Developments in forms of peer learning 1981–2006 are reviewed, focusing mainly on peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and peer assessment. Types and definitions of peer learning are explored, together with questions of implementation integrity and consequent effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness. Benefits to helpers are now emphasised at least as much as benefits to those helped. In this previously under‐theorised area, an integrated theoretical model of peer learning is now available. Peer learning has been extended in types and forms, in curriculum areas and in contexts of application beyond school. Engagement in helping now often encompasses all community members, including those with special needs. Social and emotional gains now attract as much interest as cognitive gains. Information technology is now often a major component in peer learning, operating in a variety of ways. Embedding and sustainability has improved, but further improvement is needed.

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Trends in Peer Learning

In The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction, author Robert J. Marzano presents a model for ensuring quality teaching that balances the necessity of research-based data with the equally vital need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual students. He articulates his framework in the form of 10 questions that represent a logical planning sequence for successful instructional design. Filled with charts, rubrics and organisers, this methodical, user-friendly guide will help teachers examine and develop their knowledge and skills, so they can achieve that dynamic fusion of art and science that results in exceptional teaching and outstanding student achievement.

The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction

Stereotype management is introduced to explain high achievement and resilience among 23 Black mathematics and engineering college students. Characterized as a tactical response to ubiquitous forms of racism and racialized experiences across school and non-school contexts, stereotype management emerged along overlapping paths of racial, gender, and mathematics identity development. Interviews revealed that although stereotype management facilitated success in these domains, the students maintained an intense and perpetual state of awareness that their racial identities and Blackness are undervalued and constantly under assault within mathematics and engineering contexts. With age development and maturity, the students progressed from being preoccupied with attempts to prove stereotypes wrong to adopting more self-defined reasons to achieve. The results suggest that stereotype threat is not deterministic.

“You Would Not Believe What I Have to Go Through to Prove My Intellectual Value!” Stereotype Management Among Academically Successful Black Mathematics and Engineering Students

Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non-crime domains over the life course). The prevention of behavior problems is one of the many objectives of early family/parent training, and it comprises the main focus of this review. Results indicate that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing behavior problems among young children, and the weighted effect size was 0.35. The results from a series of analog to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and weighted least squares regression models (with random effects) demonstrated that there were significant differences in the effect sizes of studies conducted in the USA versus those conducted in other countries and that studies that were based on samples smaller than 100 children had larger effect sizes. Sample size was also the strongest predictor of the variation in the effect sizes. Additional evidence indicated that early family/parent training was also effective in reducing delinquency and crime in later adolescence and adulthood. Overall, the findings lend support for the continued use of early family/parent training to prevent behavior problems. Future research should test the main theories of early family/parent training and detail more explicitly the causal mechanisms by which early family/parent training reduces delinquency and crime, and future evaluations should employ high quality designs with long-term follow-ups, including repeated measures of antisocial behavior, delinquency, and crime over the life course.

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Effects of early family/parent training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency

In this article we explore ways in which the development of peer assisted learning (PAL) interventions can enhance the work of educational and psychological consultants. The range and scope of PAL strategies are reviewed, although the main focus is on simpler methods that are relatively easy and swift to implement. Organizational dimensions on which PAL interventions can vary are then explicated. Essential practical elements in the successful organization of local PAL programs are discussed. A model is provided of the routes and channels through which PAL strategies have their effects. This conceptual framework should help consultants illuminate the relevance of PAL to particular local needs, and promote the development of PAL into forms adding most educational value. Ways in which this framework might be applied in practice are explored. The interested reader is referred to more detailed sources and resources.

Peer Assisted Learning: A Framework for Consultation

Summary of Teacher-Led Procedures Wait-times, choral responding, and response cards increase the number of studentsresponding to task stimuli following teacher questions. Consequently, these proce-dures can increase the number and the rate of complete learning trials duringrecitation. However , each of thes e procedure s has uniqu e strength s and shortcomings .Increasing wait times may increase the number of students responding; but, becausethese cognitive responses are unobservable, teachers can not monitor or evaluateresponses. Respons e cards occasio n observable written responses which teachers canmonitor. After asking a question, the teacher can determine who is responding andevaluate the accuracy of those responses. This can allow teachers to encourageresponding from all students and provide corrective feedback to students who aremaking errors . However, writin g response s take s time . Therefore, response card s maybe less efficient (lower learning trial rates) than longer wait times and calling on onestudent to respond aloud when questions require long responses .Choral responding is overt and efficient. However, teachers have difficultydetermining which students are responding and evaluating response accuracy(Narayan et al., 1990). Therefore, when students have obtained some degree ofaccuracy, choral responding may prove to be useful for increasing fluency becauseit allow s for a larg e numbe r of response s in a brie f perio d of time . Chora l respondingmay also be useful when the goal response is verbal. For example, you could notuse response cards for sight-word responding. When teachers are presenting taskstimuli and providing feedback they can control the pace of instruction. ReducingITIs and increasing wait times may improve the quality and possibly the quantityof learning trials in a fixed period of time. Teachers can also control the form andtiming of responses . Choral responding and response card research reviewed showhow altering the form (written as opposed to subvocal) or timing (unison or one ata time) of responses can increase rates of responding and learning rates in groupsof students.

Increasing learning rates by increasing student response rates: A summary of research.

