Peer tutoring – Students support students

The Writing Center at TH Cologne is designed as a supportive learning and knowledge resource for all those who would like to receive neutral feedback on their texts and exchange ideas about academic writing. (Cf. on the focus of writing centers as learning centers: Bräuer 2016) Especially the writing center’s interdisciplinary consulting service for students and doctoral candidates from all faculties has been well-established at our university for several years. It is offered as individual consultations via video chat and open consultation hours in the university library.

The long-term goal of the writing consultation (and the other services offered by the Writing Center) is to strengthen writing skills at TH Cologne and to promote exchange about writing across the university. It is a valuable support for teachers in that they can receive better texts and talk to thoughtful, well-prepared students about upcoming written examinations. The high demand clearly shows the need to discuss the challenges of writing and study-related texts.

What is writing consultation?

In this context and based on social constructivist learning theories, consulting is fundamentally understood

[…] as specific and situation-related assistance in the analysis and solution of problems or complex issues that arise – whereby counseling always includes dialogical and collaborative thinking and acting.
Thomann/Pawelleck 2013:15

Additionally, the writing center’s approach is explicitly competence-oriented and not deficit-oriented. In other words, it is not about revealing weaknesses and deficits; nor is such an offer directed exclusively at those who supposedly have problems with writing academic texts. Rather, the aim of the counseling sessions is to promote independence and learner autonomy, recognize existing strengths, and thus increase individual motivation to learn.

Why peer-to-peer?

The creation of peer-to-peer learning environments is an important addition to this approach in order to overcome possible obstacles when using writing advice. The term peer is usually used to describe people who are in a similar life situation and are essentially of equal standing, for example regarding their age or social status. (cf. Treidler/Westphal/Stroot 2014: 15f) This idea of equality forms the core of the peer setting in writing consultation, which can, therefore, be described as “[…] a learning activity involving at least two learners, in which a symmetrical learning arrangement allows for a mutual exchange of knowledge and experience as well as the joint (further) development of ideas.” (Brinkschulte 2014: 127) This is precisely where the added value of such a consultation format arises: Advice from peer writing tutors, i.e., from (appropriately trained) students for students, takes place on equal footing and is an easily accessible offer that is intended to promote independent learning and the development of individual potential. (cf. Henkel/Vollmer 2014: 53ff)

While writing tutors share their experience and knowledge of writing in a consultation, those seeking advice contribute their subject-specific knowledge. (cf. Grieshammer/Peters 2014: 437f) Thus, it is explicitly not the task of peer tutors to teach subject-specific content in interdisciplinary writing consultations; in this respect, interdisciplinary support for writing in consultations differs significantly from subject-specific supervision by teachers (cf. Ulmi et al. 2017: 229). Rather, the aim of counseling is to find ways to answer a question or solve a problem together with the person seeking advice. The focus is always on the individual concerns of those seeking advice. Typical, recurring topics of writing consultation have to do with texts (narrowing down a topic, formulating a question, structure, argument, style, wording, etc.) but also with writing as a complex process (writing strategies, time management, overcoming writing difficulties, etc.) and communicative action (addressee, reader expectations, etc.).

Peer writing consultation is not primarily about optimizing texts. Instead, such a service aims to promote the academic writing skills of those seeking advice in the long term and thus prepare them for their further academic career. In this sense, writing advice is not instructive or normative but represents “[…] a guided introduction to dealing independently with the complex writing process […]” (Brinkschulte 2014: 125). The aim of the counseling sessions is to enable those seeking advice to decide independently and autonomously what they need to do when writing an academic text. Hence, one dictum of this approach is that counselors only help people to help themselves. (cf. Bräuer 2014: 272) This means that no solutions or answers are anticipated but that those seeking advice find the solution to their problem or the answer to their question themselves in conversation with the person giving the advice.

Another feature of the peer-to-peer approach is that all participants benefit from a learning setting of this kind: Peer counseling not only helps those seeking advice in terms of their specific problems or questions but also enables the tutors to acquire important skills, such as self-reflection, discussion skills, knowledge about text production, etc. In their work, they, therefore, gain practical experience that is not only relevant to their studies but also to their careers.

