(Download) "Cooperative Learning in Middle Schools: Interrelationship of Relationships and Achievement (Report)" by Middle Grades Research Journal " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Cooperative Learning in Middle Schools: Interrelationship of Relationships and Achievement (Report)
- Author : Middle Grades Research Journal
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 248 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION Middle school is uniquely suited for peer learning. Peer learning involves any activity in which students work together to increase their knowledge or complete an assignment. Examples include cooperative learning, collaborative learning, peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, learning communities, peer-assisted learning, team-based learning, problem-based learning, and many other programs. Peer learning is usually contrasted with students learning from teachers, coaches, and other adults. Learning from peers is not universally recommended. Peers have a bad reputation, at least for children and adolescents. For centuries, adults have been worried about the negative influence of peers on children and adolescents (Kiell, 1969). In the latter half of the twentieth century, social scientists suggested that peers had a strong and negative influence on children's and adolescents' attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1970). Educational researchers have argued that peer pressure reduces students' effort on schoolwork and encourages students to spend their time and energy on nonacademic activities (Bishop, 1989; Coleman, 1961). Numerous longitudinal studies have demonstrated that poor peer relations during childhood are a major predictor of later deviance (such as delinquency, drug abuse, and other antisocial behaviors) and psychopathology (Johnson & Johnson, 1981a, 1981b, 2004; Ladd, 1999). In a 2-year longitudinal study of middle and high-school students' patterns of drug use, the number of friends using drugs (compared to parents, self-esteem, moral reasoning, and predispositions for social interdependence) was the most important variable influencing teenager's drug use (Norem-Hebeisen, Johnson, Anderson, & Johnson, 1984). As the number of user friends increased, so did students' drug use, and as the number of nonuser friends increased, drug use decreased.