"Peer" is an equal, one belonging to the same group, for example based on age or grade. Peer tutoring is a teaching method in which students are taught to provide individual instruction for other students.
Center on Accelerating Student Learning (CASL)--U.S. Department of Education (1999-2004)
Lynn Fuchs, Ph.D., and Doug Fuchs, Ph.D., Principal Investigators
Peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS) is a method of extending the capacity of classroom teachers in elementary schools to accommodate the increasingly broad range of students and to help a large proportion of these children achieve success. PALS accommodates student diversity by "decentering" the teaching and learning process--reorganizing classrooms so that, for part of the school day, students with students and assume an active role in their own learning. Procedures have been developed for using PALS in reading and math instruction. Repeated evaluations of PALS Reading and Math indicate that mainstreamed students with learning disabilities, low-performing students without disabilities, average-achieving students, and high-achieving students make greater progress in reading and math in PALS classrooms than in typically structured classrooms. In addition, students with disabilities are better known and better liked in these restructured classes. Finally, students report enjoying their reading and math instruction. PALS Reading and PALS Math have been approved by the U. S. Department of Education's Program Effectiveness Panel for inclusion in the National Diffusion Network of effective educational practices.