Assessing the Efficacy of Peer Teaching as an Alternative to Teaching Practice

Abstract

Globally, the outbreak of the Covid-19 negatively affected human beings across all spheres of live. Higher education was one of the hardest hit sectors as schools closed. In place of the traditional school-based teaching practice, teacher interns did peer teaching. The study used the pedagogical content knowledge framework to assess the effectiveness of peer teaching as a replacement for school-based teaching practice. Questionnaires, interviews and group discussions were used to collect data. The results indicated that peer teaching is a useful strategy to introduce teacher interns to the art of teaching. However, the peer teaching practice environment does not represent the realities of the school classroom. Thus, peer teaching is inadequate to be used as a substitute for school based teaching practice. The results point to need for a thorough review of the use of peer teaching in place of the school-based teaching practice.