The impact of peer-peer learning and student-lecturer interaction on Biology pre-service teachers’ achievements

Abstract

Because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an emergency shift to online learning in tertiary institutions worldwide. Here, I aimed to determine the impact of guided peer-peer interaction on students' achievement. A Biology Achievement Test was used to collect data. I used a quasi-experimental design and analysed the data using the independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. A comparison of the experimental group mean marks before and after the lockdown did not reveal significant differences. However, the control group’s mean mark was significantly higher before than during the lockdown period. Before the lockdown, the performance of the experimental group did not show any significant difference with that of the control group. There was a significant difference in performance between the two groups during the lockdown. Lecturer guided interaction had a significant impact while the digital divide did not have a significant impact on students’ performance.