The influence of social relationships on outcomes in mathematics when using peer tutoring in elementary school
23 Jun 2020-Vol. 1, pp 100004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conducted a study with 487, ten to twelve year-old students from 20 elementary schools in three different school districts and found that students showed increased social relationships in and out of school.
Abstract: Reciprocal peer tutoring in mathematics was conducted with 487, ten to twelve year-old students from 20 elementary schools in three different school districts. The peer tutoring technique, a form of paired mathematics, placed specific emphasis on mediation through strategic metacognition between tutor and tutee. Student mathematics attainment significantly increased using this technique (Effect Size=+0.43). Student perception of the social status of their tutoring partner influenced attainment outcomes. Greatest mathematics attainment gains were predicted by having a higher opinion of the cognitive ability of students’ mathematics tutoring partner and by having a mathematics tutoring partner that you believed was less popular. After peer tutoring, students showed increased social relationships in and out of school. Gains in social relationships were indicative of a more inclusive classroom being developed. The implications for theory, policy, practice and future research are discussed.
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TL;DR: In this article, a randomised controlled experimental study was undertaken involving 295, 11- to 13-year-old students, drawn from 12 classrooms, across three secondary/high schools situated in areas of low socio-economic status, in the north east of England.
Abstract: There is strong evidence that peer tutoring, as a form of cooperative learning, has a positive impact on tutor and tutee outcomes. However, little previous research has been reported as to the differential effects of engaging in cooperative learning in dyads for peer tutors and peer tutees, respectively. A randomised controlled experimental study was undertaken involving 295, 11- to 13-year-old students, drawn from 12 classrooms, across three secondary/high schools situated in areas of low-socio-economic status, in the north east of England. In total, 146 students engaged in cooperative learning for a period of 12 weeks, and 149 students served as a comparison group. Gains were significantly greater on independent standardised reading comprehension tests for those engaged in cooperative learning than those in comparison classes, and greater for tutors than tutees. The results are explored by critically reflecting on the underlying theories of education that may be at play in classrooms using this form of cooperative learning.
14 citations
TL;DR: A supportive marital relationship is associated with healthier body weight in midlife and indicates marital support may have effects over and beyond the mere absence of marital strain, suggesting the potential utility of involving spouses/partners in obesity prevention and treatment.
Abstract: Objective Few studies have gone beyond studying marital status to examine effects of marital quality on body weight. This study examined the association of marital quality with weight change and incident obesity in midlife. It differentiated positive and negative components of marital quality considering overall marital quality, marital support, and marital strain. Method Data are from 2,636 adults from the Midlife in the United States study who participated in 2 waves of data collection 10 years apart. Marital quality was self-reported. Body weight was assessed with self-reported height and weight. Generalized estimating equations examined primary associations also considering potential confounders and mediating factors including sociodemographics, baseline health conditions, and health behaviors. Results Overall marital quality was inversely associated with weight gain (β = -0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-1.38, -0.01]). Marital support was inversely related to both weight gain (β = -1.48, 95% CI [-2.80, -0.16]) and incident obesity (risk ratio = 0.79, 95% CI [0.65, 0.96]). Marital strain was not associated with either weight change or incident obesity. The association between marital support and incident obesity remained when marital strain was simultaneously included in the model. There was evidence that the associations of marital support and marital strain with incident obesity might differ by gender, and were evident only in men. Conclusion This study shows a supportive marital relationship is associated with healthier body weight in midlife. It also indicates marital support may have effects over and beyond the mere absence of marital strain. Findings suggest the potential utility of involving spouses/partners in obesity prevention and treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record
11 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the role of motivation, peer assisted learning, quality of teaching and student interest on student performance in mathematics and concluded that students learning interest in mathematics partially mediated the relationships between mathematics learning motivation and performance.
Abstract: In the Sub-Saran Africa, mathematics is a key subject in the school curriculum and most countries consider it as must-pass subject to gain admission into tertiary institutions. This notwithstanding, students ’ performance in mathematics in a cause for concern. For example, the mathematics performance of Ghanaian students in 2021 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), was lower than that of 2020. This indicates that the percentage of students to gain admission into the tertiary has reduced. This study therefore explored the role of motivation, peer assisted learning, quality of teaching and student interest on student performance in mathematics. The study design was a survey, with structured questionnaire being used for data collection. The population comprised of students pursuing their undergraduate degree at a public university in Ghana. Purposive and convenient sampling techniques were used in selecting 373 first year undergraduate students of Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), who studied on Kumasi campus. Data was gathered during lecture hours, after permissions were sought from the lecturers handling the classes at the time of data collection. The path analysis was by Structural Equation Modelling, by using Amos (v.23) software. It was concluded that students learning interest in mathematics partially mediated the relationships between mathematics learning motivation and performance in mathematics; as well as between mathematics teaching quality and performance in mathematics. The effect of peer assisted mathematics learning on performance in mathematics was however fully mediated by students learning interest in mathematics.
