Studia paedagogica

Peer Learning in Higher Education: Redefining Peers, Expanding Opportunities, and Mapping the Limits

2026-10-23T14:58:54+02:00

Reconceptualizing Peer Learning in Higher Education: Creating a Sense of Belonging, Mattering, and Reciprocal Learning for Students and Teaching Staff

2026-10-23T15:06:07+02:00

The benefits of peer learning are widely recognized in education, yet there are differences in the definitions and understanding of how peer learning unfolds, is experienced, and can be effectively supported under evolving conditions. This article contributes to the growing research interest in this area within higher education (HE) and argues for rethinking the definition of peer learning to include students and teachers as peers. The article starts with a critical discussion of the literature on peer learning, power dynamics in relationships, and creating the environment for engagement. Drawing on reflections from students and teaching staff during a two-year student-staff partnership project involving three UK universities, this study aims to highlight the importance of collaboration between students and teachers

Democratic Approaches in the Co-Production of Learning Spaces in Higher Education: Facilitating Peer Learning Through the Co-Design of Gamified Digital Resources in International Contexts

2026-10-23T15:12:32+02:00

In this article, we consider how student participation in the design and development of a project to create interactive digital resources for extracurricular activities promotes an authentic space for learning inclusive leadership skills and the soft skills needed for future employment. Through the voices of students in the UK and international settings, insights are provided into the importance of understanding the role of the third space for peer learning, innovation, and practice. The project aimed to encourage students to build relationships: student to student, student to lecturer, and student to community. Participation in the design and development of an extensive gamified digital learning tool enhanced opportunities for peer learning and developing inclusive leadership skills. This learning, which is in addition to the formal curriculum, furthers the aim of higher education institutions in meeting the educational needs of culturally heterogenic student bodies, including international students, and develops agency and skills relevant to their future employment. The research sites were located in the UK and France. The data were collected through visual data of co-creation workshops and recorded interactions, field notes and observations, researcher diaries, semi-structured individual interviews with staff and students, and focus group interviews.

Case Studies of Interdisciplinary Peer Learning Strategies in Higher Education

2026-02-27T17:37:16+01:00

Peer learning in higher education is a key pedagogical strategy to encourage increased student agency and an equitable, inclusive position of learners as co-creators of knowledge resulting in multi-faceted positive impacts for the learning process. However, the specific design or incorporation of peer learning into curricula remains variable across disciplines and institutional contexts. This paper examines peer learning as an intentionally designed pedagogical strategy through the lens of different disciplines and interdisciplinary environments using a variety of frameworks. Drawing on theoretical and practice-based case studies from humanities, software engineering, and technology management the paper explores how disciplinary epistemologies shape challenges and possibilities around assessment strategies and peer co-creation of knowledge. The paper suggests general design principles for embedding strategies across curricula and offers transferable suggestions for implementing meaningful experiences.

Peer Learning in Hystology Education: Insights from Slovak and International Medical Students

2026-10-23T15:25:29+02:00

To address student passivity and uneven participation in a foundational Histology and Embryology course at the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University Bratislava, peer learning was introduced in small-group sessions. In these sessions, groups of five students observed histological specimens, identified organ structures, and prepared to present their findings to their peers. This activity was intended to promote shared accountability, communication skills, and ownership of the learning process among students. It was implemented in both the Slovak- and English-language medical programs, which are attended by domestic and international students. This enabled a direct comparison between the two groups, who study the same curriculum in parallel but in separate learning environments. The study employed a quantitative design based on anonymous questionnaires completed by 96 Slovak students and 48 international students. The study compared students’ perceptions and experiences of peer learning. The results showed that international students were more engaged; Slovak students expressed a greater preference for individual work. These findings indicate that cultural and motivational factors influence attitudes toward peer learning. These results suggest that the effective implementation of peer learning in medical education requires culturally responsive strategies that account for differences between domestic and international students, while gradually developing collaborative skills and maintaining space for individual responsibility.

