How to design peer tutoring to favor the active learning of the tutored students? The perception of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

This work investigates those actions that undergraduate teaching assistants in careers of Commercial Engineering and Psychology of a university of Santiago de Chile consider relevant when designing spaces of peer tutoring that favor the active learning of all the students who attend assistantship. Using a qualitative methodology, based on the principles of Grounded Theory, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate teaching assistants from the aforementioned careers. The results show (i) the need to consider preparatory actions that allow for the conscious and responsible planning of assistants, (ii) the consideration of strategies that favor the joint construction of a learning route during the initiation, development and closure of the peer tutoring, and (iii) the benefits it brings to undergraduate teaching assistants as students in their learning. Finally, we conclude with the practical and investigative implications of these findings in the field of the training of undergraduate teaching assistants.