Part 3: Inquiry into instructional practices

Peer teaching for achange: It's in yourhands
Brad Deacon

Nagoya' City University
braddeacon@mac.com

Robert Croker
Nanzan University
robertnanzan@hotmail.com

About Brad

I am from Toronto, Canada, and am currently teaching and learning with mystudents in the Department of Humanities at Nagoya City University. I enjoy
encouraging my students to take risks in their learning and to notice how they can
impact each other in positive ways.
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About Robert

I come from Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia. I am presently en
couraging my students in the Nanzan English Program at the Seto Campus (NEPAS)
to see themselves as active language users, both in and outside of the language class
room.

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Acknowledgements

We would both like to extend a huge thank you and to commend our students herein for theircourage, efforts, and imagination.
Abstract

Though teachers are the central figures in any classroom (Stevick, 1980), some students, arid evencommunities of students, may demonstrate the desire and ability to take greater control of theirlearning. In our case, the students assumed our roles as teachers for part of a semester and took
responsibilityforplanning, conducting, and then reflecting on their lessons. In this paper, we explore
ourprocess of setting-up and conducting student peer-teaching and the consequent development ofgreater autonomy in our students. Inparticular, we willexamine the payback, orkey insights, gained
from this experience via ourown andourstudent's written reflections in order to ascertain the extent
to which students developed greater autonomy.
itWtt2CDBaiT!%>«t»4>Wa#lETtt*D*'«« (Stevick, 1980) . t%\Z\Z&£.ifl&Q%i<b$L\Z

J&*&£tft<!:&9£!!£tffi, itffU i^l^va^SrfT^SLfc. Z.ZT\t$.~?Z.<Dpeer-teaching<D#ftt,•tnt«fcoT^4^t*©«fc5t«ti3EiS'i4*iii*Tv^fc^*iaKb*-r. #c, £n\3.Z£.
izmt<z(Dm^z-D^x^^H-T^^Xo

I'm satisfiedwith today's peer teaching. Of course I got a little nervous,but I enjoyedvery much. I think everyone enjoyed too. First I found preparing is very important.
I think one reason for today's success in peer teaching was that we spent a long timeto prepare and practiced several times. Second, I learned that it is not only teachers
but also students who make classes. Another reason for today's success was students'
attitude towards our lesson. They listened and watched carefullyand worked hard.
I think this peer teaching was a greatexperience for me. (Anexcerpt taken from a
student's reflections on peer-teaching.)

Introduction

Who learns the most in school, teachers or students? When we consider that teachers are themost active agents in terms of planning, conducting, and assessing lessons, it would appear thattheyand not studentspotentially gain the mostin educational settings. Often in universities
in Japan, teacher-student roles seem to be strongly defined, and students are expected to be
merely passive and receptive. However, some students, and even communities of students, may
demonstrate the desire and ability to take greater control overtheir learningboth individuallyand collectively. Learner autonomy pushes students to breakout of traditionalroles, giving
students opportunities to be more active and in control of their learning.
One wayof challenging traditional teacher-learner roles, offering more autonomyand
enhancedlearning opportunities,is to invertthis relationship completely by invitingthe

LD SIG 2 0 0 6 A n t h o l o g y —99•Peer t e a c h i n gfor achangestudents to become the classroom teachers (see Assinder, 1991; Spratt & Leung, 2000). But
freshman students becoming the teachers of their English classes —impossible? Well, no! We
did this with freshman English major classesat Nanzan University for one semester that met
three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.We found that students developed
not only greater autonomy and confidence, but also a deeper understanding of the process oflearning, both of their own and of their peers. Students took the responsibility for planning
all aspects of their peer-teaching lesson, taught the classes, then collected, responded to,and handed back student learning log assessments of their lessons. The peer teachers thenconsolidated their impressions of this experience in a mini-report and noted the most salient
points for their future growth and development.
In this paper, we will share our experience of the handingoverand takingoverof peerteaching and consequent development of autonomy by our students via our insights and ourstudents' own written reflections. First, we will situate the background to our experience ofpeer-teaching in narrative form. Then, we will examine some of the key theoretical principles
behind peer-teaching and its relationship to autonomy. Next, we will share our approachto the process of setting-up and conducting peer-teaching lessons. Finally, we will explore
the payback, or key insights, gained from this experience through our own and the student's
perspectives in order to ascertain the extent to which students developed greater autonomy.
Background - Why do peer-teaching?

We both taught two year-long freshman oral communication courses of 20 English majors
each, meeting three times a week for 45 minutes each class. We had complete autonomy toteach our classes as we sawfit, and this left a lot of room for experimentation and negotiation
with our learners who were very motivated, and mostly at an intermediate or higher level. In
our stories below you will gain a greater understanding of the background behind our decision
to use peer-teaching with our classes.
Robert's story

Often we underestimate what our students are capable of doing. As a teacher, one of my goals is
to challenge my students, to help them explore their potential. I constantlyseekways of doing
this, through reflection on my teaching practice, chattingwith colleagues, attending workshops,
and reading widely.

