Question

A. In recent years whole-class and small-group student discussions have become increasingly popular as methods of helping students master classroom subject matter. Identify at least five different ways in which peer-interactive approaches can enhance students’ learning.

B. Describe reciprocal teaching and its effects on student achievement. Explain its effectiveness using principles of learning from cognitive psychology, being sure to address metacognition in your discussion.

C. Pick a topic that you might effectively teach through a cooperative learning approach. Then, using guidelines presented in the textbook, describe how you will: I. Form your cooperative groups II. Foster interdependence of group members III. Assess what students have learned

Answer 1

A. For children, social relationships are prominent among the external factors. Across all major conceptualizations of the motivational system, it appears that (nearly) all components can be affected by interactions with peers.

Abraham H. Maslow viewed the need for love and belongingness as a step toward achievement in his hierarchy of motivation model, which he described in 1954. In this view, the deprivation of more basic needs hinders progress along the path to achievement. In Maslow's model, people must have love and belongingness issues satisfied in order to address needs of achievement. For example, a student with deprived relationship concerns will be less able to participate in classroom learning opportunities. The ability to learn is built on a foundation of comfortable relationships with others, including peers and family, and classroom learning is all about learning with and in the presence of others.

Behaviorism provides one way to explain the association between motivation to learn and peer interactions. In basic behaviorist theories, relationships between people affect learning only as much as people reinforce each other (or not) in the academic arena

Within the classroom, time and organization can be established to focus students on their learning. Pairing and grouping students by their devotion to academics, for example, may benefit all involved. Those who value learning can share their enthusiasm and act as mentors for those who have other priorities

In 1978 Lev Vygotsky also presented ideas on the facilitation of learning through experiences mediated by other people. In his explanations, the learner cannot reach full potential without the aid of others. The processes of guiding the learner to higher stages of cognitive functioning rely on interactive human relationships. Mentors–for example, teachers or more capable peers–can raise the student's competence through the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD is defined as the gap between what a student can do alone and what the student can achieve with assistance. In this view assistance is transitional, a "scaffold" that is removed when it is no longer needed and the student has internalized another's support.

B.Rreciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.

effect-

• It encourages students to think about their own thought process during reading.
• It helps students learn to be actively involved and monitor their comprehension as they read.
• It teaches students to ask questions during reading and helps make the text more comprehensible.

Cognitive strategies used in reciprocal teaching are grounded in cognitive psychology and, in particular, information processing models of learning (Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012). Sternberg’s (1996) Triarchic Theory of Intelligence identifies three parts to information processing – metacomponents, performance components and knowledge acquisition components. These parts work together to plan, monitor and adjust performance for mastery of a task. Reading comprehension is an interaction between decoding, thinking about the text and cross-checking with what is already known. Westera (2002) identified reciprocal teaching as an example of metacognitive strategy instruction with an emphasis on thinking about thinking and skills for self-regulated learning during the reading process. Palincsar and Brown (1984) described information processing in skilled reading as ‘debugging’. A skilled reader will allocate time and effort to the task of untangling comprehension failures, while less-skillful readers, in their opinion, do not seem to use monitoring strategies well, and do not seem to allocate the time and effort to clarifying comprehension failures through the use of deliberate and active processing strategies. In information processing terms, skilled readers are able to move fluidly between performance components and metacomponents to rapidly construct meaning and monitor for understanding. Brown, Palincsar and Armbruster (1984) identified a number of information-processing strategies that skilled readers use in the process of clarification: explicit and implicit understanding of the purpose for reading; activation of relevant background knowledge; focusing attention on important content; critical evaluation of content for internal consistency and compatibility with prior knowledge and common sense; periodically reviewing and interrogating self for understanding, and finally, testing inferences and predictions. These strategies underpin the four concrete activities of predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising, that framework reciprocal teaching to foster comprehension and monitoring for understanding (Palincsar & Brown, 1984).