A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of Van Houten and Thompson's (1976) explicit timing procedure on problem completion rates and accuracy levels in African-American third-grade students. During the explicit timing phase, students were told that they were being timed and were instructed to circle the last problem completed at each 1-min interval. Results showed that the explicit timing procedure increased problem completion rates. A decreasing trend in percentage of problems correct also occurred. Exploratory data analysis suggested that decreases in accuracy were not caused by the explicit timing procedure and did not occur in students who had attained high levels of preintervention accuracy. Discussion focuses on recommendations for educators who wish to use timing procedures to increase students' rates of accurate responding.

Effects of explicit timing on mathematics problem completion rates in African-American third-grade elementary students

The effects of explicit timing on mathematics performance in second-grade Caucasian and African American students

Functional assessment procedures have proven useful for developing effective individualized interventions for a wide variety of populations and behavioral concerns. However, fewer studies have been conducted with preschool students who exhibit high incidence problem behaviors. The current study includes data from comprehensive functional assessments and interventions implemented in preschool and Head Start classrooms. Three preschool students and five teachers participated in the study. Each student received a comprehensive functional assessment for problem behavior that included a teacher interview, descriptive assessment, and abbreviated functional analysis. Assessment data were used to develop individualized function-based interventions that were implemented by experimenters and teachers. The function-based interventions resulted in decreases in problem behavior for all three students. Additionally, convergence between functional assessment procedures was obtained for all participants. Finally, social validity data indicated that teachers found the assessment and intervention procedures acceptable.

Functional Assessment and Intervention for Disruptive Classroom Behaviors in Preschool and Head Start Classrooms

. This study evaluated situational bias that could be associated with curriculum-based measurement (CBM). Situational bias occurs when testing situations, conditions, or contexts differentially affect the performance of individuals from diverse groups. During CBM, students are timed (e.g., students are told to begin and a stopwatch is started) while responding. Researchers have suggested that African Americans may have different concepts of time, and therefore may respond differently when being timed. In the current study, the mathematical responding of 79 African American and Caucasian general education, eighth-grade students was compared under covertly timed and conspicuously timed CBM conditions. Results showed that students' accuracy levels increased under the conspicuous timing conditions, but there was no interaction between timing condition and ethnicity for digits correct per minute, digits incorrect per minute, or accuracy. These results suggest that timing procedures used during CBM do not i ntroduce situational bias. ********** Many researchers and educators have attempted to explain ethnic differences in academic performance (e.g., Dozier & Barnes, 1997; Hershberger & D'Augelli, 1992; Nyberg, McMillin, O'Neill-Rood, & Florence, 1997). Substantial differences between African American and Caucasian students' academic achievement continues to be a source of controversy in education (Brown, Reynolds, & Whitaker, 1999). Methods used to assess academic achievement may play a role in these differences. Culturally biased assessment procedures may invalidate studies that establish these differences. Perhaps a more serious problem is related to educational validity. Assessment results are often used to make educational decisions with respect to specific students. Culturally biased assessment procedures may cause educators to make inappropriate educational decisions for students from specific cultures. In this manner, culturally biased assessment procedures can have a negative effect on learning rates of students from different cultures. Curriculum-Based Measurement: Content and Situational Bias Characteristics of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) allow these procedures to be useful in making educational decisions for specific students. Specifically, CBM procedures are brief; educators can construct multiple parallel forms from the students' curricula; and results yield rate data that are extremely sensitive to changes in academic skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Phillips, & Bentz, 1994). Thus, CBM data can be used to evaluate students' learning rates frequently and over brief periods of time (Deno & Mirkin, 1977; Fuchs et al., 1994; Shinn, 1995). These characteristics allow educators to use CBM to compare more than one instructional intervention to determine which intervention maximizes learning rates for individual students (e.g., Daly, Martens, Dool, & Hintze, 1998; Daly, Witt, Martens, & Dool, 1997; Deno, 1986; Skinner, Belfiore, Mace, Williams, & Johns, 1997; Skinner, Belfiore, & Watson, 1995). Mega-analysis results (a synthesis of meta-analytic studies) suggest that using CBM procedures to make educational decisions is one of the most, if not the most, effective strategies for enhancing learning rates or achievement in special education students (Forness, Kavale, Blum, & Lloyd, 1997). Unfortunately, few studies have investigated cultural bias associated with CBM procedures. One study found no differences in mean CBM reading scores across African Amercian and Caucasian students (Knoff & Dean, 1994). In a more recent study, Kranzler, Miller, and Jordan (1999) found evidence that CBM reading scores overestimated reading comprehension of African American fourth- and fifth-grade students. Although Kranzler et al. (1999) found evidence of cultural bias, it is not clear what variable(s) accounted for this bias. …

An Investigation of Situational Bias: Conspicuous and Covert Timing during Curriculum-Based Measurement of Mathematics across African American and Caucasian Students.

Carlen Henington

Papers

Increasing learning rates by increasing student response rates: A summary of research.

Effects of explicit timing on mathematics problem completion rates in African-American third-grade elementary students

The effects of explicit timing on mathematics performance in second-grade Caucasian and African American students

Functional Assessment and Intervention for Disruptive Classroom Behaviors in Preschool and Head Start Classrooms

An Investigation of Situational Bias: Conspicuous and Covert Timing during Curriculum-Based Measurement of Mathematics across African American and Caucasian Students.