The idea for asking students to lead classes initially came from my experience as a student
in an Australian high school. In my urban selective high school, teachers sought to provide
practical learning opportunities such as involving students in crafting the school's vision and in
the decision-making process of the school, in organizing outside classroom and school learning
experiences (such as music camp), and on a daily level leading classes. This experience deeply
shaped myexpectations of what I consider to be meaningful learning.
Students in Japan are often characterized as beingpassive and unwilling to demonstrateleadership. Having taught in Japanese universities for several years, I came to believe that was
because of the low expectations placed on them. I began to think that giving my students theopportunity to lead their own classes would be a worthwhile and credible challenge for them,on two levels —for eachstudent individually, and also for the class as a community.

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Deacon&CrokerBrad's story

In hindsight there were four main significant forces behind my decision to introduce and thenutilize peer-teaching in my classes. First, manystudents directly and indirectly requestedthe
opportunity themselves in their weekly action log reflection journals (Murphey, 1995, 1997;
Woo &Murphey, 1999). Student action log comments showedthat some students were alreadytutoring high schoolstudents privately —leading them to feel that they were incidentallylearning a lot about not onlylanguage but also about how to teach. I began to wonder if maybe
I should shift the curriculum to give the students an opportunity to teach in our class.
Secondly, I had peer-taught as a language learner of French and Japanese and found im
mensevalue in the practice. Research shows that those who are doing an activity while talking
about it may remember up to 90%; in contrast, merely listening offers up to a 30% retention
rate (Silverman, 1987). Intuitively I suspected that when my students taught each other in small
groups and pair work that they too were more invested and thus learning more. Could it bethat my students might derive the same kinds of rewards as language learners from peer-teaching that I had earlier?

Thirdly, I had a successful model of the approach in my colleague, Robert, who had used
peer-teaching in his classesthe previous year. I grew curious about what he had done and asked
him how he had conducted his lessons. When Robert outlined his approach, I became moreconvinced of the potential for using peer-teaching and the ways that I might introduce it in thesecond semester.

Finally, I wanted to offer my students more activities that could potentially enhance theirown autonomy and the ways they think about learning. Action log comments indicated thatmany students seemed ready to explore alternative learning paths, accept greater responsibility,
make more choices about what and how they learned, and to likewise be open to risking morein class. Peer-teaching, and the various micro-skills that are developed within this approach,
could potentially offer a rich reference experience for students to draw upon in their future.
Theoretical guiding principles

As teachers, one of our aims is to hand over as much responsibility as possible to our learners,
so they can take over control of their learning as individuals and communities (Murphey& Deacon, 2002), which implies developing learner autonomy. Yet it has been noted that
autonomy is not easy to define because it means different things to different people and is
influenced greatly by context (Benson &Voller, 1997). For our purposes, there are four mainelements in our conceptualization of learner autonomy.
Firstly, autonomy involves taking greater responsibility and control over one's learning. As
Holec (1981) has said, "autonomy is the ability to take charge of one's learning" (p.3). In orderto take greater control of their learning, students must have the ability to become aware ofchange, which leads us to our next point.
Secondly, autonomy requires conscious reflection on learning and an increasing awarenessand acceptance of one's own role in directing the learning process. Students need the time andtools to take advantage of the potential that reflection has to offer.Woo & Murphey (1999)
mention, concerning the development of skills in metacognition and autonomy throughreflection, that reflection journals are "capable of greatly intensifying the learner's own
awareness and control over the learning process" (p.15). Many others have commented on theimportance of using learning logs for developing greater student awareness and increasing
autonomy (Murphey, 1995,1997; Gottleib, 1995; Nunan et al, 1999).

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Peer teachingforachangeThirdly, we agree that autonomy is not a solo journey;rather it is dependent on
relationships spanning peers and other significant contributing figures. Sheerin (1997), who, in
discussing independentlearning, makes the following comment (but this couldalso be applied
to peer-teaching):

It is the paradox of independent learning that almost all learners need to be preparedand supported on the path towards greater learning by teachers... effective language
learning has to involvelearning about oneself as a language learner and learning tofunction as a language learner independently of a teacher (p.63).
Thus, autonomous learning, and by extension our peer-teaching activity, cannot exist in
isolation and require the interdependent efforts of those within the community.
Finally, students must be at a point where they are ready, willing, and able to beautonomous, or as Littlewood (1997) says, "autonomy is possible only to the extent thatstudents possess both the willingness and the ability to act independently" (p.82). Whenconsidering any approach in general, and the promotion of greater autonomous learning inparticular, teachers must also carefullyconsider their own role in the classroom. In a fascinating
study, Lewin et al. (1939) observed three different leadership styles including autocratic,
democratic, and laissez-faire at a children's summer camp. They noticed that the democraticstyle lead to greater group harmony and active participation amongst its members. Indeed,
students need a structure in order to excel in class and at the same time freedom to negotiate,share their input, and take some initiative in the system to the extent that their needs anddesires dictate.