From Managerialism to Mutuality: The World café as Structured Dialogic Peer Learning in MBA Sustainability Education

2026-10-25T15:11:21+01:00

Peer learning and dialogic pedagogy are well established in Higher Education research but remain underutilized in MBA education, where transmissive and expert-centered formats continue to dominate. This article examines the World Café method as a structured dialogic peer-learning architecture within an MBA sustainability and responsible leadership module at a UK business school. Adopting a qualitative case-study design and inductive thematic analysis, the study investigates the World Café through methodological symmetry: the dialogic architecture under examination was redeployed as a structured research World Café to generate empirical data. Additional sources included artifact analysis, student eflections, surveys, and observational field notes. Rather than evaluating pedagogical effectiveness, the study analyzes how conversational architecture organizes participation, meaning-making, affective engagement, and the distribution of epistemic authority, and how these processes are shaped by institutional conditions. Findings indicate that the World Café supported affective safety, broad participation, cumulative co-construction of meaning, and redistribution of epistemic authority, while remaining constrained by spatial, organizational, and curricular norms. The article contributes an empirically grounded account of structured dialogic peer learning as pedagogical infrastructure in professional postgraduate education, foregrounding its relational, material, and institutional dimensions.

Peer Learning Through stace-Taking: How Students Engage with AI-Generated Images in Intercultural Virtual Exchanges

2026-10-25T15:20:34+01:00

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) raises questions about how future professionals engage with AI-generated content, which may reproduce stereotypes and cultural biases. This study examines how university students in virtual exchanges engage with AI-generated images, offering an interactional perspective on peer learning, which is achieved by deploying practices through which students negotiate interpretations and take stances as part of intercultural competence. Drawing on video-recorded interactions from six student groups participating in two international virtual exchanges involving universities in Austria, Czechia, and Finland, the study analyzes how students collaboratively produce assessments, epistemic accounts, and (dis)align with their peers, taking stances toward AI-generated visual content depicting everyday situations in their university cities. The analysis demonstrates how students reject or problematize AI-generated representations by treating them as laughable and ridiculing them, or by producing downgraded assessments and detailed epistemic accounts. The detailed description of these interactional practices contributes to the emerging body of research that calls for critical engagement with AI-generated content and highlights how peer learning in the area of intercultural competence unfolds through stance-taking in virtual exchanges.

What Was Your Name Again? Fostering Peer Learning and Belonging in a Seminar Group in Legal Education

2026-10-25T15:27:24+01:00

This paper reports on the results of an innovation introduced in the Legal Skills course. As the course instructor, I implemented a practice of addressing students by their first name and encouraged students to do the same. In an environment where law instructors typically address students by surname or simply as a “colleague,” deliberately learning the names of 53 students represented a true pedagogical challenge. The rationale was as follows: first, in legal education, professional identity and relational competence are as important as knowledge itself. It is essential that future lawyers learn to use names in communication with clients and colleagues. Second, addressing each other by name supports a sense of belonging. Third, when students know and use each other’s names, they can more easily overcome barriers to engagement and interact meaningfully with their peers. In other words, addressing each other by name may support conditions for peer learning. To evaluate the innovation, I used an anonymous post-course survey, peer observation, a reflective journal, and an institutional course evaluation. The findings indicate that deliberate name learning and consistent use of students’ names contribute to stronger perceptions of recognition, belonging, and peer interaction within relatively large seminar groups.

Supplemental Instruction at Uliége: Measuring Implementation Fidelity in Peer-Assisted Study Session

2026-10-25T15:32:57+01:00

Since 2019, Supplemental Instruction – Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (SI-PASS) has been implemented across four faculties at the University of Liège. Previous evaluations relied mainly on attendance records and self-reported questionnaires, offering limited insight into the actual dynamics of the sessions. To address this gap, 41 SI-PASS meetings were video recorded and analyzed using Noldus Observer XT. Through a structured observation grid, this study provides a rare process-level view of peer learning, examining leader behaviors, interaction patterns, and adherence to SI-PASS core principles. The results reveal moderate rather than full compliance with the official model, as leaders frequently adapted or shortened prescribed practices to meet contextual demands. These findings suggest that the ULiège implementation represents a local variation of SI-PASS, underscoring the importance of fidelity checks and process evaluation for interpreting outcomes accurately. The study highlights the need to strengthen student-led facilitation in leader training, ensure adequate session time, and clarify what constitutes authentic SI-PASS practice to enhance both academic and social benefits for students.