Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2014, 2, 35-40
Published Online August 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.28006
How to cite this paper: Lim, L.L. (2014) A Case Study on Peer-Teaching. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 35-40.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.28006
A Case Study on Peer-Teaching
Leng Leng Lim
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
Received July 2014
Abstract
This paper reports on the feedback of a case study on peer-teaching activity in a third year univer-
sity mathematics course. The objective of the peer-teaching activity was to motivate learning and
raise student commitment. From the questionnaires conducted, students welcomed the peer-
teaching activity and their learning motivation was also improved.
Keywords
Engaging Learning, Peer-Assessment, Peer-Teaching
1. Introduction
The third year mathematics course, Complex Analysis and its Applications was undertaken largely by mathe-
matics and physics students at the university. At this point in their degree program, significant demands were
often placed on students’ time, particular those students undertaking laboratory courses. Student performance in
the course of Complex Analysis and its Applications had in part reflected these demands in the past years, ac-
companied by lowering attendance rates as the semester started. In response, we sought to introduce changes to
the course that were intended to improve student engagement and thereby improve student learning. As noted by
Brown et al., “if you want to change student learning then change the methods of assessment” [1]—we accor-
dingly decided to change the methods of assessment adopted in the course, in order to motivate students in
learning. These changes were first introduced in 2009, the introduction of quizzes, and later peer-teaching in
2011. It was also students’ first experience of peer-teaching in an assessed form.
Over the years, a number of other changes also occurred in the delivery of this course, including changes in
course content and duration, and course text. While student outcomes appeared to have improved over the roll-
ing out of these changes, it was not really possible to isolate the impact of the changes in assessment (quizzes
and peer-teaching) alone, amidst the myriad other factors that may have contributed to the improvement. In or-
der to gain further insight into the impact of quizzes and peer-teaching, as perceived by the student cohort, we
conducted surveys in order to find out their perceptions of the new assessment approaches.
This paper only reports the findings regarding the implementation of peer-teaching in the course in 2011,
based on pre- and post-course questionnaires which assessed students’ attitude toward the peer-teaching activity.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 gives a review on some literature concerning peer-teaching;
Section 3 describes the peer-teaching activity; Section 4 outlines the methodology of the surveys; Section 5
presents the outcomes of the findings; and finally, the discussion on these outcomes and the conclusion.
This study had the approval of the Research Ethics Committee of the University and students were informed

L. L. Lim
36
of the research purpose.
2. Literature Review
Assessment can be considered an educational tool for evaluating students’ performance, with assessment me-
thods chosen to suit students’ maturity levels and increase students’ involvement and interest in the courses.
Dochy and McDowell [2] highlight in their study that “there is no one ideal assessment format for all cases and
all assessment formats can have negative effects on teaching and learning”. On the other hand, Brown [3] feels
that assessment still provides the best indication to both educators and students of their performance.
In addition to monitoring students’ performance, assessment has the potential to inspire students to learn.
Reference [4] notes that assessment, as a learning activity, has an important effect on how teachers teach and
students learn. In our experience, poor student performance was often accompanied by poor attendance, either
due to the challenges of managing time between courses throughout the semester, or due to procrastination. Pro-
crastination among students is a common problem at university level, especially for mathematics [5] [6]. This
can manifest itself in students’ tendency to leave study until too late (e.g. for final examinations), to be slow in
seeking help, or to delay preparation for tutorials (sometimes resulting in non-attendance). One approach to ad-
dressing this issue—indeed, the approach undertaken here—is to improve students' learning skills and habits
through the modification of teaching methods. By creating a challenging yet interesting environment for learn-
ing and assessment, and providing opportunities for students to monitor their own progress, we hoped to develop
regular class attendance and study patterns, and thereby improve student outcomes. We also sought to create a
more stimulating, more engaging, and ultimately more rewarding learning environment for students. A strategy
adopted to achieve this end involved the use of peer-teaching.
Peer-teaching provides an atmosphere that promotes the improvement of communication skills, encourages
independent learning, and helps to develop self-confidence [7]. Because peer-teaching actively engages students
in the learning process, students gain a sense of purpose with regard to the course. In peer-teaching activity, the
peer-teachers must understand work well enough to present it to their peers, and the peers must be attentive in
order to assess the performances of their peer-teachers [8]. Students also gain a sense of stewardship over their
learning by peer-teaching and learning, as they are encouraged to learn from one another as well as from the
lecturer, as noted by Vasay [9], “peer-teaching is a technique in helping students perform better in understanding
the different concepts, especially their ability to express their ideas.” Vasay [9] also finds that students’ learning
is influenced by how they learn, with many learning best through active, collaborative, small-group work inside
and outside the classroom [10]. This certainly contributes towards the development of students’ generic skills of
team-work, time-management, organizational and presentation skills and communication of mathematics.
Most studies considering the use of peer-teaching to teach mathematics have predominantly targeted school
rather than university learning. However, we would expect that the various reflections cited above from these
studies, often made in reference to school learners, should be equally applicable to mathematics undergraduates.
The purpose of this study was to substantiate such an expectation.
3. Peer-Teaching
Complex Analysis and its Applications was a 13 week semester course and was undertaken largely by third year
mathematics and physics students, the class size was usually very small, less than 20 students. In the past years,
the overall assessment comprised take-home assignments and a final exam. As mentioned in Section 1, in order
to motivate students’ learning as well as to improve passing rate, some changes in assessment started to intro-
duce in 2009. An addition assessment peer-teaching was implemented to the course in 2011. There were only 12
students enrolled in the course in 2011. Though the class size was small, it was a convenient sample to experi-
ment a new assessment.
In the past, students received a list of course tutorial questions before each tutorial class, and they came to tu-
torial class to seek help from lecturer if they had difficulty. For the peer-teaching assessment, students took
charge of the tutorial class instead of lecturer. Students were divided into groups of three and each group took
charge of a tutorial class. We called the group members as peer-teachers. Tutorial class was run weekly and
once a week and two hours. Similarly, each week a list of tutorial questions was given to all students before the
tutorial class, so that the peer-teachers who were taking charge of the tutorial class would have time to organize,
prepare, discuss or work out tutorial questions together. The peer-teachers were allowed to seek help from the

L. L. Lim
37
lecturer before the tutorial class if they had difficulty solving the tutorial questions.
During the tutorial class, the peer-teachers would go around to help their classmates with the tutorial ques-
tions. The course lecturer was also available in the class, if the peer-teachers were unable to answer their class-
mates’ questions, the lecturer would provide assistance.
At the end of the tutorial class, the classmates and lecturer were given a mark sheet (Table 1) to access the
performance of the peer-teachers. The lecturer then collected the mark sheets and compiled the marks. This as-
sessment comprised 10% of the overall assessment of the course; 5% from the classmates and 5% from the lec-
turer. We used a 4-point Likert scale for assessing peer-teachers, 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for
agree and 4 for strongly agree.
4. Methodology
In order to seek more information from students, a pre-course questionnaire (Table 2 is the list of questions) was
conducted on the first day of the course, and a post-course questionnaire (Table 3 is the list of questions) was
conducted on the last day of the course. Students were free to decline taking part in the questionnaires. The post-
course questionnaire was same as the pre-questionnaire but with an additional question. The questionnaires were
mainly to understand students’ learning behavior as well as the usefulness and helpfulness of the peer-teaching
activity in tutorial class.
We used a 6-point Likert scale for the pre- and post-course questionnaires, 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disag-
ree, 3 for somewhat disagree, 4 for somewhat agree, 5 for agree and 6 for strongly agree. In addition, there was
also an open ended question “Do you have any comments about the way we conducted the tutorial?” in the
post-course questionnaire (Table 6) to collect feedback about the peer-teaching activity.
5. Results
Table 4 and Table 5 summarize the feedback of the pre- and post-course questionnaires, respectively. The effec-
tiveness of this activity was in part reflected in the post-course questionnaire. After the activity, 20% of the stu-
dents felt that they were not independent learner. There were about 70% claimed that they did not do revision af-
ter the lecture (67% did not in the pre-course questionnaire and 70% did not in the post-course questionnaire),
suggesting that this was indeed enforced learning that might not otherwise have taken place. Question 6 reflected
that all students were motivated by the peer-teaching activity; all enjoyed helping classmates in mathematics.
Some important changes were reflected in the response to the questions 5 and 7. Question 5 “I enjoy discussing
mathematics with classmates.” The percentage of students responding in the increased from 83% to 100%, and
question 7 “I learn better in mathematics by interacting in class.”, the percentage of students responding in the af-
firmative increased from 58% to 80%. The class was also very positive toward the peer-teaching activity; this re-
flected in the question 9 of post-questionnaire, 90% agreed that “Having to explain to my peers helped me to un-
derstand better.”
Table 6 shows the feedback from some students to the open ended question which asked in the post-question-
naire. It is apparent that students appreciated peer teaching and they were more motivated by this learning activity
in the tutorial class. Overall, the peer-teaching approach was encouraging and it engaged students in the learning
process. From the peer-teaching activity, the peer-teachers also trained themselves to be organized in order to
complete their task (the tutorial questions) on schedule in order to help their peers.
6. Discussion and Conclusion
Overall, peer-teaching activity was an encouraging tool in learning. From the questionnaires, most students be-
came motivated learners. This shows that there were needs to revise course assessment to motivate learning.
