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Queen Mary Academy

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.

Join the PLTL Community of Practice

Join our Community of Practice to connect with educators using PLTL in their modules, to share best practice and for updates from the Advisory Group.

Join using MS Teams

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

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)

Case study

Co-creation of Peer Led Team Learning training material for Peer Leaders

Find out more

For questions regarding adoption of PLTL

email the PLTL Advisory Group
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