For a variety of K-12 peer-teaching (PT) approaches,
the research suggests that the following ideas will likely
increase the academic, social, and attitudinal benefits
to kids:
1. |
Structure the tasks clearly, emphasizing
group outcomes. |
2. |
For low level tasks assigned to groups,
use group rewards and reinforcers as well as individual
accountability. |
3. |
Coach all students in roles, responsibilities,
and group skills: |
|
|
a. |
How to give good explanations |
|
|
b. |
How to ask higher-order questions |
|
|
c. |
How to give and receive help productively |
|
|
d. |
How to organize the tasks, build the product, and
share the results. |
4. |
Give students practice in helping each
other every day. |
5. |
In general try to use heterogeneous
grouping. |
|
|
Some
collaborative/cooperative learning approaches that
rely
on good peer teaching for their success
Following are some basic descriptions of terms used
in our work; they are not technical definitions:
| Cooperative learning |
| |
A type of classroom strategy where
the teacher organizes students to work together in
small groups or pairs toward common
goals. |
| |
|
| Peer tutoring |
| |
Practice of asking one student to help another
at the same age or grade level (same-age peer tutoring
or SAPT). When the tutor is older and at a higher
grade level than tutee, the practice is cross-age
peer tutoring or CAPT). Some examples of this are
A+ Tutoring in Missouri, Teaching Academy and Cadet
Teaching programs in many American high schools. |
| |
|
| Informal peer tutoring |
| |
“Study-hall” atmosphere in class, where
people are encouraged to seek help from each other
as needed on a task |
| |
|
| General class discussion |
| |
Typical of teacher-led discussions and reviews,
where students raise hands to answer teacher’s
questions and, in the process, teach the rest of
the class also |
| |
|
| Posting work products |
| |
Students are requested (or required) to display
work products through a bulletin board posting, demonstration,
or performance |
| |
|
| Reciprocal peer tutoring |
| |
Students are placed in dyads and tutor each other
equally, usually following a structured format (Peer
editing is a related approach in writing.) |
| |
|
| Class-wide peer tutoring (CWPT) |
| |
A classroom strategy that assigns “think-pair-share” partners
in advance |
| |
|
| Learning centers |
| |
Spaces in a classroom set up with materials and tasks (Although usually for independent
learning, learning centers provide opportunities for a variety of peer teaching
approaches, especially CWPT or Informal Peer Tutoring.) |
| |
|
| Mixed-ability tutoring (heterogeneous
dyads or groupings) |
| |
Higher ability students work with lower-ability
students, usually of the same
age |
| |
|
| Literature [or] Book circles |
| |
Groups of students discuss pieces of literature they are reading |
| |
|
| Student presentations/peer modeling |
| |
Students prepare and present information or demonstrate skills to the rest of
the class, individually or in small “project teams” |
| |
|
| Students preparing quizzes or tests |
| |
Students make tests or contribute questions/problems to a teacher-compiled test |
| |
|
| Reciprocal teaching* |
| |
A structured approach to improving reading comprehension that involves instruction
and practice in strategies such as generating questions, summarizing, and predicting
what might happen next in a story or other text. Strategies are taught and
modeled by the teacher. The students gradually take over the role of facilitator
and provide instructional support to each other. (CRISS*, SRA/Open Court*,
and SRA/Reading Mastery* systems are based on similar structured approaches
and research findings, but have less emphasis on PT.) |
| |
|
| Large group (whole-class) projects |
| |
Complex project learning, requiring large numbers of people to contribute individual
skills or knowledge simultaneously, often with periodic evaluation and correction
of group effort (Examples are house-building projects, team book or web site
construction, theatre or video productions, musical ensembles, and team sports.) |
| |
|
|
| *Further information: |
| |
CRISS = CReating Independence through Student-owned
Strategies |
| |
Reciprocal
Teaching |
| |
SRA/Open
Court and SRA/Reading Mastery
Reading Mastery
is under “Direct
Instruction” on this menu. |
