Peer learning: a powerful tool for adult training

What is peer learning and why is it important?

Peer learning is a form of collaborative learning that involves people sharing knowledge, skills, and experiences with each other. Peer learning can take place in various settings, such as classrooms, workplaces, online platforms, or informal groups. Peer learning is especially beneficial for adult learners, who often have diverse backgrounds, experiences, and learning needs. Peer learning can help adult learners to:

• Enhance their motivation, engagement, and self-confidence.
• Develop their communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
• Gain new perspectives, insights, and feedback from their peers.
• Apply their learning to real-life situations and challenges.
• Build their professional and social networks.

La Touche Training and peer learning

We at La Touche Training understand the value of peer learning and strive to include as much peer education as we can into each of our training courses. Whether it is in-person or online on Zoom, we encourage every participant to contribute their own knowledge, experience and learning to the group, with the view to the entire group learning from each other as much as they do from the trainer. This is trainer led and usually takes the form of open discussion, roleplay and practical exercises.

At the start of every training session each participant is asked to introduce themselves to the group, give their expectations as to what they hope to learn from the training, and most importantly, provide examples of their own experiences in the subject area. Throughout the day the trainer will pause and open the training to the group, encouraging discussion and problem solving. It is vital that the trainer is experienced enough to lead this discussion, so that it doesn’t stray off topic or end up dominated by a strong personality, and La Touche Training’s expert trainers are best placed to ensure this, with every trainer having years of training experience under their belt.

La Touche Training also recognise the benefits of interactive roleplay experiences in group learning. A regular feature of our courses involves each delegate roleplaying a scenario with the tutor, or with another delegate. This is usually performed in front of the group, with everybody learning from each other’s experience in the exercises, and delegates are encouraged to give feedback on each other.

Peer feedback of prepared exercises is another feature of our training. Many of our courses involve a degree of homework, which we call precourse, which usually takes the form of each delegate preparing a fictitious statement or report, which will then be critiqued in group. Our method often involves delegates peer reviewing each other’s work, with feedback and direction provided by the trainer. This gives everyone the opportunity to sample other’s writing styles and methods, rather than simply focusing on their own.

Peer learning and networking

Group learning presents the opportunity for an organisation’s staff to gather together, share experiences and difficulties, make connections and build friendships. In this era of working from home and blended work, there are fewer “water cooler” moments, and team training is now one of the few occasions where team members can meet up and spend a day or two in each other’s physical presence, and La Touche Training long recognised the merits of group training as a team building tool. Another opportunity group training affords is the gathering together of disparate parts of an organisation, with staff from different departments being given the chance to meet colleagues from other departments and areas. In larger organisations this can be invaluable, as big organisations with diverse departments can experience calcification of staff into “silos”, where one department has little or no idea what the others do. Group training is an invaluable way of squaring this circle.

Our public training days, usually held on Zoom, is another opportunity for people in disparate sectors to come together and learn from each other. Our popular online expert witness courses typically involve a blend of different experts and are an opportunity for the doctor to learn from the engineer, the laboratory chemist from the dentist or the forensic accountant from the economist.

There is always need for a certain amount of didactic training method, where the trainer imparts their knowledge directly through lecture and slides, but peer learning is an essential way of maintaining focus and interest, ensuring that our training is as effective – and enjoyable – as possible.

Experience the benefits of peer learning for yourself and explore some of of our popular upcoming courses below:

• Conflict Management & De-Escalation Skills
• Expert Witness Training Programme
• Investigation and Enforcement for Environmental Officers
• Strategic Investigative Decision-Making Masterclass

Author: Alex Nichol, Solicitor, BCL, LLM, Dip Corp. and La Touche Training Program Developer and Trainer