‘What makes her succeed?’ Children's interpretations of their peers' successes in learning situations

ABSTRACT

Previous research has shown that observing peers' success in learning is important for the development of children's belief in themselves as learners. However, in research, these observations are seldom made in actual classroom learning activities. This study investigated how children explain factors that lead to their peers' successes in classroom learning activities. Seventeen elementary school children from first, second and third grade participated in a ‘detective course’ in which they needed to capture moments of success using a mobile camera device. The pictures were used for photo-elicitation interviews (n = 28) in order to find out children's views on the reasons for their peers' successes in learning situations. Pictorial data (n = 361) were coded with data-driven categories to see what kind of situations children considered successful. The results show that the reasons given for peers' successes dealt with situation-specific information, such as mastery and quality of performance. Findings indicate that children explain peers' successes through the actions that their peers made during the situations, rather than by comparison between the abilities of their classmates. The results provide information for practitioners and teachers on how to promote children to use the example of their peers to recognise and explain successful learning situations in the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• academic ability
• participatory methods
• peer
• photo-elicitation interview
• successful learning situations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (project number SA 135100); The Finnish Cultural Foundation (grant for personal work); KASVA Network (grant for personal work).