Student Peer Mentors: A Teaching and Learning Strategy Designed to Promote Cooperative Approaches to Learning and the Development of Lifelong Learning

Abstract

This article1 relates to the implementation of a cooperative learning program through the use of student peer mentors. The development of the program occurred in two undergraduate law subjects, Contacts2 and Torts, and was supported by a 1993/4 CAUT3 Teaching and Learning Development Grant4. This article will focus on the operation of the program in Torts and in the first section will examine why we designed and included the program within that subject's teaching and learning strategies. As detailed in this section, these reasons relate to a review of relevant educational literature, Australian Government reports on the desired future directions for tertiary legal education and on the results of the 1993 trial of a new assessment method in Torts.