The Effect of Peer-Facilitated Learning on Teen Leaders

• In Event: 26.077 - Teens Teaching and Leading: The Peer-Enabled Restructured Classroom in Urban STEM

Abstract

This presentation describes effects of PERC Program participation on the peer learning leaders known as Teaching Assistant Scholars (TAS). The PERC model uses peer-assisted team learning techniques similar to small-group cooperative learning practices (Ginsburg-Block, Rohrbeck, & Fantuzzo, 2006). The TAS guide daily group work within each PERC class period. The TAS Class, designed by the PERC Program, supports the TAS’s work in the PERC class and their own growth and development.

The TAS experience is grounded in frameworks for college readiness found in Conley (2008) and the City Department of Education (DOE) (2013), both of which include dimensions related to specific content knowledge acquisition, general academic skills, academic self-regulatory behaviors, and knowledge of the college admissions process and college-going expectations. The TAS Class is structured around four dimensions: Learning to Learn, Learning to Teach, Learning Content, and College Knowledge. Each dimension is grounded in its own literature. Learning to Learn focuses on academic self-regulation (Greene & Azevedo, 2007; Zimmerman, 2008) and metacognition (Dignath & Büttner, 2008; Perels, Gürtler, & Schmitz, 2005; Schunk & Ertmer, 2000). Learning to Teach promotes academic growth (Ginsburg-Block et al., 2006; Robinson, Schofield, & Steers-Wentzell, 2005; Roscoe & Chi, 2008; Topping, 2005) and improved attendance, social skills, and self-confidence (Ginsburg-Block et al., 2006; McMaster, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2006; Morrison, 2004; Robinson et al., 2005). Learning Content supports the development of general cognitive skills and content-specific knowledge that prepare students for postsecondary studies (Conley, 2008). College Knowledge addresses student awareness of college admission requirements (Cates & Schaefle, 2011) and opportunities within college (Tai, Lui, Maltese & Fan, 2006), which are particularly critical for students in under-resourced urban schools (McDonough, 1997; Stanton–Salazar, 2001).

This presentation draws on mixed methods to explore key program outcomes. We will report evidence of benefits of being a TAS based on quantitative and qualitative data collected over two school years. Other research conducted under this project has compared state exam scores of TAS using statistically rigorous propensity score matching techniques, and has found statistically significant effects indicating that TAS are as much as 2.8 times as likely as comparable peers to meet college readiness benchmarks (Author et al, 2013). The current presentation focuses on survey-based evidence of effects of the TAS experience on metacognition, as evidenced by statistically significant increases in dimensions of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1993) relating to academic self-regulation, with effect sizes ranging from .24 to .44 in data collected in 2013. Qualitative research including data sources such as focus groups and TAS portfolio samples further clarify that being a TAS can profoundly affect a student’s sense of self as a person with agency and a potential role model for others.

This research is significant in showing that the experience of being a TAS and taking a course whose conceptual model aligns with theory and empirical evidence on factors that relate to college success can significantly impact the identity and metacognitive processes of low-income, high needs, average-performing students.

Authors

• Sarah M. Bonner, Hunter College - CUNY

• Leslie Keiler, York College - CUNY