Peer-led Team Learning
Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) is an active learning pedagogy that takes a workshop-based approach to student learning.
What is PLTL?
PLTL was pioneered by Professor David Gosser at the City College of New York. The approach was developed to improve student success rates. Students who had previously done well on a course or module are recruited to become peer leaders. They meet with small groups of students, usually 8-12, on a weekly basis to facilitate discussions and engage in problem solving related to the course material. Educators who have adopted PLTL have observed significant positive effects on student outcomes and self-efficacy.
PLTL at Queen Mary
The use of Small Active Learning Groups is one of the five interrelated components of Queen Mary’s Education Approach – the Active Curriculum for Excellence (ACE). PLTL is one of the approaches being used to deliver this.
At Queen Mary, we run PLTL workshops in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences and the School of Business and Management. Since 2021/22, we have recruited and trained over 200 peer leaders and over 1,500 students have taken part in PLTL workshops across 8 modules.
Queen Mary University of London is a proud member of the Peer-Led Team Learning International Society.
Meet the Advisory Group
The PLTL Advisory Group is a cross-faculty team which has strategic oversight of the delivery and expansion of PLTL at Queen Mary.
Publications, Grants, and Conferences
Publications
- Christian T, Wilton H, Shahid R, Faulkner S and Howell LA (2023) Empowering peer leaders: Designing dynamic PLTL training in the United Kingdom. APLL 3: 56-76
- Shahid, R., Jones, C.R., Noikokyris, M., Krummaker, S., Michael, A.E., & Howell, L.A. (2022). Born in the USA – Exploring the PLTL Model in UK Higher Education. Advances in Peer-Led Learning, 2, 4-16. Online at https://doi.org/10.54935/apll2022-01-02-04
Grants
- Westfield Fund (2022). Recipient: PLTL Project Team. Project: Develop and deliver extended training to future Peer Leader cohorts, supported by a senior peer leader to co-create resources.
- British Academy of Management (2023). Recipient: Dr Xue Zhou. Project: The effectiveness of using PLTL in reducing attainment gap in business analytics.
- Royal Society of Chemistry (2023). Recipient: PLTL Project Team. Project: Investigating the impact of PLTL on the continuation and progression of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds in Chemistry.
Conferences
- 2022 – UCL Horizons in STEM Conference (UCL, London, UK)
- 2022 – Tenth annual conference of PLTLIS (Washington State University, St Louis, Missouri, USA)
- 2023 – Eleventh annual conference of PLTLIS (University Houston Downtown, Houston, Texas, USA)
- 2023 – VICEPHEC Annual Conference (Durham University, Durham, U.K.)
- 2023 – Chartered Association of Business Schools, Learning Teaching Student Experience (ICC, Wales, UK)
- 2024 – Twelfth annual conference of PLTLIS (University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA)