Peer influence on children’s reading skills: A social network analysis of elementary school classrooms.

Abstract

Research has found that peers influence the academic achievement of children. However, the mechanisms through which peers matter remain underexplored. The present study examined the relationship between peers' reading skills and children's own reading skills among 4,215 total second-and third-graders in 294 classrooms across 41 schools. One innovation of the study was the use of social network analysis to directly assess who children reported talking to or seeking help from and whether children who identified peers with stronger reading skills experienced higher reading skills. The results indicated that children on average identified peers with stronger reading skills and the positive association between peer reading skills and children's own reading achievement was strongest for children with lower initial levels of reading skills.The study has implications for how teachers can leverage the advantages of peers via in-class activities. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis study shows that early elementary school children report identifying and interacting with peers with stronger reading skills within the same classroom. Children with low initial reading skills are more likely to identify such peers than high achieving children and those who do so experience higher reading outcomes later on. The study suggests that peer effects may occur through the peer-seeking patterns of children and the direct expertise of their peers.

Exploring Peer Effect on Mathematics Anxiety among Secondary School Students of Sokoto State, Nigeria through Photovoice Approach

“…In terms of the behaviour of peers (Table 5), the findings (codes) with percentage responses include achievement of peers (5.55%), peer group discussion (16.67%), peer motivational support (61.11%), and peers' seriousness (16.67%). These findings support the research by Cooc and Kim (2016), which stated that if peers are higher achievers and are performing well academically, then the learner associated with these peers may adopt this behaviour. The achievement of the peers is of great importance because it encourages competition among students, and this can motivate a student to develop an interest in the mathematics classroom and reduce the level of mathematics anxiety.…”

Gifted Students, Curricular Networks, and Isolation

“…Connections between nodes are called "edges", representing a relationship between two nodes (Freeman, 2016). Examples of social relationships could include individuals collaborating on an assignment (Gou, Zhang, & Gou, 2015), teachers soliciting advice from coworkers (Smith, Trygstad, & Hayes, 2018), or students seeking reading advice from classmates (Cooc & Kim, 2017).…”

A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Variability in Student Perceptions

“…Through friendship, peers influence student’s academic functioning ( Newcomb and Bagwell, 1995 ; Rambaran et al, 2017 ). This academic functioning includes involvement in school ( Kindermann, 2007 ), motivation ( Wentzel et al, 2010 ; Molloy et al, 2011 ), and reading achievements ( Cooc and Kim, 2016 ). As seen in Table 1 , it would be expected that the variety of student perceptions changes due to the influence of peers concerning SDR depending on cultural contexts.…”