IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v57y2022i1p304-339.html

How Do Peers Impact Learning? An Experimental Investigation of Peer-to-Peer Teaching and Ability Tracking

Author

Listed:
  • Erik O. Kimbrough
  • Andrew D. McGee
  • Hitoshi Shigeoka

Abstract

Classroom peers presumably influence learning by teaching each other. Unfortunately, little is known about peer-to-peer teaching because it is rarely observed in field studies. The efficacy of this teaching likely depends on the ability of one’s peers. We investigate the mechanisms of peer effects experimentally to establish the importance of peer-to-peer teaching and how it is affected by ability tracking–grouping students of similar ability. While peer-to-peer teaching improves learning among low-ability subjects, the positive effects are offset by tracking. Tracking reduces peer-to-peer teaching, suggesting that low-ability subjects suffer from the absence of high-ability peers to teach them.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik O. Kimbrough & Andrew D. McGee & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2022. "How Do Peers Impact Learning? An Experimental Investigation of Peer-to-Peer Teaching and Ability Tracking," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(1), pages 304-339.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:57:y:2022:i:1:p:304-339
    Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.57.1.0918-9770R2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/57/1/304
    Download Restriction: A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Fischer, Thomas & Rode, Johannes, 2020. "Classroom or pub - Where are persistent peer relationships between university students formed?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 474-493.
    3. David J. Cooper & Krista Saral & Marie Claire Villeval, 2021. "Why Join a Team?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(11), pages 6980-6997, November.
    4. Kiessling, Lukas & Radbruch, Jonas & Schaube, Sebastian, 2018. "The Impact of Self-Selection on Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 11365, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Fulya Ersoy & Donna Harris, 2025. "Peer Advice on Financial Decisions: A Case of the Blind Leading the Blind?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 240-255, January.
    6. McVicar, Duncan & Moschion, Julie & Ryan, Chris, 2018. "Achievement effects from new peers: Who matters to whom?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 154-166.
    7. João Firmino, 2018. "Class composition effects and school welfare: evidence from Portugal using panel data," Working Papers 2018/14, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    8. Agurto Adrianzén, Marcos & Fiestas Chevez, Hugo & Nuñez Morales, Wenceslao & Quevedo, Valeria & Vegas Chiyón, Susana, 2019. "Study-group diversity and early college academic outcomes: Experimental evidence from a higher education inclusion program in Peru," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 131-146.
    9. Diego Carrasco-Novoa & Sandro D´ıez-Amigo & Shino Takayama, 2021. "The Impact of Peers on Academic Performance: Theory and Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Discussion Papers Series 644, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:57:y:2022:i:1:p:304-339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.