In terms of the relationship between the development of autonomy and peer-teaching,
Candy's (1988) words capture nicely our goals for our students as peer-teachers and as
autonomous individuals, "developing autonomous students; that is, people who accept more
and more responsibility for their own learning, for setting goals and objectives, for finding
resources, and for evaluating the outcomes of their learning activities [is our aim]" (p.59).
In peer-teaching, we can observe all of these steps and notice that they require acceptanceof responsibility by the students for: 1) their learning (and contributing to each others), 2)
setting clear learning goals and objectives for their peer-teaching lessons, 3) finding appropriate
lesson materials, and 4) evaluating their outcomes through reflecting on their teaching, andresponding to their 'students' who wrote feedback after each lesson.
Approach

In this section we will provide the steps to peer-teaching including: setting-up, conducting, andlesson follow-up.
Robert's story

Jumping into peer-teaching from the beginning of the first semester might be possible withsome freshman students. However, it works more smoothly when students, and the class asa whole, are scaffolded into developing a set of facilitating skills or capacities. These could
include, but are not limited to: learning skills, reflection skills, presentation skills,leadershipskills, autonomous learning skills, and more broadly a sense of class community. In my case, I
spent the first semester developing these capacities, which then helped to smooth the transition
to peer-teaching in the second semester.

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Deacon&CrokerDeveloping capacities

Learning skills —the understanding of the process of learning —were developed throughindividual reflection by daily action logs, written at home after each class. Shared partner
reflection and whole-class reflection helped students develop a sensitivity to other students'
learning styles and strategies, and the capacity to reflect and discourse about it. Presentation
skills were developed through students having opportunities to speak in English in front of
their peers, through mini-presentations to small groups of two or three other students, andfinally in front of the whole class. Leadership skills and autonomous learning skills weredeveloped through increasingly devolving control of the class and classroom to the students
throughout the first semester. Bythe end of the first semester, students were selecting theirweekly study partners (individual, pair, small-group), their weekly learning goals (e.g. accuracy,
fluency, pronunciation, learning process, and so on), their presentation topics, in addition
to their evaluation media (e.g. poster, essay, audio recording, and so on), criteria (accuracy,
fluency, vocabulary, organization of ideas, and so on), and weighting (vocabulary 30%,
accuracy 70%, and so on).
The learning community

As a teacher, I believe that developing a sense of the class as a learning community is essential.
From the first day of first semester, class work was organized into pair-work and small groupwork. In the second week of the first semester, as a group, we decided class rules, both for the
students and also for the teacher. Teacher rules were very practical (hand back homework
promptly, treat all students equally,be strict on unruly students, prepare thoroughly for class,have clear class goals, communicate clearly, and so on), but they also had more meaning for the
students once it was their turn for peer-teaching. Also,students were welcome to make classannouncements about their club and circle activities. We went on a three-day summer camp in
July, largelyorganized by the students, and this proved to be a good preview of peer-teaching as
students accepted responsibility for arranging and conducting various activities.
First steps in peer-teaching

The organizing of the peer-teaching began at the beginning of the second semester. Students
reacted to the idea very positivelyfrom the outset. For homework, I asked students to respondto three issues: questions they had about peer-teaching, classroom activities that they felt theywould like to do as peer-teachers, and topics that they were interested in. In the following week,
we spent one wholelesson exploring peer-teaching. Students in their groups read each other's
homework ideas, tried to answer each other's questions about peer-teaching, and gave peer
feedback on activities and topics. For each question,we had a whole-class discussion,led by me
but mind-mapped onto the blackboard by students, whichthen becamea source for further
group discussion. I felt that this orientation helpedpreparestudents to then peer-teachmore
effectively in the following weeks.
Peer-teaching begins

The peer-teaching was organized so that students would individually, or in pairs,lead one
45-minute class on a topic or theme of their choice. We decided that peer-teacherswould be
responsible for setting pre-class homework, designing in-class activities, selecting in-classvisualand audio media, and reading and responding to post-class student action logs,checking
attendance, and basically running the show.In the next class, we decided to set the peer-

