Peer Tutoring – Students Support Students

Note: This text was translated with the help of DeepL and DeepL Write.

The Writing Center at TH Köln 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 and scientific writing. (Cf. on the orientation of writing centers as learning centers: Bräuer 2016) In particular, the Writing Center’s interdisciplinary counseling for students and doctoral candidates from all faculties has been well-established at our university for several years. It is offered in the form of 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 Köln and to promote university-wide exchange about writing. It is a valuable support for lecturers in that they receive better texts and can discuss upcoming written exams with reflective, well-prepared students. The high demand clearly shows the need to talk about 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

“[…] als situationsbezogene und spezifische Hilfestellung bei der Analyse und Lösung von Problemen oder bei auftauchenden komplexen Fragestellungen – wobei Beratung immer auch dialogisches und gemeinsames Denken und Handeln beinhaltet.”
Thomann/Pawelleck 2013: 15

The Writing Center’s approach is also explicitly competence-oriented rather than deficit-oriented. Thus, the goal is not to identify weaknesses and deficits, nor is such a service aimed exclusively at those who allegedly have problems with writing academic texts. Rather, the aim of the consultations is to promote independence and learner autonomy, to recognize existing strengths and thus to increase individual motivation to learn.

Typical, recurring topics in writing consultations have to do with texts (narrowing down a topic, formulating a question, structure, argumentation, style, formulations, etc.), but also with writing as a complex process (writing strategies, time management, overcoming writing problems, etc.) and communicative action (audience orientation, reader expectations, etc.).

Why Peer-to-Peer?

The creation of peer-to-peer learning environments is an important addition to the above-mentioned approach in order to counteract possible inhibitions in using writing advice. The term peer is usually used to describe people who are in a similar life situation and are basically of equal rank, e.g., in terms of age or social status (cf. Treidler/Westphal/Stroot 2014: 15f) This idea of equality forms the core of the peer setting in writing consultation, and this is where the added value of such a consultation format lies: consultation by peer writing tutors, i.e. by (appropriately trained) students for students, generally takes place at eye level. It is therefore a particularly low-threshold offer that breaks down barriers and makes it easier „[…] die vermeintlich ‚doofen‘ Fragen zu stellen, da die Begegnung in einem prüfungsfreien Raum stattfindet.“ (Fröhlich/Langelahn/Wenzel 2024: 136)

Peer writing consultation is “[…] eine Lernaktivität von mindestens zwei Lernenden, in der durch ein symmetrisches Lernarrangement ein gegenseitiger Austausch über Wissen und Erfahrungen stattfindet sowie gemeinsam Ideen (weiter-)entwickelt werden.“ (Brinkschulte 2014: 127). While writing tutors contribute their experience and knowledge of writing to a consultation, those seeking advice contribute their technical and content-related 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 advisee. The focus is always on the individual concerns of those seeking advice.

In this respect, peer writing advice is a form of collaborative learning that promotes independence and the development of individual potential (cf. Henkel/Vollmer 2014: 53ff) This is because peer writing advice is not primarily about optimizing texts. Rather, the goal of such a service is to promote the academic writing skills of those seeking advice in the long term and thus preparing them for the further course of their studies. Writing consultation in this sense is not instructive or normative, but represents “[…] eine begleitete Hinführung zum selbständigen Umgehen mit dem komplexen Schreibprozess […]” (Brinkschulte 2014: 125). The aim of the consultations is to enable those seeking advice to make the decisions necessary for writing an academic text independently and on their own responsibility. A dictum of this approach is therefore that consultants only provide help for self-help (cf. Bräuer 2014: 272) This means that no solutions are given 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 advisors.

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

Peer-to-Peer Consultation at the Writing Center

With this in mind, the Writing Center introduced peer-to-peer tutoring, funded by central quality improvement funds: Since 2023, an interdisciplinary team of student assistants has provided additional, low-threshold writing assistance – from students to students. The Writing Center’s peer tutors offer one-on-one writing consultations and open office hours in the Südstadt Campus Library.

The peer tutors receive intensive training to prepare them for their undoubtedly challenging work. The training is based on the framework for training peer writing tutors developed by the Gesellschaft für Schreibdidaktik und Schreibforschung e. V., which takes into account current findings in writing process research, writing center research, and writing didactics.

Do you have any more questions about academic and scientific writing?

The Writing Center of the Center for Soft Skills Development is the point of contact for questions relating to academic and scientific writing at TH Köln. For more information about the Writing Center’s interdisciplinary services for students, graduate students, and faculty, please visit www.th-koeln.de/schreibzentrum.

Any questions?

Feel free to contact us by mail to lehrpfade@th-koeln.de!

Links & References

Bräuer, Gerd (2014): Grundprinzipien der Schreibberatung. Eine pragmatische Sicht auf die Schreibprozesstheorie. In: Dreyfürst, Stephanie/Sennewald, Nadja [ed.]: 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 [ed:] 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. [ed.]: Peer Learning durch Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Aktuelle Wege in der Ausbildung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Immenhausen: Prolog-Verlag, pp.125-135.
Fröhlich, Melanie/Langelahn, Elke/Wenzel, Marko (2024): Peer tutoring. Eine praxisreflexive Perspektive. In: Karsten, Andrea/Haacke-Werron, Stefanie [ed.] (2024): 40 Begriffe für eine Schreibwissenschaft. Konzeptuelle Perspektiven auf Praxis und Praktiken des Schreibens. Bielefeld: wbv Media, pp. 135-141.
Grieshammer, Ella/Peters, Nora (2014): Peer Tutoring. Antworten für Skeptiker. In: Dreyfürst, Stephanie/Sennewald, Nadja [ed.]: 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 [Eds:] Peer Learning through Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Current ways in the training of teachers. Immenhausen: Prolog-Verlag, pp. 51-58.
Peters, Nora (2016): Schreibhilfe von Studierenden für Studierende? Eine qualitative Studie zur studentischen Schreibberatung. In: Ballweg, Sandra [ed:] 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 [Eds:] Peer Learning through Mentoring, Coaching & Co. Current ways in the training of teachers. 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 Center for Soft Skills Development at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. As a writing consultant, he accompanies students and doctoral researchers in writing texts, offers writing workshops and organizes writing events. For lecturers, he is an interdisciplinary contact person for questions related to writing didactics.