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Effects of student-facilitated learning on instructional facilitators

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Abstract

We investigated perceptions about learning strategy use and instructional roles among a sample of high needs adolescents (n = 230) who acted as near-peer instructional facilitators. The sample was drawn from science and mathematics classes in nonselective public secondary schools in New York City. Students participated in an inschool intervention that draws on social constructivism, theory and research on metacognition and learning strategies, role theory, and empirical findings from the peer-to-peer learning literature to promote advanced achievement among students who act as facilitators. Using a pre- and post-test single group design, we surveyed student instructional facilitators before and after program participation and related their perceptions about learning strategy use and perceptions about teaching roles to data about academic achievement. We found no survey gains in student perceptions about learning strategies or instructional roles between pre-survey (fall) and post-survey (spring). We found small but significant effects of individual perceptions about learning strategies and teaching roles on academic gains among instructional facilitators. The study also suggests that an in-school near-peer facilitated learning program can be an effective means to raise achievement in urban high schools. The study provides partial support for theories that hold that metacognition and role perceptions are involved in the academic gains of instructional facilitators, as gains in these dimensions were small compared to achievement gains.

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1102729.

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Author notes

  1. Jennifer A. Somers

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, 950 S. McAllister Avenue, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

  2. Gwendelyn J. Rivera

    Present address: Pullias Center for Higher Education, University of Southern California, 3470 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Foundations and Counseling Programs, Hunter College, CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Sarah M. Bonner

  2. Department of Teacher Education, York College, CUNY, 20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Jamaica, NY, 11451, USA

    Leslie S. Keiler

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  1. Sarah M. Bonner
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  2. Jennifer A. Somers
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  4. Leslie S. Keiler
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Correspondence to Sarah M. Bonner.

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Bonner, S.M., Somers, J.A., Rivera, G.J. et al. Effects of student-facilitated learning on instructional facilitators. Instr Sci 45, 417–438 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-017-9410-8

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