Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking skills in the high school
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated the effect of paired thinking in a high school setting. And they found that a substantial gain in reading comprehension was found for tutors and a substantial increase in self-esteem and social skills for students.
Abstract: Teaching thinking skills has been characterised by the teacher-directed ‘embed ded’, ‘infusion’ and ‘bolt-on’ approaches, for which outcomes have been mixed. Peer tutoring in thinking skills offers a fourth way of wide applicability. This study evaluated such a method (Paired Thinking) in a high school setting. A substantial gain in reading comprehension was found for tutees. Triangulated subjective feedback indicated development in thinking skills, self-esteem and social skills for tutees and tutors. Paired Thinking appeared to yield considerable potential impact for minimal time input. Recommendations for refining organisation and for future research and practice were made.
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TL;DR: A social-contextual view of the mechanisms and processes by which early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships may be promoted simultaneously is tested, and results indicate that higher achievement and more positive peer relationships were associated with cooperative rather than competitive or individualistic goal structures.
Abstract: Emphasizing the developmental need for positive peer relationships, in this study the authors tested a social-contextual view of the mechanisms and processes by which early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships may be promoted simultaneously. Meta-analysis was used to review 148 independent studies comparing the relative effectiveness of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures in promoting early adolescents' achievement and positive peer relationships. These studies represented over 8 decades of research on over 17,000 early adolescents from 11 countries and 4 multinational samples. As predicted by social interdependence theory, results indicate that higher achievement and more positive peer relationships were associated with cooperative rather than competitive or individualistic goal structures. Also as predicted, results show that cooperative goal structures were associated with a positive relation between achievement and positive peer relationships. Implications for theory and application are discussed.
630 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe and evaluate a method for peer tutoring in thinking skills, which scaffolds interactive discourse based on a differentiated real book the tutorial pair has chosen to read together.
Abstract: Outcomes for methods to accelerate thinking skills involving some peer interaction have been more consistently positive than those for purely teacher‐directed or materials‐led methods. However, methods involving mainly or only peer interaction are rare. This paper describes and evaluates such a method for peer tutoring in thinking skills, which scaffolds interactive discourse based on a differentiated real book the tutorial pair has chosen to read together. This pilot study aimed to partial the impact on quality of thinking of a peer‐tutored thinking intervention from that of a peer‐tutored reading intervention, controlling for time on task and amount of peer interactivity. Experimental peer tutees were a whole class (n=28) of seven‐year‐olds; experimental tutors a whole class (n=31) of 11‐year‐olds. Comparison tutees were a whole class (n=27) of seven‐year‐olds; comparison tutors a whole class (n=30) of 11‐year‐olds. Classes/teachers within the same school were randomly assigned to conditions. In Phase 1...
64 citations
Cites methods or result from "Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..."
...However, McKinstery and Topping (2003) deployed the technique on a cross-age tutoring basis in a high school, and found remarkable increases in scores on reading tests for the tutees, far beyond any normal expectations....
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...Certainly the post-test response of the experimental tutors was very different from that reported for high school PT tutors by McKinstery and Topping (2003)....
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TL;DR: It is indicated that children's cognitive abilities can be developed following a 2 year period of the ACTS infusion intervention, and teacher professional development was reported to be enhanced.
Abstract: Background Recent interest in the teaching of thinking skills within education has led to an increase in thinking skills packages available to schools. However many of these are not based on scientific evaluation (DfEE, 1999). This paper endeavours to examine the effectiveness of one approach, that of infusion, to teaching thinking.
Aims To investigate the impact of an infusion methodology, activating children's thinking skills (ACTS), on the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children in Year 4–6 in primary schools. This is a sister project to research being conducted in Northern Ireland (McGuinness, 2006).
Sample The study involved 404 children from 8 primary schools in one local authority. These were divided into 160 in the experimental group and 244 in the waiting list control group.
Methods A quasi-experimental design was used with pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests to ascertain changes in children's cognitive abilities, self-perceptions, and social/behavioural skills using quantitative measures. In addition qualitative techniques were used with pupils and teachers to evaluate effectiveness.
Results The experimental group made significantly greater gains in cognitive ability skills over a 2 year period compared to the waiting list control. Qualitative data demonstrated a positive impact on children's social and emotional development. In addition teacher professional development was reported to be enhanced.
Conclusions This research indicated that children's cognitive abilities can be developed following a 2 year period of the ACTS infusion intervention. While some positive effects were evidenced on the social and emotional development of children, further study will be necessary to examine these in more detail.
