Does Peer-Assisted Learning Improve Student Marks in Accounting?

Abstract

For the past several years students in accounting at Macquarie University in Sydney have been offered the chance to participate in a peer-assisted learning program. This paper conducts a statistical analysis of the relationship between participation in peer-assisted learning and student performance, as measured by the final mark achieved in the unit offering peer-assisted learning. The paper presents a methodology for conducting the analysis that represents an advance on that found in the extant literature on this topic. Using this superior methodology, the paper finds that participation in peer-assisted learning has a statistically and numerically significant effect on student marks.