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Peer t e a c h i n gfor achangeteaching groups, schedule, and topics. This allowedthe students time to negotiate outside ofclass who their peer-teaching partner would be, but also meant that the more reflective learners
could decide whether they preferred to be an individual peer-teacher. It also gave me theopportunity to approach the students I felt were more gregarious and confident, and ask them
to be the first peer-teachers and serve as near-peer role models (Murphey, 1998, 2003), so thepeer-teaching would get off to a successful start. In the next class, a calendar with peer-teachingdates circled was passed around, and students could write in their names and topics, after firstchecking that other students had not already chosen their topic. We had decided to start fromthe middle of the semester, and to run for about 12 to 14 classes, about four to five weeks,

ending the week before Christmas.
As the ball started rolling and we actually began peer-teaching, some time was allocatedbefore or at the end of Friday classes for talking with the entire group about what made peerlead classes successful. This was based upon the reflections from the peer-teachers. It was also achance for peer-teachers, who had finished giving their lessons, time to give advice to students
who had not yet done so, and also a chance for future peer-teachers to ask questions and seek
advice. An informal peer-support system also developed, as future peer-teachers sought advice
outside class from their friends who had already peer-taught.
Brad's story

As in Robert's case, I knew that students needed structure and support in order to peer-teachmore effectively and at the same time to truly make it their own, they needed to assume asmuch responsibility over the process and content as they were willing and able to assume.

For homework early in the second semester, I invited students to make a list of questions
and concerns they had about peer-teaching. I also encouraged them to brainstorm and makea tentative plan in as much or little detail as they wanted for their lessons. We initially agreed
that students could teach either solo or in pairs and that at least a few classes should be used toallowfor planning. In the following class, students got together in small groups and discussed
their homework ideas. I then responded to questions and concerns that arose in class andgathered their action logs in order to grasp an even fuller picture of their impressions of prepeer-teaching and how I might better support the group. I observed three main themes: theimportance of preparation in general, a heightened perception of the value of peer-teaching,
and a focus on the activity process and its many components.
Importance of preparation

Manystudents commented that in order to be successful, or rather not to do poorly,adequate
preparation was necessary. This shows that the students recognized a responsibility beyond
their own learning and alluded to their potential to enhance the learning of their peers.
• I think being well-prepared isan important thing to success my peer teaching, so I will try totalk about it closely with mypartner.

• IfI don't prepare enough before the peer teaching maybe I won't be able to enjoy it and myclass too.

Perception of value

The students agreed that peer-teaching would be useful both for themselves and theirclassmates, and that in many cases the benefits would extend beyond the walls of the classroom.

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iQ4 * Deacon & Croker• I'm glad to have a lotof time toprepare forpeer teaching. I think the more weprepare andconsider things, the more solid teaching we can do. Teaching is very difficult butI reallythink the experience will be a great experience for the future. I'm lookingforward topeer
teaching!

• I'm taking a teaching course, so this peer teaching is very useful. I'malso teaching somestudents as a tutor in mypart-time job. Teaching is very difficult so I have topractice more.
• / waspairedwithNatsuko and this will bean opportunity to know each other andcommunicate together through this peer teaching.
The process

I also observed that students were already activelyconsidering possible materials, methods, andother aspects for their lessons and were starting to take over the process.
•

Whattopic should I choose? Hmm...it is a bigproblem. I think maybe I will choose about
myfavorite things because it is easyfor me to talk about. And I am goingto use pictures. IfI
usepictures myspeech will beclearer and it will help mypoorEnglish.

• If we want to make our class interesting, I think the mostimportant is that the topic isinteresting. I hope I can find good topic for usand classmates and I really respect you
because you teach at every class!
• I think the extentoffreedom which teachers give their students is quitedifficult. Inpeer
teaching I want my "students" to discuss the topic I've chosen. But if Ijust said, "please
discuss this topic freely," then everyone wouldbe embarrassed or bored. There is somethingthat teachers should decide and allow students to decide. I have to think about this to makemypeer teaching successful.
The student voices above re-affirmed for me the importance of our interdependence, myrole in providing support, and the confidence I had that students were ready to accept greater
autonomy. After carefully considering the students' questions and concerns in the previous
class and their action logs, I formulated and distributed a list of questions and tips (see MAYA!
website for Appendix 9A) in the following lesson. Students found the list helpful. We further
negotiated that the lessons could be for either half the class (20 minutes) or the full class (45minutes), and that I would be responsible for making any copies for the lessons (peer teachers
would give me their master copies a day in advance).The rest would be up to the students,
though I remained available during the next two classes and during outside office hours for
consultation. In subsequent lessons, students signed up for their peer-teaching lesson andreadied their lesson plans (see Appendix 9B on MAYA! website for a list of student lesson
topics). Soon after, the peer-teaching cycle began,and this included: teaching the lesson,
handing out action log forms (see MAYA! website for Appendix 9C), collecting and responding
to each action log (written by the other students and myself), and writing a reflection on theentire experience that I read and commented on.
Observations: From our perspective

We observed many rich insights through our dual perspective as 'teachers/supporters' and as'students' during peer-teaching that allowed us to notice the extent to which our students weredeveloping their own autonomy.

