Page History: Learning Path #1: What is Peer Learning?
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Learning Path #1: What is Peer Learning?
Adult Learning, social learning and other learning theories - just a peek!¶
A brief overview of the theory and research showing value of peer and social learning. Relating peer and social learning concepts with each other.
(is there any relevance for the librarians in the field re children? Are they facilitating peer learning with kids in their libraries? if yes, we should eventually have a section on this.)What Peer Learning is NOT!
There are many ways we learn. Not all of them involve peers. But if you get creative, just about any solo learning experience can become peer learning. All you have to do is invite in at least one other person.
For example, self pace learning modules that rely solely on sequenced content is not peer learning. UNLESS you do it with someone else.
Listening to a recorded webinar is not peer learning, but the fact that someone else took the time to make previous interactions available to others is an indication of relationship and accountability to others - to peers - for learning. Teams are dedicated to completing a shared task in a specific time. But along the way, they can learn together.
The bottom line? We each know a lot. When we make that available to each other through both interactions and the artifacts of our interactions (summaries, blog posts, recordings) we all learn. That's peer learning!
Related Approaches
There are many terms and approaches that involve peers learning with and from peers. Some of them are very specific types of peer interactions. It is helpful to have some sense of these approaches. You may choose to use one or more of them in your work. Below is a short description of each one with a link to either a one-page overview or to an existing external resource on the approach. (Our goal here is not to reinvent things, but to make them easy to find and use!)
- Communities of Practice (we could have a one page for each of these elements on the site or a linkto an external page that does a great job. This role models collaborative creation and use of content. I'll prioritize one or two for the Feb training, then we can add from there.)
- http://www.kstoolkit.org/Communities+of+Practice
- http://delicious.com/choconancy/WSL+communities_of_practice
- Learning Networks (thematic networks, personal learning networks) - Connecting to learn
- PLNhttp://www.slideshare.net/dwarlick/personal-learning-networkshttp://mollybob.wordpress.com/tag/personal-learning-network/ http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=1704
- Peer Coaching - "We all need somebody to lean on..."
- http://webserver3.ascd.org/ossd/peercoaching.html
- http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/docs/articles/Peer-Coaching-Overview.pdf
- http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/cultivate_your_coaching_networ.html"Coaching, to put it simply, is the process of helping others to improve performance now and developing their capacity to perform well in the future. It's about changing behavior to make things better.Because the process of change is difficult and can provoke anxiety,people often resist it. The forces of inertia are strong, but effective coaching can surmount them. Peer-to-peer coaching is fun, because it involves learning and solving real problems; it's free; and, I've found, just about anyone can do it."
- http://www.autismnetwork.org/modules//academic/pc/index.html (nice "how to" section)
- Mentoring - "Standing on the shoulders of giants" (at least those who have been in the game longer!)
- http://www.mentoring.org/find_resources/
- From wikipedia "Mentorship refers to a personal developmentalrelationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable personhelps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The receiver ofmentorship was traditionally referred to as a protégé, or apprenticebut with the institutionalization of mentoring the more neutral word"mentee" was invented and is widely used today."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentoring
- Action Learning
- From wikipedia"Action learning is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. This concept is close to learning-by-doing and teaching through examples and repetitions." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning (Question:is there any problem using wikipedia as a resource with WS Librarians?I know there is some sensitivity in some groups)
- See also Inquiry Based Learning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning
- http://www.humtech.com/opm/grtl/OLS/OLS2.cfm
- Informal Learning
- http://marciaconner.com/intros/informal.html Conner, Marcia L. "Informal Learning." 1997-2009.
http://www.marciaconner.com/intros/informal.html "Informal learningdescribes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes,values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educational influences and resources in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library andthe mass media.:" - From Jay Cross a short You Tube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlETGJ0mnnohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlETGJ0mnno (10 minutes Maybe not so short!)
- Personal Board of Directors
- http://www.schaefersblog.com/create-a-personal-board-of-directors-part-i/
- http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/looking-out.html
- Self Help Groups/Support Groups
- From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Support_group "In a support group,members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and non material, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences,listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks."
Peer Learning ResourcesPeer Learning Resources
- Table relating some of these different forms to peer learning (just an idea at this point)
