Using Embedded Quality Managers in Peer Teaching Groups in a Construction Management Classroom

Abstract

In this study, a Quality Manager (QM) was embedded within a peer-teaching group. A QM is a student who is enrolled in a course and serves as an instructional and supportive extensions of their professor. The individual QM then worked with three other students to act as a peer-teaching group, with the objective of teaching one lesson at the end of the semester. The lesson topic was on using scheduling software. The QM had previous knowledge of the software and the goal was to have the remaining three students learn and prepare their lesson plan, strictly learning from the embedded QM. Then at the end of the semester, the group of four, taught the lesson to the remaining students. This methodology allowed for two layers of peer-teaching; one within the peer-teaching group, and the other from the peer-teaching group to the remaining students. The embedded peer-teaching implementation was validated through in-course surveys, and grade comparison from the student-led lecture versus an instructor-led lecture teaching a similar scheduling program. This methodology was implemented six times, using two different scheduling programs. The surveys indicated a preference to student-led learning, over instructor-led learning. The grade comparison demonstrated an average 12 percentage point improvement.