The document discusses the peer-assisted learning strategy (PALS), where teachers pair students together to work on academic activities. With PALS, students can be paired with classmates of different abilities to tutor each other and improve skills like reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. The strategy has been shown to work for all grades from preschool to 6th grade. Pairing students allows them to learn together through social interaction, supporting constructivist views of learning through collaboration with peers.

1. LEARNING STRATEGIES TO
PROMOTE LEARNING
Amber Eckels
SOE-115-B2
Kendall College

2. PEER- ASSISTED LEARNING
STRATEGY
The peer assisted learning strategies are used
in many classrooms today. Also known as (PALS),
this is a class wide tutoring program. It involves
teachers pairing a student with a classmate to
work on activities to achieve academic needs for
both students.
The students that are paired together can
change over time. Thbis strategy has been proven
to promote achievements in reading, vocabulary,
and students comprehension skills.

3. WHY WOULD WE USE THIS
STRATEGY?
There are many benefits to this
teaching strategy, but I believe
the most important one is that
it is a technique used to help
the children progress their
development together.

4. WHAT GRADES CAN USE THIS?
Pals has been shown to work with all different grades. It initially started with children in grades 2-6.
I have personally used this working with my pre-school and kindergarten children. I found that it helps them
improve many different functions from cognitive to physical, and to social. It took some children time to warm
up to this, but once they became comfortable with a partner on their level they worked hard to improve simple
skills.
I would pair up my preschoolers to do something as simple as do a puzzle. I would place one child who could
almost complete it with the child who did not know where to start. My student who knew what to do showed the
other child, and they learned together how to finish the task.

5. PAIRING
Here are some of the common
tutoring Models for K-12
collected from
http://www.peertutoringresource.
org/2015/05/introduction-to-the-
common-peer-tutoring-models-
used-in-k-12/ .

6. THEORIES
BEHIND PEER
ASSISTED
LEARNING
STRATEGIES
I believe that the peer-assisted learning strategy ties in with Constructivist
views of learning. This is a term used by philosophers, curriculum designers,
psychologist, educators, and many more.
“Constructivist perspectives are grounded in the research of Piaget; Vygotsky;
the Gestalt psychologist; Bartlett, Bruner, and Rogoff; as well as the
philosophy of John Dewey and the work in anthology of Jean Lave; to mention
just a few intellectual roots” (Woolfolk,2016 Ch.10 pg. 373)
This was said to believe there is no one constructive theory, but I believe that
peer- assisted learning falls in with the second central point that all these
theorist agreed upon.
“Social interactions are important in this knowledge construction process.”
(Bruning, Schraw, & Norby; 2011)
In my opinion peer-assisted learning is nothing but social interaction, and
interactions with others is so crucial to a child's development.

7. REFERENCES
 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/SLDRP1502_4
 http://www.peertutoringresource.org/2015/05/introduction-to-the-common-peer-tutoring-models-
used-in-k-12/
 Woolfolk,2016
 http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-14673-3_7