7 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed the behavior of fourth-grade students seeking face-to-face assistance while working on an online math platform and found that students prefer asking classmates for help three times more than asking their teachers when given the choice.
Abstract: When in doubt, asking a peer can be very helpful. Students learn a lot of social strategies from peers. However, stated preference studies have found that for elementary school students with math questions, they prefer to ask their teacher for help. In this paper, we study revealed preferences instead of stated preferences. We analyzed the behavior of fourth-grade students seeking face-to-face assistance while working on an online math platform. Students started by working independently on the platform, before the teacher selected two or three tutors from among those who have answered 10 questions correctly. Each student was then able to choose between the teacher or one of these tutors when requesting assistance. We studied the students’ preferences over 3 years, involving 88 fourth-grade classes, 2700 students, 1209 sessions with classmate tutors, and a total of 16,485 requests for help when there was an option to choose between a teacher or a classmate. We found that students prefer asking classmates for help three times more than asking their teachers when given the choice. Furthermore, this gap increases from the first to the second semester. We also found that students prefer to request help from classmates of the same sex and of higher academic performance. In this context, students from the two highest tertiles sought help from classmates in the same two tertiles, and students from the medium tertile prefer to seek help from students of the highest tertile. However, students in the two lowest tertiles do not prefer asking for help from students from the top tertile more than from their own tertiles.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated whether individual learner characteristics relate to differences in university students' engagement in socially shared metacognitive regulation (SSMR) when tutoring peers.
3 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, five recently published methods for conducting cooperative small-group learning in the classroom, and the experimental studies conducted by the authors of these methods are examined, evaluated, and compared in this study.
Abstract: Five recently published methods for conducting cooperative small-group learning in the classroom, and the experimental studies conducted by the authors of these methods are examined, evaluated, and compared in this study. The five methods are: Aronson’s Jigsaw classroom, DeVries’ Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), Slavin’s Student Teams and Academic Divisions (STAD), the Johnsons’ cooperative learning approach, and the Sharans’ Small-group Teaching method. The former three methods are categorized as Peer-Tutoring methods, while the latter two are classified as examples of a Group-Investigation (G-I) approach. Findings are considered from experimental studies with these five methods, in terms of their differential effects on academic achievement, students’ attitudes, and on ethnic relations in desegregated classrooms. The implications of the distinction between Peer-Tutoring and G-I methods are explored. New directions for research are suggested with these cooperative small-group techniques which appear to exe...
837 citations
"The influence of social relationshi..." refers background in this paper
...Tutors are reportedly erceived as having higher status than tutees within classroom settings Sharan, 1980 )....
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...One other explanation for why fixed-role peer tutoring may be less ffective among same-age peers is that status differences associated with eing the tutor (high status) and tutee (low status) interfere with teachng and learning ( Sharan, 1980 )....
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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: A meta-analytic review of group comparison design studies evaluating peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students produced positive effect sizes (ESs) indicating increases in achievement as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A meta-analytic review of group comparison design studies evaluating peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students produced positive effect sizes (ESs) indicating increases in achievement (unweighted mean ES = 0.59, SD = 0.90; weighted ES, d = 0.33, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval = 0.29-0.37). PAL interventions were most effective with younger, urban, low-income, and minority students. Interventions that used interdependent reward contingencies, ipsative evaluation procedures, and provided students with more autonomy had higher ESs. Adequate descriptive information was missing in many studies. Researchers are encouraged to develop PAL interventions in collaboration with practitioners to maximize those interventions' use and effectiveness and to include more detailed information about students, schools, and intervention components in their reports. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
539 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a meta-analysis was used to examine social, self-concept, and behavioral effects of peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students.
Abstract: Meta-analysis was used to examine social, self-concept, and behavioral effects of peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students. An electronic search of PsycINFO and ERIC databases resulted in 36 relevant PAL studies. Overall, effect sizes were small to moderate across the 3 outcome variable domains. Both social and self-concept outcomes were positively correlated with academic outcomes. Specific PAL components--student autonomy, individualized evaluation, structured student roles, interdependent group rewards, and same-gender grouping--were related to effect sizes. PAL interventions were more effective for low-income versus higher income, urban versus suburban-rural, minority versus nonminority, and Grades 1-3 students versus Grades 4-6 students. Results suggest that PAL interventions that focus on academics can also improve social and self-concept outcomes.
301 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the relative impact of structured peer tutoring and group reward components of the reciprocal peer-tutoring intervention on the mathematics performance of elementary school students at high risk for academic failure.
Abstract: This study examined the relative impact of structured peer tutoring and group reward components of the reciprocal peer-tutoring intervention on the mathematics performance of elementary school students at high risk for academic failure. Sixty-four students were selected randomly from a pool of 80 4th- and 5th-grade students. Students were assigned randomly to four conditions: structure plus reward; reward only; structure only; and no structure, no reward. Findings indicated that students who received both components showed the highest levels of accurate mathematics computations
268 citations