Peer Learning Beyond the Curriculum in University Statistics Courses.

Peer learning in statistics can occur in a variety of settings, including class collaborations and assessment in the form of group projects. Most reports indicate that it has positive effects on learning. However, peer learning can also be organised by students themselves outside course requirements, to similar positive effect. In this paper, we investigate this second form, sometimes referred to as 'peer learning beyond the curriculum'. The parameters of the project were derived from a similar study in the discipline of music, conceived as an action research collaboration between students and academics. A series of focus group interviews was carried out with students in a range of university statistics classes, introductory and later-year, majoring in statistics or studying statistics as a component of another discipline. These were arranged and run by a group of statistics students participating as researchers and peer learners in a 'vertical' research team that also included more experienced academics from statistics and other disciplines. The team found that first-year students were well aware of the academic and social benefits of forming study groups to support each other's statistics learning, and they gave clear advice to future students to do so. By contrast, peer learning in later-year classes played a more nuanced role that seemed to depend on the major discipline in which statistics was being studied - possibly due to the particular aspects of statistics that were in focus. Comparisons with peer learning in other disciplines shed more light on the various ways that peer learning in statistics can be utilised in different contexts, and suggest various implications for improving statistics pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]