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Peer t e a c h i n gfor achangeOur role as teachers/support figures

Supporting the peer-teachers while at the same time allowing them to assume responsibility forchoices was critical. As Benson (2001) writes:... fostering autonomy does not imply that we simply leave learners to their own
devices, but that we actively encourage and assist them to take control of their learningin ways that willbe effective in terms of goals that they have determined for themselves.
(p.75)

Wefound that spending time with peer teachers before their class was essential. They
could run their lesson plans past us. They could practice introducing an activity. They could
practice transitions. They could get used to their 'teachingvoice.' Also, asking students to makea plan of their blackboard use on a piece of paper sensitized students to the possibilities andopportunities that a blackboard offers. Spending a little time with students after their class,when they submitted their peer-teaching reflection, was also essential. It was fun to re-live thebest moments; it was also cathartic to re-live the disasters. In sum, we noticed that in helping
our students to develop greater autonomy an interdependent approach is more effective —onethat balanced student initiative with teacher control.

Modeling versus copying

We felt that one way to support students would be to put the more able ones first in orderto provide near-peer role models. In some cases it seemed that students were following asomewhat formulaic approach to their teaching through not just modeling but copying theirpeers. This is understandable: it was an effort to reduce uncertainty. In order to overcome the'cookie cutter' approach, an emphasis was put on originality, and stressing that different topics
and lesson goals justified different classroom activities in the whole-class reflection session in
Robert's class. Students themselves also began to appreciate novelty (a good lesson for routinebound teachers!). Brad noticed some students using similar games and other techniques
repeatedly and wanted to encourage students to move away from copying and instead
experiment more. At the same time he did not want to impose too much control over the
product and process of each lesson and instead took a more 'suggestive' approach. The extent
to how much suggestion and direct intervention Brad offered, and his own internal struggle
therein, was rarely challenged as most students did in fact have unique lessons to share. About
midway through the peer-teaching month, Robert's class held a reflection session, and the class
was able to chat as a group about what seemed to be working, and why. Robert suggested tothe class that rather than coming to him, perhaps they could go to a classmate and run theirideas past them, and then come to Robert only if they felt that they needed to. Shifting the
responsibility back on the students worked well for the more social students, but Robert stillfound the quieter students at his office door during office hours. Nonetheless, the level of classexpertise in peer-teaching certainly expanded as the semester went on and it was pleasing toobserve this development.
Taking the easy road

Peer-teachers often emphasized sharing experiences through relatively easy conversations
or interviews (that albeit developed fluency) at the expense of activities that stretchedor challenged students. In other words, students often chose easier activities than morechallenging or difficult ones. One reason could have been that students focused more on

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Deacon&Crokercommunity-building activities more than pedagogically-oriented ones. Another reason is thatstudents may have felt that they were not in a position to 'teach' their peers and were just goingalong with the decision of the majority to peer-teach. Pointing this out in the reflection session
brought acknowledging nods from some students, and later peer-teachers did try to introduce
interesting information and appropriate vocabulary, but still shied away from drawing
attention to necessary grammar. Some peer-teachers did facilitate student reflection upon theirlearning process in the homework or classroom activities, and this increased when attention
was drawn to it in the reflection session.

Let's be 'nice' to each other instead of 'good'Students were generally very fair in giving each peer-teacher their equal attention. This was
because students were genuinely interested in the topics. It may have been because they felt
they owed each peer-teacher their interest; partly, it may also have been because they knewthat they would expect and hope for the same degree of enthusiasm and interest when it
became their turn to be the peer-teacher. That is, motivation in those classes was very high,and students really enjoyed giving positive feedback to the peer-teachers. Only once did a peerteacher not appear for his class (in Robert's case); having a back-up plan or materials prepared
for this eventuality would be wise. Often the opposite case occurred -- it was difficult for somepeer-teachers to stop at the end of the 45-minute class.After a few times, the class decided toappoint the next peer-teacher as a time-keeper, who reminded the peer-teachers when they had
10 minutes left, so they could wrap up and give the next peer-teachers five minutes to introduce
and explain their topic and homework.
Payback

What did we learn as teachers? We were amazed at the diversity of topics the students chose to
explore in their peer-teaching. Moreover, it quickly became apparent that some students wereclearly more of an expert than we were in many areas. We both found it very rewarding to be a
student, and we felt that we had learned many things from observing our students.
What were the characteristics of the more successful peer-lead classes? Interestingly, thesame as for regular teacher-lead classes: a clearly structured class, meaning that there was aclear beginning, a sensible flow of activities, and a clear ending, and a clear link between the
homework or pre-class activities and in-class activities; an effective use of media, including
the blackboard, handouts, and other visual media (posters, film or documentary excerpts);
an effective use of time (some peer-teachers spent too long on their introduction, or gave toomuch time for an activity, or didn't give sufficient time to complete an activity); and lastly, thatthe peer-teachersspoke clearly, and used appropriate and intelligible English.

