Peer teaching benefits students and teachers

Upperclassmen, with years of scheduling classes, declaring majors and navigating the social scene under their belts, are traditionally willing to offer a wealth of advice and wisdom to their more recently matriculated peers. But in addition to knowing the easiest classes to fulfill the natural sciences requirement and what times the Rez gives out free muffins, juniors and seniors, after two or three years of university education and two decades of life experience, possess valuable knowledge and perspectives on a wide range of interests and passions. The Experimental College at Tufts University recognizes and aims to take advantage of just that.

As an integral part of the Experimental College, or ExCollege, rising juniors and seniors are encouraged to apply to serve as peer teachers. Peer teaching provides students with the opportunity to educate their peers about a topic of their choice. Two examples are Perspectives and Explorations classes, in which incoming first-year students take a seminar class taught by upper-level undergraduates. Students in the classes are still assigned a Tufts faculty member to serve as their pre-major advisor, but they also receive a peer mentor and sense of community in a group of new students as they navigate the college scene for the first time.

Peer-taught classes in the fall 2014 semester include curricula under titles ranging from “Game of Thrones and Political Theory” to “Bossypants: Women in the Workforce.” But perhaps what is more valuable than the unconventionality of the educational topics offered through the ExCollege is the perspectives from which they are being taught. Ingrained in the fibers of the curricula are threads of modern opinion, youthful voice and camaraderie that are often lacking in a traditional professor-student dynamic. It is this difference that creates a unique platform for discussion and learning that is both thought-provoking and personal without the pressure of compromised professionalism.

And with teaching comes new understanding. As peer teachers are forced to listen to and reflect on the opinions and perspectives of their peer students, they are presented with an opportunity to gain novel insight on a topic in which they consider themselves well-versed. Peer-taught classes are an opportunity that should be taken advantage of by the entire Tufts population, either as peer teachers or students opting to take student-led classes. Peer-taught ExCollege classes underscore the idea that within every person is both a teacher and a student.