1. Keith Topping [k.j.topping@dundee.ac.uk], of Scotland’s University of Dundee, has a long history of work on tutoring, which he defines as “people who are not professional teachers helping and supporting the learning of others in an interactive, purposeful and systematic way. Tutors could include parents or other adult carers, brothers and sisters, other students from the peer group [emphasis added], and various kinds of volunteers.”

Keith has attended at least one IASCE conference, but informs us that he has another commitment on the dates of our 2004 conference which may prevent him from coming to Singapore this June. In partial recompense, Keith sends along these online documents he has written recently.

Topping, K. J. (2001). Peer and parent assisted learning in reading, writing, spelling and thinking skills. Spotlight No. 82. Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Research in Education. [Online] Available: www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight82.html [26 April].

Topping, K. J. (2001). Peer and parent assisted learning in maths, science and ICT. Spotlight No. 83. Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Research in Education. [Online] Available: www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight83.html [26 April].

Topping, K. J. (2001). Tutoring by peers, family and volunteers. Geneva: International Bureau of Education, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). [Online] Available: www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/EducationalPractices/prachome.htm [January 1] (Also in translation in Chinese and Spanish).

2. Everyone has heard of Multiple Intelligences. One of the intelligences talked about by the people at Project Zero, where much of the path breaking work on MI has been done, is Interpersonal Intelligence. Thus, it’s no surprise that one of their current projects includes group learning. The project is called: Making Learning Visible: Understanding, Documenting, and Supporting Individual and Group Learning (http://pzweb.harvard.edu/mlv/index.htm).