Brad noted that rather than asking questions to the class as a whole, directing them tospecific students kept the whole class on its toes.Also, regularly using student names was aform of validation for the students. Conversely, a lack of clear lesson goals and outcomes often
meant the lessons tended to wander. Robert noted that, during transitions between activities,
start and finish cues were essential to help students understand the flow of the lesson. Also,
naming activities —'role-play,' 'partner interview' —helpedstudents grasp the structure of
the next activity. Students over-explaining rather than modeling was also a problem. Morethan anything, however, using humor - through selecting essentially interesting topics, or justtaking advantage of the moment —helped bring the class together and make the lessons moreenjoyable. The most important lesson, we as a group seemedto learn, was that just getting up

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Peer t e a c h i n gfor achangethere in front of the class is a big step in itself and should be recognized. One of our goals as
language teachers is to help students find their voice in English, particularly shy students. From
this point of view, no one failed as there is no failure, only feedback.
Adapting to other teaching environments

We were very fortunate in meeting the English majors in this article for three times a week, andin having wide autonomy in how we taught our classes.We have since moved on to different
positions teaching non-English majors; nonetheless, we have still been able to successfullyorganize peer-teaching experiences with a few adjustments. We now take more time for prepeer teaching preparation. Pairing weaker students with stronger students is also a successful
strategy. Rather than whole-class teaching, breaking the class into two or three groups, andhaving two or three peer-teams simultaneously teach smaller groups —in different classrooms
or just different parts of the same classroom —makes the experience more approachable.
In many ways, it turns out to be easy to organize peer-teaching for classes that meet only
once a week for 90 minutes. The pre-peer-teaching preparation is essentially the same; the maindifference is the way time is allocated for peer-teaching. One option is for the teacher to leadfor the first half of the period, and then have just one peer-teaching session of 30 to 45 minutes
in the second half of the period. In this case, the teacher can take the students through formfocused or awareness-raising activities, and the peer teachers can organize the production andpractice activities. This division of teaching responsibilities also works well for teachers who
work within the confines of an institutionally-defined curriculum, as they can focus uponorganizing what grammar and vocabulary are covered, but students are responsible for theactivities to internalize them. Peer-teaching is a flexible approach that can be adapted to mostteaching environments, with imagination, flexibility, and good communication with learners.
Observations: From our student's perspective

Student feedback on peer-teaching was overwhelmingly positive and suggested that students
could take greater control of their learning; develop an increased awareness of their role as active agents in their own and each other's growth; demonstrate autonomous learning attitudes
through reflecting on their learning; and show that they are capable to varying degrees of au
tonomous learning. The feedback below was taken from a final reflection paper that each peerteacher wrote in response to three questions as follows: 1) What do you think you did well inpeer-teaching? 2) What do you think you can improve through peer-teaching? and 3) How canthis experience helpyou in your future? In general, the main themes that emerged included:
an increasedperception of value of the role of teachers; an increased perception of value of therole of students, perceived moments and areas of difficulty, perceived moments and areas of
success, and future paving peer-teaching as a referenceexperience down the road.
Increased perception of value of the teacher's role

Through assuming the teacher's position, students could develop a new level of awareness andfresh insights into the challenges of teachers. Manyof their comments showed an increase inempathyand respect towards teachers and overall shiftin the waythat they looked at teachers.

• I really thought that teaching is such hard work. So far I hadn't noticed such things.
However when wehad to decide topics, time, purpose, etc. I thought it was so hard!! I
couldn't imagine to be a teacher before but now I come to understand what being a teacher
means.

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Deacon&Croker• Peer teaching changed my view ofother classes. I came to take a class thinking how aprofessor plans to draw a student's attention. This isa very difficult thing.
Teaching something is hard and difficult work. To make students learn we have to intrigue
them. To do so, what can we do? Only an interesting person could be a good teacher, Ifelt
strongly.

• I admired you very much because you have toprepare and teach usorother students everyday.
Increased perception of value of the student's role

In addition to a greater appreciation for the role of teachers,peer-teachers also expressed agreater awareness and perception of student responsibility. Experience,as they say, is a greatteacher and peer-teaching helped students to notice how they could become more responsible
learners through preparing, reacting more regularly, listening attentively, and so on.
Through peerteaching I learned the importance ofaudience (students) because if listeners
aregood then I think we can explain better and better. I could improve my listener attitude
because I thought thatlistener attitude gives big effection for teaching. So I thought thatIwant to bea good listener. The peerteaching wasgoodfor us!
• Duringteaching I could understand the importance of reactions. Because when I teach myclassmates hard, they were too quietand didn't giveany reactions to me. So Ifelt nervous
and sad. I couldn't knowthat theyreally understood what I said. I could understand why
my teachers emphasize the importance of reactions from thefirst time. I thought teaching
was very difficult.
• I understood that the most important thingis that the teachers and the students can reacttoeach otherand try to be curious and rather greedy for what theywant to know.

