ABSTRACT
At all levels of schooling and across the curriculum, instructors seeking to guide their students into more robust, accessible, versatile, and transferable learning, opt with growing frequency to implement peer learning in their classrooms. More than 20 years ago, the government's Coleman Report (Coleman, 1973) suggested that collaborative activities are the most effective means for initiating adolescents more fully into academic culture. Empirical evidence from the ensuing 2 decades of research and testing (e.g., Brown 8c Palincsar, 1989; Heller, Keith, & Anderson, 1992; Thornton & Sokoloff, 1990; Webb, 1989, 1991) supports this trend, giving teachers hope of greater conceptual and procedural gains for their students, closer match of instructional techniques to a variety of student learning styles, greater enjoyment of the learning task, and a stronger persistence in learning.