53 citations
01 Aug 2005
44 citations
Cites background from "Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..."
...McKinstery and Topping (2003) report that peer tutoring in a paired reading scheme can produce gains in self-esteem for both tutors and tutees....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on the nature and development of critical thinking in the context of the current curriculum in the sciences in Saudi Arabia and focused on how to measure critical thinking and to determine whether critical thinking skills can be developed in science subjects.
Abstract: Traditionally, education in Saudi Arabia has tended to lay considerable emphasis on the correct recall of memorised information. In the early years of the 21st century, education policy in Saudi Arabia began to consider the introduction of the concept of critical thinking into the curriculum. At the same time, the role and place of the sciences in the curriculum have increasingly been emphasized, the aim being to equip future generations with the skills thought important in taking the country forward. This study is, therefore, set in Saudi Arabia and focuses on the nature and development of critical thinking in the context of the current curriculum in the sciences. After describing the educational scene in Saudi Arabia, the thesis focuses on what is known about thinking in general and critical thinking in particular. The aim here is to move towards the development of a model of critical thinking and some kind of operational description against which test material can be developed. At that stage, it was recognised that, while critical thinking might be conceptualized as a set of cognitive skills, there is a strong attitudinal element. In simple terms, the learner needs to know how to think critically but also be willing to use these skills. There is a very brief review of some key research in the area of attitudes, including the principles of measurement which underpin the way the perceptions and attitudes of the learners are considered in this study. The cognitive nature of critical thinking is then related to two key research contributions of the 20th century: the work of Jean Piaget and David Ausubel. Critical thinking takes place in the working memory and the insights from information processing are discussed, looking at the ways information moves around the brain and the implications for the development of critical thinking are discussed. This study aims to explore how to measure critical thinking and to determine whether critical thinking skills can be developed in science subjects in school pupils. To achieve this aim, a model of critical thinking was first developed representing that thinking critically basically involves asking the questions how, what and why of new sources of information, the information itself and the linking processes involved in understanding. A test of critical thinking was developed based on this model. The data from this test were related to several other educational measures: student perceptions, working ii
28 citations
References
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01 Jan 1982
1,121 citations
TL;DR: A review of intervention studies in which students have been taught to generate questions as a means of improving their comprehension can be found in this paper, where the cognitive strategy of generating questions about the material they had read resulted in gains in comprehension, as measured by tests given at the end of the intervention.
Abstract: This is a review of intervention studies in which students have been taught to generate questions as a means of improving their comprehension. Overall, teaching students the cognitive strategy of generating questions about the material they had read resulted in gains in comprehension, as measured by tests given at the end of the intervention. All tests were based on new material. The overall median effect size was 0.36 (64th percentile) when standardized tests were used and 0.86 (81st percentile) when experimenter-developed comprehension tests were used. The traditional skill-based instructional approach and the reciprocal teaching approach yielded similar results.
904 citations
"Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..." refers background in this paper
...A review of 26 studies of teaching students to generate questions as a means of improving their comprehension and thinking skills (Rosenshine et al., 1996) indicated modest effect sizes in terms of outcomes on standardised tests, balanced by substantial effect sizes on criterion-referenced…...
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TL;DR: Reciprocal teaching as discussed by the authors is an instructional procedure designed to teach students cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension, such as summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction, supported through dialogue between teacher and students as they attempt to gain meaning from text.
Abstract: Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach students cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. The learning of cognitive strategies such as summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction is supported through dialogue between teacher and students as they attempt to gain meaning from text. This article is a review of sixteen studies on reciprocal teaching, which include published studies found in journal articles and unpublished studies indexed in Dissertation Abstracts International. All the studies included in this review were quantitative in methodology. When standardized tests were used to assess comprehension, the median effect size, favoring reciprocal teaching, was .32. When experimenter-developed comprehension tests were used, the median effect size was .88. We also discuss the role of cognitive strategies in enhancing comprehension, the strategies that were most helpful, instructional approaches for teaching cognitive strategi...
802 citations
"Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..." refers background in this paper
...Rosenshine and Meister (1994) published an excellent review of 16 quantitative studies of reciprocal teaching, which generally supported the efficacy of this method....
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Book•
01 Jan 1970
597 citations
"Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..." refers background in this paper
...DeBono’s work on lateral thinking is well known (for example, DeBono, 1990)....
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Book•
25 Jan 1990
409 citations
"Cross-age peer tutoring of thinking..." refers background in this paper
...In the UK, the related work of Fisher (1990, 1998) is popular, but evaluated largely in terms of subjective participant feedback....
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