“We Were Told We’re Not Teachers … It Gets Difficult to Draw the Line”: Negotiating Roles in Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS)

Abstract

Peer learning models in pre-service teacher education are in the early stages of implementation. In this article, we evaluated a pilot Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program that supplemented a course for pre-service teachers at one New Zealand university. PASS participants discussed experiences of the program, revealing tensions between what students and facilitators felt should happen in PASS, and how they acted differently. We explained these tensions by considering how social and cognitive congruence operated between students and facilitators. The majority of our peer facilitators were pre-service teachers, suggesting these intersecting roles offered important considerations for reciprocity in near-peer relationships, and joint negotiations of roles and responsibilities. We conclude this article with implications for future training of PASS facilitators, including those training as teachers.

Keywords:

• near-peer relationships
• peer-assisted study
• peer learning
• pre-service teacher education