Peer Teaching: Impact on Student Engagement and Confidence (with a few seal barks in the mix)

There’s something really powerful that happens when students stop just doing the work and start teaching it.

This is something I’ve been intentionally building into my math block, and it’s had a bigger impact than I ever expected; not just on math understanding, but on student confidence, especially when it comes to speaking in front of others.

Every day, we start math with whiteboard practice. It’s a quick, supplemental routine I use to build in repetition and cyclical review; something I’ve found can sometimes be missing in even really strong curricula like Bridges and Number Corner. The curriculum is great, but my students need that extra time to revisit strategies, see problems in different ways, and really build retention.

So I’ll put up a problem, and students solve it on their whiteboards. While they’re working, I circulate around the room, checking for understanding, noticing who’s on the right track, and identifying where students might be getting stuck. They can use their math notebooks during this time too, which helps reinforce that we have strategies, we just need to know when and how to use them.

When I first introduced this routine, our share-out looked pretty typical. Students would raise their hands or call out answers while I worked through the problem on the board. We also use a hand signal for choral responses, which takes a lot of pressure off individual students and honestly boosts engagement; because let’s be real, who wouldn’t want to blurt in class if it’s allowed?

But over time, this started to shift.

As I began incorporating more of our student celebrations -like guacamole (where we stomp to “mash” the avocado), the light bulb (“twist, twist, ding!”), the ketchup bottle, and our class favorite, the seal of approval (three seal claps and barks) - I also started inviting students up to the board.

At first, it was small. I would have a student come up and write the next step. I was really intentional here; I chose students I had already seen doing that step correctly, so the experience felt successful and safe.

But as students grew more comfortable, this evolved into something bigger.

Now, I regularly invite multiple students to come up and show how they solved the problem, and more importantly, explain their thinking. They talk through why they chose a certain strategy, what they noticed, and how they moved from one step to the next.

And this is where the real shift happened.

Students aren’t just seeing one way to solve a problem anymore, they’re seeing multiple approaches, from peers who think like them. That has been huge for accessibility. Students who might not connect with my explanation often connect with a classmate’s.

At the same time, the students who are coming up to the board are building confidence in a completely different way. They’re practicing organizing their thoughts, speaking clearly, and explaining their reasoning in front of others, without it feeling like a formal “presentation.”

And we celebrate every single time.

That celebration piece matters more than I can even explain. It creates this environment where taking a risk; getting up, sharing thinking, even making a mistake is something positive.

Because of this intentional shift toward peer teaching and student leadership (something that was definitely influenced by my experiences seeing the power of number talks in Saginaw County schools), I’ve seen engagement in my math block skyrocket.

I actually tracked it over time during our whiteboard routine by annotating and comparing how many students were actively participating through hand-raising or choral responses. Over three different four-day periods, my class average went from 37%, to 58%, to now 86%.

That kind of growth is honestly shocking to see in real time.

Students are more motivated. They’re more willing to try. And our math data has grown alongside that confidence.

But one of the moments that sticks with me the most has nothing to do with a percentage.

At the beginning of my long-term sub placement, I had a parent reach out to let me know their child had high anxiety around public speaking, especially reading aloud or being called on in class.

Now, that same student participates daily.

Not only that, but there are days where he’s visibly disappointed when he isn’t chosen to come up to the board.

That shift, from anxiety and avoidance to confidence and eagerness, is exactly why I continue to prioritize these peer teaching opportunities.

Because yes, my students are getting better at math. But more importantly, they’re starting to see themselves as capable of sharing their thinking, leading their peers, and using their voice.

And that kind of confidence carries way beyond the math block.