Peer‐mediated instruction: assisted performance in the primary classroom

Abstract

Peer collaboration has been supported in research as an effective instructional strategy. However, education researchers lack a full understanding of the types of scaffolding that take place in peer groups. Little research is available that documents what happens during the small group interactions. This case study took place in one teacher’s multi‐age primary classroom in the southeastern region of the USA. It examined how elementary students provided scaffolding to one another during collaborative classroom activities. Specifically, this investigation explored the ways in which elementary students provide assistance to one another during academic tasks and examined the status of the children, in terms of more or less capabilities, during the collaborative events. Vygotsky asserts that for learning to occur, assistance must be provided by a more capable person. The research findings suggest that peers provide scaffolding for one another in various ways. In this investigation, these primary students utilized questioning, providing feedback, and instructing as the primary methods of scaffolding during the learning experiences. This study also supports assertions that when students are allowed to pose questions and provide feedback to one another during peer collaboration, they help to establish instruction in their zone of proximal development.

Keywords:

• peer collaboration
• peer scaffolding
• cooperative learning
• assisted performance
• joint productive activity

Acknowledgements

This article was prepared with funding from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), a national research center funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education, under Cooperative Agreement No. R306A60001‐96 (1 July 1996–31 December 2004). The findings and opinions expressed here is that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of IES.