When students didn't make responses I wasvery confused. Ifound that as a studentI always
have to make response whenever I understand whatteacher says. For teachers, the lack ofstudents' responses damages his teaching or teaching plan, I think.
Perceived moments and areas of difficulty

Things did not always go according to plan and the students noted various challenges inpeer-teaching including: an over-focus on transactional versus interactional teaching styles,
ineffective usage of time, difficulties with verbal/non-verbal communication skills, troubleinterpreting student feedback, and other challenges.
There was not enough time to teach so we could not teach all the things that weplanned toteach in the lesson.

I learned thatpreparing is very important, butalso practice is more important than
preparing.

I think I talked quite fast. I tend tospeak fast when I talk infront ofpeople. I would like toovercome thisand next time I wouldlike to calm down and speak clearly and slowly.
I was too concentrated on myself, myspeech, andI lacked careful attention to theattendants. That must have confused them.

I think ourpeerteaching was notpeer teaching butjust like apresentation.
In class I couldn't judge other student's reactions, whether ourclass was interesting or
boring.

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Peer t e a c h i n g f o r achangePerceived moments and areas of success

Many students' comments alluded to theirperception of success including individual andcommunal success. More than skill development, the most significant comments centeredaround the positive affective associations connected to peer-teaching.
• Listen! I didit!! Ifinished my peer teaching at last!! I was very nervous, butI enjoyed aswell. Everyone listened to us seriously andreacted a lot to our speech.
• We were nervous before starting ourteaching butafter I was excited and I got more
confidence than before.

• Doyou know this saying, sukikoso monono jyouzunare? This means when you really likewhat you are trying orstudying, you can do hard and will be an expert. Ifound this wasright thought preparingforpeer teaching. Atfirst I thought teaching was something very
difficult andI was notwilling todo. However, I became motivated andI could think ofmany newideas. I am sure I can do my best as long as I have interest in whatI will do.
• I have taken passive classes since elementary school so this class was a good experience forme.

• Ifelt happy and achievement when I read comments from classmates. Some people wrote
down really good reactions and others gave us advise.
Through this activity weexperienced not only teaching butalso other important things such
aspreparation and feedback. I'm glad we had this opportunity.
• I rarely have a chance to speak infront of other people so it was a good chance for me.
Noticing future global benefits

Finally, peer teaching helped students to notice value beyond the classroom and connect totheir public speaking skills in the future in general and in terms of their professions.
• I think this experience will help me to do a presentation for a company in thefuture. I
learned a lot ofpoints to improve so I can do a better presentation in thefuture.
'

I am sure that this experience will beuseful in thefuture because I want to bean English
teacher.

I'm notgoing to be a teacher butI can take advantage of this experience absolutely! For
instance, when I havea presentation or speech, I will be more efficient than before and I
know what toprepare or arrange in advance.

This peer teaching will help mefor mypresentation in myseminar that is startingfor next
year and alsofor job-hunting. I was able to notice points that I should improve in thefuture.
• Peerteaching was a good experience for me because I willjoin an NPO and be a teacher for
young kids around the world.
'

I havea part-timejob as a tutor, so I canput this experience to accountfrom now on.
Conclusion

Handing over the opportunity to peer-teach helped our students to break out of theirtraditional roles and assisted them to become more active and in control of their learning.
Through taking over and reflecting on the process, students further increased their awarenessand acceptance of their role in directing their own and each other's learning. As noted earlier,
students deepened their understanding of the teaching-learning relationship and in particularMore Autonomy You

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Deacon&Crokerdeveloped a greater awareness of their own responsibility as active agents in the learning
process. Moreover, peer-teaching led to the development of autonomy within the students'
most significant learning community —their own classroom community. That many students
were able to link their peer-teaching experience to notice potential value beyond the classroom
for their own sustained growth and development was particularly gratifying.

The journey towards autonomy should not be a solo one, and peer-teaching requires
significant teacher and community support and guidance to foster meaningful learning.
Inviting your students to peer-teach is an adventure not without its challenges for either party;
however, the payback, not the least of which is the opportunity to develop greater autonomy, iscertainly worth the risk.

