How Effective Is Peer Interaction in Facilitating Learning? A Meta-Analysis

Decades of research indicate that peer interaction, where individuals discuss or work on a task collaboratively, may be beneficial for children's and adolescents' learning. Yet, we do not know which features of interaction may be related to learning from peer interaction. This meta-analysis examined results from 62 articles with 71 studies into peer interaction, involving a total of 7,103 participants aged 4 to 18 years. Peer interaction was effective in promoting learning in comparison with other types of learning conditions, Hedges' g = 0.40, 95% confidence interval [CI: 0.27, 0.54], p < .0001, across different gender and age groups. In contrast, however, peer interaction was not more effective than child-adult dyadic interaction. Moderator analyses also indicated that peer interaction is more effective when children are specifically instructed to reach consensus than when they are not. Findings extend theoretical considerations by teasing apart the processes through which children learn from peer interactions and offer practical implications for the effective use of peer interaction techniques in the classroom. Educational Impact and Implications Statement We conducted a meta-analysis (statistical review of findings from previous research) of 71 studies to investigate whether children and adolescents learn from doing an educational task together in a group with other children and adolescents. We found that children and adolescents learned more when they completed a task with their peers compared with children and adolescents completing the same task alone or serving as a comparison group who were simply tested twice. Children and adolescents evidenced greater learning when they were asked to come to agreement than when they were not. The findings suggest that simple instructions for peer interaction in the classroom may increase learning.