Though about two-thirds showed that they preferred to do mathematics by themselves, the majority enjoyed the
peer-teaching in the tutorial classes. Additionally, the majority indicated that they liked to help peers, as helping
others to learn motivated their own learning.
It was delighted that 92% of this 2011 cohort of students passed the course. This was higher than the previous
year (83%) with the absent of peer-teaching activity. We recognize that various factors influence student out-
comes, including the cohort themselves, the teaching staff, their adopted modes of teaching, and their methods of
assessment. Though the time frame of this case study and the course may be considered short, and the small

L. L. Lim
38
Table 1. Mark sheet for assessing peer-teachers.
1
2
3
4
The group was well prepared for the tutorial.
/4
The group understood the work well.
/4
The peer who helped me was patient when I was lost. /4
The group led the tutorial class well. /4
I am satisfied with the performance of the group.
/4
From the peer/lecturer (total)
/20
1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: agree and 4: strongly agree.
Table 2. Pre-course questionnaire questions.
Question no.
Learning
1
I am an independent learner.
2
I do revision after each mathematics lecture.
3
I am a motivated learner.
4
I prefer to do mathematics by myself.
Tutorial
5
I enjoy discussing mathematics with classmates.
6
I enjoy helping classmates in mathematics.
7
I learn better in mathematics by interacting in class.
8
I learn better in group work.
Table 3. Post-course questionnaire questions.
Question no.
Learning
1
I am an independent learner.
2
I do revision after each mathematics lecture.
3
I am a motivated learner.
4
I prefer to do mathematics by myself.
Tutorial
5
I enjoy discussing mathematics with classmates.
6
I enjoy helping classmates in mathematics.
7
I learn better in mathematics by interacting in class.
8 I learn better in group work.
9 Having to explain to my peers helped me to understand better.
Table 4. Summary of pre-questionnaire (12 students took part).
Question no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Disagree (sum of 1, 2 and 3)
Agree (sum of 4, 5 and 6)
Learning
1
0
0
0
1
6
5
0%
100%
2
0
3
5
4
0
0
67%
33%
3 0 0 2 1 6 3 17% 83%
4 0 1 2 2 4 3 25% 75%
Tutorial
5
0
0
2
6
1
3
17%
83%
6
0
0
1
2
6
3
8%
92%
7 0 1 4 2 3 2 42% 58%
8 1 1 3 1 5 1 42% 58%
1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat disagree, 4: somewhat agree, 5: agree and 6: strongly agree.

L. L. Lim
39
Table 5. Summary of post-questionnaire (10 students took part).
Question no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Disagree
(sum of 1, 2 and 3) Agree (sum of 4, 5 and 6)
Learning
1 0 1 1 1 6 1 20% 80%
2
0
4
3
1
2
0
70%
30%
3
0
1
0
4
3
2
10%
90%
4 0 2 1 3 1 3 30% 70%
Tutorial
5 0 0 0 0 8 2 0% 100%
6
0
0
1
2
4
3
0%
100%
7 0 1 1 3 3 2 20% 80%
8 0 0 0 4 6 0 40% 60%
9
0
0
4
1
2
3
10%
90%
1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat disagree, 4: somewhat agree, 5: agree and 6: strongly agree.
Table 6. Answers to the open ended question in post-course questionnaire.
Do you have any comments about the way we conducted the tutorial?
1) Tutorial helped in fine tuning techniques, this was good.
2) It was a nice idea. But I felt that in our group there were only a few who did well and
these people helped the others who could not solve the exercise by their own.
3) I do not know if everybody tried to solve the questions, but the group who did it could
always answer our questions and that was a good thing.
4) Good idea to make students learn from peers.
5) Tutorials were done well, especially with the worked answers given out afterwards.
6) Tutorials were good, especially photocopied solutions were handed out afterwards.
7) Groups were well prepared and helpful.
8) Well conducted; good for ground collaboration.
9) Running the tutorial this way (by the students) encouraged participation and helped
re-enforce our knowledge.
10) It was very good and the explanations of the students were very helpful.
cohort size also made statistical inference challenging, it was an encouraging outcome that our findings showed
that students found peer-teaching a motivating additional element in the classroom. This was particularly reflected
in the response to the question, “I learn better in mathematics by interacting in class.” However, care must be
taken with the implementation, encouraging their participation while balancing the effort that students facing
competing demands on their time are able to invest.
In conclusion, the overall activity was a positive one, with improved pass rate and generally positive feedback
from students. This positive feedback certainly leads teaching staff to extend the approach to other mathematics
and science courses, where analogous problems arise.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for the support of this work through the Griffith University Teaching and Learning Grant
and the assistance from the co-lecturer of the course, Dr Owen Jepps.
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