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Critical Reader Response iPeter Voller

When I read Brad and Robert's contribution, it took me back to the late 1980s, when I wasteaching at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama. I had classes of freshmen (freshpersons?)
and sophomores for English conversation classes, and I was very much wedded to a humanistic(Earl Stevick, Gertrude Moskowitz) and communicative (Bill Littlewood and Sandra Savignon)
approach. I had co-authored a textbook, Chatterbox, based on these approaches, which weused in our freshman classes. But the sophomore classes were more problematic in terms ofcontent. Most had been through the Chatterbox experience in their first year, and so I had
to rely on my own devices for classroom activities and meaningful communication in thetarget language in their second year. I had some ideas and activities ready, but not enough for
24-plus weeks of 90-minute classes. So, what to do? Remember, dear readers, that autonomy
was still a relativelynew, and European, theory, that had not impinged at all on the Japanese
EFL scene. We were still worshipping at the altars of humanism, Krashen's input hypothesis,
communicative language teaching, and theories of communicative competence. But I was also
absolutely sure that my students had huge amounts more to contribute to the EFL learning
experience than most of my colleagues would give them credit for, and I was sure that thosestudents who had enjoyed the Chatterbox experience would be really happy to be given the
chance to become more involved in the learning experience (to take responsibility for theirlearning, in today's autonomy jargon). So,halfway through the first semester, I proposed tothe class that we structure half of our future classes towards them "teaching one another". In
the last 14 weeks of the year, each student would have 20-30 minutes to teach the rest of us
something, something that really interested them - a hobby, a sport, a pastime - in English. It
should be something that was specific, and preferably, do-able by us, rather than a show andtell presentation. Nearly 20 years later, I still remember some of the things that we were taught.
How to do a short aerobic dance workout, how to take apart a clarinet and clean it (and put itback together), how to make delicious virgin cocktails, how to ... Well, I guess I remember theones that were particularly fascinating for me, but I am sure other participants in that classwill
remember others. Did the students learn any English? In those days of lack of accountability,(and unlike Brad and Robert's situation), no externally verifiable answer was required. I am
sure we all renewed our knowledge of body parts in our aerobic workout, and I guess that there
is at least one person out there in Japan who can name the parts of a clarinet in English and use
appropriate vocabulary to explain how to take things apart, and I guess there are quite a few
who can explain to you the finer points of mixing and shaking.

So, how have things changed sincethen in Japan? If you are luckyenough to be in a classtaught by Brad or Robert, you will have had an even better experience, because you not only get
to participate in the peer teaching, but also benefit from all the good things we have learnt fromresearch into autonomy about the importance of scaffolding and reflection (personal, peer,andgroup). A far more systematic and deeperlearning experience than my students got in thosenaive days. Even so, we had fun!

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Deacon&CrokerCritical Reader Response 2

Matthew Apple

When I first started reading Brad and Robert's paper and came across the words "handing over"and "taking over," my first reaction was"oh, no—autonomy run amuck." I was immediately
afraid that they had confused autonomy with independence, as so many of us have andcontinue to do. Yet, it became more and more clear to me as I read Brad and Robert's stories

about peer teaching that they had had a clear structure in place to help guide their learners. Just
as the authors had wondered about themselves, I also found myself wondering whether I had
been guilty of low expectations for my students in the past.
Of course, the authors do mention that their learners were highly motivated as well as fairly
proficient English language learners. While I agree that as teachers one of our goals should be
the encouragement of learner autonomy, I'm still skeptical that peer teaching would work forjust any language class, especially considering that many language classes in Japan only meetonce or twice per week at most. Having taught few learners that fall into either the motivated or
proficient categories, I'm not sure that whole-class peer teaching would work in my classes.
On the other hand, peer collaboration and cooperative learning in small groups—methods
I often employ in my teaching—are really nothing more than peer teaching on a micro-scale.
Robert noted that he spent time prior to peer teaching to help learners further develop learning
skills; in particular, learners spent time bolstering their sense of leadership, presentation, andreflection, as well as coming together as a community. This last point seems the most crucial
for me for any teacher who asks his or her learners to start teaching each other. Strong, personalties between learners within the classroom are absolutely essential for any sort of collaborative
efforts to succeed. Students who are shy or uncertain of their own abilities need to feel that they
have not just the linguistic support but also the emotional acceptance of peers around them.
Without this sense of belonging, peer teaching and collaborative learning can make learners
feel as if they were being put on the spot, or being judged, or even being outnumbered, byclassmates who see them with critical eyes.

Both Brad and Robert seemed to go well out of their way to ensure a smooth transition
from the "autocratic" leadership role of the teacher to a "democratic" role, thus paving theway for increased learner autonomy. Moreover, they planned the transition very carefully, stepby step, by providing guidelines, feedback, and time to peer teachers. As with all successful
ventures, careful preparation and firm but flexible guiding hands seem key, and, judging fromthe student reactions, Brad and Robert's venture appears to have been a resounding success.As
they say, inviting peer teaching in the classroom poses a challenge—although perhaps the real
challenge is asking the teacher, and not the learners, to change roles and expectations.

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