Meta Principle: Support Peer Learning

Peer learning is one of the most important competencies in the contemporary era, both across diverse fields of employment and in everyday life. Indeed, teamwork and collaboration are frequently presented as essential requirements in today’s labor market. Collaborative competencies involve listening to others,e xpressing ideas in ways that invite attentive engagement, negotiating ideas from diverse perspectives, and engaging in critical and productive thinking. Collaborative learning processes may encourage the growth and construction of rich collective ideas within a classroom functioning as a community, yet they also require the development of norms for discourse and collaborative work.

The pedagogical principles associated with this meta-principle explain how peer learning can be supported within teams, small groups, and even within a classroom functioning as a community.