Research-to-Resource: Peer-Assisted Learning in the Music Program

Music educators are exploring ways to implement peer-assisted learning in their classrooms in an effort to foster a more inclusive and collaborative learning environment. By observing students in peer teaching roles, teachers can gain information related to individual levels of social appropriateness as well as skill comprehension, and additional individual repetitions of skill sequences can occur during a class period. In this research to resource article, I discuss research literature related to academic, social, and emotional benefits of peer-assisted learning. Two prominent approaches, cross-age peer tutoring and reciprocal peer tutoring, are outlined and the merits of each approach discussed. Strategies for successfully implementing peer-assisted learning in the music classroom are presented. Intelligently preparing peer-assisted learning and objectively assessing the outcome could allow this teaching and learning strategy to become a valuable part of a music teacher's classroom routine and instructional toolkit.