Is Peer Learning a real solution for improving your knowledge acquisition?
Peer learning is a learning technique that encourages collaboration and teamwork to acquire knowledge. In effect, it's the learners who, based on a different concept and information, have to answer a problem without the intervention of a teacher.
Each learner is both a receiver and a giver of knowledge. All learners work together to find a solution to a given problem. Individual skills acquired before or during teamwork are then shared between all teammates.
Also known as "horizontal" learning, the trainer, if there is one, doesn't teach anything, but can help learners during the process if necessary.
What are the origins of Peer Learning?
Peer Learning comes to us straight from Harvard University, more specifically from physicist and professor Eric Mazur. He decided to work on a new learning technique when he discovered that his students were able to successfully solve a problem, but failed to understand a concept.
Eric Mazur began developing this concept in 1991. Initially, Peer Learning was only used to explain rather short concepts between different modules, but over time it has evolved and is now fully favored over other learning methods.
One of the most important aspects of Peer Learning is to create effective conceptual questions that guide the learner perfectly. To do this, Eric Mazur recommends focusing on just one concept at a time.
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In 1997, Eric Mazur finally published a book entitled "Peer Instructions: A User's Manual". He is now recognized as a major pioneer of this technique.
What does this have to do with learning?
Learning has always been called into question, and this is even more true today. As we look for ever more effective ways to learn (such as peer learning), we realize that neuroscience could have a major role to play in the field of learning. In fact, they enable us to understand how the brain reacts when it has to learn, from acquisition to memorization. Many studies have been carried out on this subject, and new avenues are still being explored.
Here are a number of learning-related areas where neuroscience can improve ourteaching methods.
- Attention is used to select information, and is directly involved in the process of memorizing information. Its biggest drawback, however, is that it is selective: by picking up only what seems relevant, it can cause us to miss out on a great deal of information. To overcome this, we need to focus the learner on what's most important, and if we define the objectives well, we can get the audience's attention.
- Action increases the amount of information retained, by engaging the learner, whether through peer learning, another learning method or simply by involving the learner in a real-life situation. A number of studies have already shown that when you're an actor rather than a spectator, you can increase your memorization rate by over 50%.
- Feedback is benevolent and practical, as it provides interesting criticism of what you've just done. It's all the more so if you're making a mistake, as you'll tend to want an answer, and if this feedback comes some time after the mistake, it will be optimal for learning. At ChallengeMe, we always try to maintain a positive and benevolent attitude towards our teams during the challenges.
- Practicing and repeating a task frees up part of our brain to accumulate new information. Once we've repeated an action enough times, it becomes natural and no longer requires us to search our memory. It is estimated that we need to repeat a task for an average of 21 days before it no longer requires any effort on the part of our brain to perform.
So there you have it, a non-exhaustive list of what neuroscience has improved so far, and you'll probably have understood what's at stake when it comes to learning.
Why choose Peer Learning?
The advantage of Peer Learning is that it enables learners to focus on understanding rather than solving. This develops a spirit of collaboration and cooperation among learners, making them more effective.
When you follow a traditional apprenticeship with a trainer, you're a spectator, waiting for the trainer to bring you knowledge. This has several negative effects:
- A lack of interactivity that prevents us from easily retaining a range of information.
- The content taught can be quite strict and not very flexible, and there's a real lack of innovation and creativity in problem solving.
- We generally obtain a single point of view on the understanding of the problem / In contrast, Peer Learning puts the learner in a dynamic he wouldn't otherwise have: he's not just waiting to receive knowledge, he's passing it on. This enhances their listening skills, as they know they'll have to pass it on to their peers, so they'll be more focused on acquiring information.
Whereas with Peer Learning :
- Sharing the answer makes the learner think more deeply, and he wants to help his peers, so he'll try to come up with the most polished answer possible.
- By sharing his answer with his teammates, the learner will see different ways of solving a problem, and will be able to bounce back more easily should he find himself faced with such a case.
- Feedback from teammates is one of the biggest advantages of Peer Learning, because the feedback is truly personalized and adapted to the team's working environment, so the response is really tailored to each individual's needs.
- It's a technique that places the learner in a position of trust. Knowing that they are being trained by someone who shares their work and knows the ins and outs of it, they will find it easier to adapt to their environment. It will be easier for him to share his experience, because it will fit in perfectly with the team.
- This learning method can lead to Reverse Coaching if the team has a variety of age groups within the company.
ChallengeMe holds neuroscience dear
At ChallengeMe, we place a great deal of importance on neuroscience. It's a field we're passionate about, and we try to understand it as best we can to offer you learning methods that are ever more developed, interesting, and as effective as possible for you. Our ChallengeMe solution was made possible by past research in this field. It's thanks to this research that we can estimate many things, such as the percentage of information retained by the brain following a presentation.
The proposed challenges have 3 stages, during which the key elements mentioned above are applied as much as possible. For example, the 2nd stage enables you to obtain this benevolent feedback, as you will receive constructive comments from your team-mates on your way of doing things. The advantage of the 3 steps is that you can also work on repetition, with challenge content available throughout. You'll be constantly in action, reinforcing the amount of information you retain and the power of the learning you receive.
In conclusion:
Although the focus here is on their use in the world of learning, neuroscience is important in many fields. They enable us to understand how the human brain learns and memorizes, and many studies have been carried out to advance research on this subject. This is what enables us to adjust existing methods or create new learning methods to be ever more effective in acquiring knowledge.
If you're interested in this use of neuroscience in the field of learning and how the brain interprets it, you can start by reading Philippe Lacroix's book on the subject: "Neurolearning: neuroscience in the service of training".
