Barbara Mallette

Peer-Mediated Instruction and Interventions and Students with Mild Disabilities

Teaching is more difficult today than in the past, and most educators predict that it will become even more challenging in years to come. Exponential increases within the school curriculum, spectacular changes in student demographic characteristics, and dwindling instructional resources make it extremely difficult for even the most responsive teachers to provide a high-quality education for all pupils. These challenges become more formidable when teachers attempt to meet the needs of students with mild disabilities in less restrictive settings (e.g., general education classrooms). In this article, we describe how a variety of peer-mediated instruction and interventions might assist classroom teachers in meeting such instructional challenges. We describe the extensive academic and behavioral needs of this population of students, provide an illustrative review of peer-teaching methods, and suggest future directions for research and practice.

A Collaborative Research Project to improve the Academic Performance of a Diverse Sixth Grade Science Class

All educators must be prepared to meet the substantial instructional challenges that await them in 21st Century classrooms. Significant among these challenges will be the ability to improve the academic and behavioral performance of a more diverse and often impoverished student population within the context of an ever-expanding curriculum and an educational milieu that may provide fewer instructional resources and less educational support. To meet such challenges, all educators must work collaboratively to develop, implement, and evaluate effective teaching practices that can be applied feasibly and sustained over extensive time periods. Here, we have made a modest attempt to help one classroom teacher address some aspects of her impending instructional challenge. Using an alternating treatments design, we compared the effects of Response Cards, Numbered Heads Together, and Whole Group Question and Answer on 6th graders daily quiz scores and pretest-posttest performance in chemistry, and examined how each instructional intervention affected teacher questioning and student responding patterns in class. Implications are discussed for teachers, teacher educators, and educational consultants.

Peer-Mediated Instruction: A Review of Potential Applications for Special Education.

The purpose of this article is to describe an alternative teaching approach in which students serve as instructional agents for their peers. This teaching approach, referred to commonly as peer‐mediated instruction, incorporates the same basic features of effective instruction that have been delineated in the empirical literature. However, in these programs children serve as mediators in the delivery of instructional content. We describe a few peer‐mediated instructional approaches that have been used effectively with students who encounter academic and behavioral difficulties and discuss some of the relative advantages and disadvantages in the use of these methods. In addition, we propose a variety of ways in which these approaches can be used in general and in special education classrooms and review many of the pragmatic concerns associated with their implementation.

The Pair Tutoring Program: An Early Field-Based Experience to Prepare Preservice General Educators to Work with Students with Special Learning Needs

Most pupils with special learning needs will spend a significant proportion of their time in school in general education settings. Yet, a cursory examination of the teacher preparation literature suggests that many preservice general educators are ill-prepared to meet this enormous instructional challenge. Here, we briefly describe the efforts of one regional state college to restructure its program to better prepare general education teachers to serve diverse learning groups. We begin by describing the Reflective and Responsive Educator (RARE) program, a newly restructured, 4-year field-based program for future early childhood, elementary, and secondary education teachers. We then describe in more detail one particular facet of the RARE model, the Pair Tutoring Program, an early field-based experience that accompanies a required introductory course, and provide initial outcome data to support its efficacy and social acceptability. Finally, we address issues related to the potential replicability and sustainability of the model and speculate on future programmatic directions in the preparation of preservice general education teachers.

Retention and generalization of spelling words acquired using a peer-mediated instructional procedure by children with mild handicapping conditions

A peer-mediated instructional procedure termed Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) has been shown to increase the rates and accuracy of student responses to academic tasks and to improve student performance on weekly spelling tests. In addition to replicating previous research, the present investigation evaluated the retention and generalization of words learned using CWPT. Students classified as mildly handicapped participated in daily practice of 10 spelling words using CWPT for 10 weeks. Short- and long-term retention of words practiced was assessed. Results indicated that the students average post-test score was over 84% correct on weekly tests, replicating previous results. When included in a dictation task the following week, 76.2% of previously tutored words were correctly spelled. Short- and longer-term retention measured on posttests was 72% and 69% correct, respectively. Modest improvements in students sight recognition of words practiced during CWPT were obtained. Student failure to learn particular words was attributable to fewer opportunities to practice these words. Further, students reported positive evaluation of CWPT and perceived positive social and self esteem outcomes.

Using Cooperative Learning Strategies To Improve Literacy Skills in Social Studies.

This article argues that the use of cooperative learning strategies in social studies instruction represents a natural match of method and substance. That is, cooperative learning provides the perfect vehicle for helping children understand and experience many of the essential concepts and values embedded in the social studies curriculum. This article focuses primarily on how classroom teachers can instruct their students in essential reading and writing skills while using social studies as the medium for discussion. A brief, illustrative review of the empirical literature on the use of cooperative learning approaches in social studies is followed by a general overview of representative cooperative learning methods and a more in‐depth description of a few specific reading and writing applications. Other potential applications of cooperative learning procedures are described as well.