Results of the study demonstrate that the HPL framework provides a powerful structure for creating and assessing environments conducive to the work of prospective professionals.

This paper explores the use of stories on military history as a basis for introducing accounting concepts to non-accounting students studying accounting for the first time. These stories were used to encourage a deep learning approach by allowing students to develop their own meanings in accounting based on already understood meanings in military history. Developed meanings were validated through shared peer learning. Results indicated interest and confidence in the study of accounting, and understanding of key accounting concepts were greatly enhanced through creating a link between military history, a familiar domain of knowledge and the unfamiliar domain of accounting.

In collaborative learning, interaction among learners is essential for effective knowledge acquisition and increased understanding. Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments often inhibit or cause problems with learner-learner interactions. This book takes an applied perspective of what the instructor can do to identify and manage learner-learner relationships in a CSCL environment. This information will provide insight to both corporate trainers and K-12 and university educators on how instructors can promote appropriate and positive learner-learner interaction in CSCL environments. Computer-Supported.Collaborative.Learning Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) allows group learning to take place in computer-mediated environments. To receive the full benefit of social learning, collaborative learners must interact with each other, share information, and coordinate actions. Unfortunately, research has indicated computer mediation creates potential barriers to learner-learner interaction. Specifically, members of computer-mediated teams tend to experience slower development of trust, cohesion, efficacy, and shared cognition, all of which impact whether learners interact effectively. A concern for instructional developers and designers is how to foster effective learner-learner interactions in CSCL environments. xiii Acknowledgment This book would not have been possible without the support of several people. We would first like to thank the chapter authors. Without their scholarly achievements, applied experience, and informative contributions, this book would not exist. Each and every one was a pleasure to work with, across boundaries of time and space. We are equally grateful to our reviewers (many of which were chapter authors) who helped with the blind review process. This was instrumental in producing such an outstanding publication. In addition, we would like to thank S. Pixy Ferris and Susan Godar, the editors for "Teaching and Learning with Virtual Teams." A chapter we published in their book spawned the idea for this collection. In addition, we would like to thank Dr. Steve Zaccaro, whose work on team leadership formed the foundation of our approach to understanding the role of the instructor in promoting learner-learner interactions. We would also like to thank our editors, Kristin Roth and Jessica Thompson. We appreciate all their competence, time, and expertise as they supported us in this process. They knew exactly when to be flexible and when to push. Finally, we would like to thank our husbands, Scott Lassiter and Brendan Crowley, both of whom helped on the home front while their wives spent many after-work hours on the computer to get this publication finished.

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs ... Self-service education: Smartphones as a catalyst for in- ... Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Pettit, John (2007). Self-service education: Smartphones as a catalyst for infor-mal ...

Learning and teaching have been conceptualized and executed in many styles, such as self-learning, peer learning, and interaction between the learner and mentor. Today, openness to alternative ideas and embracing innovative approaches in nursing education are encouraged in order to meet students' learning interests and needs, and to address ever-changing healthcare requests. Problem-based learning has been widely adopted in nursing education, with various positive effects on students' learning, such as motivated learning, team work, problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Role-plays have been demonstrated as an effective learning strategy that includes an active and experiential feature that facilitates students' autonomy in their health-related learning. However, there is a lack of discussion of whether and how role-play can be used in problem-based learning (PBL). This paper shows the development of a classroom-based innovation using role-play in the PBL class for higher diploma year-one nurse students (a total of 20 students, five per group). This paper consists of five sections: a) the literature on PBL and nurse education, and role-plays as the innovation; b) the PBL case scenario with the illustration of the two role-play scripts, c) student evaluation on role-play in the PBL class; d) discussions on both achievements and limitations of this innovation, and e) the conclusion. It is hoped that this paper will be an example to other nurse educators who are keen on exploring interactive and student-driven learning and teaching strategies in the PBL class.

Traditional forestry education and outreach activities tend to focus on transfer-of-knowledge, often through workshops initiated and led by professionals to “teach” landowners about forest management and conservation. Less than 10 percent of family forest owners in the US have a management plan, participated in cost-share programs, certified their forest land, or hold a conservation easement, suggesting flaws in this traditional model. Some researchers and practitioners have suggested the need for a paradigm shift away from transfer-of-knowledge to more facilitative, participatory approaches, among which peer learning has gained growing attention and is supported by a number of behavioral theories. By analyzing data from participant feedback of a peer learning pilot program in Massachusetts and a follow-up mail survey, this paper examines the perceived usefulness of peer-to-peer interactions and the effect of peer learning over time. The results suggest peer learning did not only appeal to landowners with forestry background, but also succeeded in attracting inexperienced landowners. Participants rated their peer-to-peer experience positively. The retention of information obtained through the program was reflected by participants’ ability to correctly identify foresters, land trust organizations, and reasonable sources of forestry or land management advice. Participants also shared a strong willingness to spread information obtained through peer learning. This study contributes to the identification of potential barriers to and opportunities for peer learning, informs forestry extension efforts in the US and beyond, and highlights the importance of integrating peer learning into the broader forestry education, technical assistance, and financial incentive programs to increase participation and promote sustainable forest management and conservation.