ABSTRACT
We may learn a great deal by reflecting on the problems we encounter. Thus, in this chapter, colleagues who are practitioners of peer tutoring, paired learning or cooperative learning or experts in a key field reflect on problems they have encountered, solutions they have tried or on new directions their work is taking. Several focus on a particular issue or problem while others take a more holistic approach. We start with Melissa Highton from Napier University, Edinburgh, UK, who describes how she and her team addressed the ‘weak links’ in Napier's volunteer tutoring scheme. Next, Jim Wood from the University of Newcastle, UK, considers similar issues relating to quality and funding in the context of their student tutoring for degree credit scheme. Barbara McCombs from Denver Research Institute then reflects on how we might better motivate our students, and Daphne Hampton and Margo Blythman from the London College of Printing describe their study support scheme designed to help combat absenteeism. Ruth Cohen, David Boud and Jane Sampson from the University of Technology, Sydney, discuss the problems of assessing peer-assisted learning. Next, Erin Wilson of LaTrobe University, Melbourne, writes of her experiences of organizing peer learning to support studying at a distance. Dianna Newbern and Donald Dansereau then describe the evolution of their Scripted Co-operative Dyad technique. The penultimate contribution is from Robert Neale and Deborah Laurs from Massey University, New Zealand, who reflect on co-operative learning in the teaching of writing. Finally, Neal Whitman reflects more generally on problems associated with peer tutoring encountered in the medical school at the University of Utah.
