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Why Research Peer Teaching in the Primary Grades?
The sudden separation of students from their classroom communities due to the Covid-19 global pandemic caused widespread feelings of isolation and loss of belonging among students (Youth Truth, 2020). According to Etienne Wenger, "...in spite of curriculum, discipline, and exhortation, the learning that is most personally transformative turns out to be the learning that involves membership in these communities of practice"(Wenger, 2009, p. 212).
With the achievement gap widening and 80% of that gap found within school communities, I wanted to give student an experience and skill that might not only allow students to share information and improve their academics but that might tie academic achievement to positive social connections.
Peer teaching in the area of mathematics, an area in which the U.S. continually scores well below the national average (Barshay, 2019), seemed like a way to possibly address many of the issues students were facing.
Researcher John Hattie found that students retain more of what they hear from their peers than what they hear from their teacher even though teachers talk for roughly 80% of class time. His meta analysis found that “the overall effect size of peers on learning is high (d = 0.52) and can be much higher indeed if some of the negative influences of peers is mitigated” (2012, p. 87).
With the achievement gap widening and 80% of that gap found within school communities, I wanted to give student an experience and skill that might not only allow students to share information and improve their academics but that might tie academic achievement to positive social connections.
Peer teaching in the area of mathematics, an area in which the U.S. continually scores well below the national average (Barshay, 2019), seemed like a way to possibly address many of the issues students were facing.
Researcher John Hattie found that students retain more of what they hear from their peers than what they hear from their teacher even though teachers talk for roughly 80% of class time. His meta analysis found that “the overall effect size of peers on learning is high (d = 0.52) and can be much higher indeed if some of the negative influences of peers is mitigated” (2012, p. 87).
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References
Barshay, J. (2019, March 30). What PISA rankings 2018 tell us about U.S. schools. The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/what-2018-pisa-international-rankings-tell-us-about-u-s-schools/
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers (1st ed.). Routledge.
Wenger, E. C. (2009). A social theory of learning. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists ... In Their Own Words, (pp. 209-218), New York, NY: Routledge
Youth Truth. (2020). “Students weigh in: COVID-19” aggregate report - spring 2020. https://youthtruth.surveyresults.org/report_sections/1087936
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers (1st ed.). Routledge.
Wenger, E. C. (2009). A social theory of learning. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists ... In Their Own Words, (pp. 209-218), New York, NY: Routledge
Youth Truth. (2020). “Students weigh in: COVID-19” aggregate report - spring 2020. https://youthtruth.surveyresults.org/report_sections/1087936