Peer-to-peer consultation at the writing center

With this in mind, peer-to-peer writing consultation is currently being introduced at the writing center. For this purpose, an interdisciplinary team of several academic assistants has now started work and is offering additional and easily accessible support in writing – from students for students. The writing center’s peer tutors will provide individual writing advice and expand the open consultation hours.

The peer tutors are prepared for their – undoubtedly challenging – work through intensive training. The training is based on the framework concept for training peer writing tutors of the Gesellschaft für Schreibdidaktik und Schreibforschung e. V. (Society for Writing Didactics and Writing Research), which considers current findings from writing process research, writing center research and writing didactics.

Do you have any more questions about academic writing?

The writing center of the competence workshop is the point of contact at the TH Köln for questions relating to academic writing. More information about the interdisciplinary offers of the Writing Center, which are aimed at students, doctoral candidates and teachers, can be found here.

Links & Literature

Bräuer, Gerd (2014): Grundprinzipien der Schreibberatung. Eine pragmatische Sicht auf die Schreibprozesstheorie. In: Dreyfürst, Stephanie/Sennewald, Nadja [Hrsg .]: Schreiben. Grundlagentexte zur Theorie, Didaktik und Beratung. Opladen, Toronto: Barbara Budrich, pp. 257-282.
Bräuer, Gerd (2016): Konzeptuelle Überlegungen zur Ausrichtung von Schreibzentren als Lernzentren. In: Ballweg, Sandra [Hrsg .]: Schreibberatung und Schreibförderung: Impulse aus Theorie, Empirie und Praxis. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, pp. 337-360.
Brinkschulte, Melanie (2014): Kollaboratives Lautes Erinnern als Methode in der Schreibberater*innen-Ausbildung. In: Westphal, Petra et al. [Hrsg .]: Peer Learning durch Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Aktuelle Wege in der Ausbildung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Immenhausen: Prolog-Verlag, pp.125-135.
Grieshammer, Ella/Peters, Nora (2014): Peer Tutoring. Antworten für Skeptiker. In: Dreyfürst, Stephanie/Sennewald, Nadja [Hrsg .]: Schreiben. Grundlagentexte zur Theorie, Didaktik und Beratung. Opladen, Toronto: Barbara Budrich, pp. 437-444.
Grieshammer, Ella et al. (2022): Zukunftsmodell Schreibberatung. Eine Anleitung zur Begleitung von Schreibenden im Studium. 5th unrevised edition. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
Henkel, Christine/Vollmer, Anna (2014): Beraten auf Augenhöhe: Ein theoretisches Modell der Peer-Beratung. In: Westphal, Petra et al. [Hrsg .]: Peer Learning durch Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Aktuelle Wege in der Ausbildung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Immenhausen: Prolog-Verlag, pp. 51-58.
Peters, Nora (2016): Schreibhilfe von Studierenden für Studierende? Eine qualitative Studie zur studentischen Schreibberatung. In: Ballweg, Sandra [Hrsg .]: Schreibberatung und Schreibförderung: Impulse aus Theorie, Empirie und Praxis. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, pp.173-189.
Thomann, Geri/Pawelleck, Anja (2013): Studierende beraten. Opladen, Toronto: Budrich.
Treidler, Maren/Westphal, Petra/Stroot, Thea (2014): Peer Learning. In: Westphal, Petra et al. [Hrsg .]: Peer Learning durch Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Aktuelle Wege in der Ausbildung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Immenhausen: Prolog-Verlag, pp.15-20.
Ulmi, Marianne et al. (2017): Textdiagnose und Schreibberatung. Fach- und Qualifizierungsarbeiten begleiten. 2nd, updated edition. Opladen, Berlin: Budrich.

Andreas Bissels

Andreas Bissels is responsible for the writing center of the competence workshop at the University of Applied Scienes Cologne. As a writing consultant, he accompanies students and doctoral candidates in writing texts, offers writing workshops and organizes writing events. For teachers, he is the interdisciplinary contact person for questions related to didactic writing.