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Project: Educational Theory Practice Analysis

Project Overview

Project Description

Project Requirements

The peer-reviewed project will include five major sections, with relevant sub-sections to organize your work using the CGScholar structure tool.

BUT! Please don’t use these boilerplate headings. Make them specific to your chosen topic, for instance: “Introduction: Addressing the Challenge of Learner Differences”; “The Theory of Differentiated Instruction”; “Lessons from the Research: Differentiated Instruction in Practice”; “Analyzing the Future of Differentiated Instruction in the Era of Artificial Intelligence;” “Conclusions: Challenges and Prospects for Differentiated Instruction.”

Include a publishable title, an Abstract, Keywords, and Work Icon (About this Work => Info => Title/Work Icon/Abstract/Keywords).

Overall Project Wordlength – At least 3500 words (Concentration of words should be on theory/concepts and educational practice)

Part 1: Introduction/Background

Introduce your topic. Why is this topic important? What are the main dimensions of the topic? Where in the research literature and other sources do you need to go to address this topic?

Part 2: Educational Theory/Concepts

What is the educational theory that addresses your topic? Who are the main writers or advocates? Who are their critics, and what do they say?

Your work must be in the form of an exegesis of the relevant scholarly literature that addresses and cites at least 6 scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books).

Media: Include at least 7 media elements, such as images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets, or other digital media. Be sure these are well integrated into your work. Explain or discuss each media item in the text of your work. If a video is more than a few minutes long, you should refer to specific points with time codes or the particular aspects of the media object that you want your readers to focus on. Caption each item sourced from the web with a link. You don’t need to include media in the references list – this should be mainly for formal publications such as peer reviewed journal articles and scholarly monographs.

Part 3 – Educational Practice Exegesis

You will present an educational practice example, or an ensemble of practices, as applied in clearly specified learning contexts. This could be a reflection practice in which you have been involved, one you have read about in the scholarly literature, or a new or unfamiliar practice which you would like to explore. While not as detailed as in the Educational Theory section of your work, this section should be supported by scholarly sources. There is not a minimum number of scholarly sources, 6 more scholarly sources in addition to those for section 2 is a reasonable target.

This section should include the following elements:

Articulate the purpose of the practice. What problem were they trying to solve, if any? What were the implementers or researchers hoping to achieve and/or learn from implementing this practice?

Provide detailed context of the educational practice applications – what, who, when, where, etc.

Describe the findings or outcomes of the implementation. What occurred? What were the impacts? What were the conclusions?

Part 4: Analysis/Discussion

Connect the practice to the theory. How does the practice that you have analyzed in this section of your work connect with the theory that you analyzed on the previous section? Does the practice fulfill the promise of the theory? What are its limitations? What are its unrealized potentials? What is your overall interpretation of your selected topic? What do the critics say about the concept and its theory, and what are the possible rebuttals of their arguments? Are its ideals and purposes hard, easy, too easy, or too hard to realize? What does the research say? What would you recommend as a way forward? What needs more thinking in theory and research of practice?

Part 5: References (as a part of and subset of the main References Section at the end of the full work)

Include citations for all media and other curated content throughout the work (below each image and video)

Include a references section of all sources and media used throughout the work, differentiated between your Learning Module-specific content and your literature review sources.

Include a References “element” or section using APA 7th edition with at least 10 scholarly sources and media sources that you have used and referred to in the text.

Be sure to follow APA guidelines, including lowercase article titles, uppercase journal titles first letter of each word), and italicized journal titles and volumes.

Icon for The Impact of Peer Influence on Academic Performance

The Impact of Peer Influence on Academic Performance

Importance of Peer Influence in Academics

The interactions in a school environment are a critical part of the development period for youths in which peer relationships play a pivotal role. Positive peer relationships can influence a student's motivation, engagement in collaborative learning and their academic identity and performance.

I have been an educator for ten years, seven of which have been spent in a classroom school setting. Through being a classroom teacher, I have seen how a student’s peer group can have an influence on their motivation to feel academically successful and thus impact their performance. From my experience of teaching Advanced Placement (AP) classes, students are typically surrounded by other students who have similar levels of academic motivation and have chosen to be in that particular environment. Therefore, engagement even in students who are low performers in AP classes, tends to be higher than that of a general education class.

In one year of teaching, I taught two honors sections of a ninth grade English class and two general education sections of a general education English class of the same grade. In both classes, I implemented group projects and assignments where students work with one another to synthesize information they learned in class and apply it to a new scenario. During those activities, I have intentionally grouped students diversifying them based on motivation and skill levels. The higher performing students provided support to their lower performing peers and modeled for them how to engage in the work. 

Furthermore, when I have leveraged peer tutoring in my courses, students have felt more academically confident. The influence from their peers heavily supports their own cognitive processes and improves their motivation to persist through academic challenges. Through peer tutoring, students have been able to engage with their peers in a smaller setting, and are able to feel safer 

This paper will examine how peer relationships can have a wide impact, both positive and negative, on a student’s academic performance and will discuss implications for educators. Additionally, this paper will examine the theories of social and cognitive constructivism and examine them through a model for peer tutoring.

Learning Theories: Social Constructivism and Peer Influence

Lev Vygotsky

Theorist Lev Vygotski offers insights in the way of social constructivism that lie at the foundation of the idea that positive peer relationships can lead to high academic performance in high schoolers. He offered the idea of Zone of Proximal Development, in which he categorizes a range of tasks a learner can complete with the support of a more knowledgeable other (MKO) and through scaffolding.

In this theory of learning, Vygotsky emphasized the role of social interactions in cognitive development. He viewed learning as a collaborative process and one in which dialogue and interactions with those in a child’s environment stimulates the internalization of new knowledge and skills. The Zone of Proximal Development shows what learners can do independently which determines their developmental level. Additionally, it also represents what learners can do with support from what Vygotsky calls, “more knowledgeable others” or MKO - those who have a higher ability to demonstrate their mastery of a skill.

The Role of More Knowledgeable Others

More Knowledgeable Others can be represented by teachers, parents, peers, and even technological resources. The MKO demonstrates a better understanding and high skills level than the learner in question. The MKO will often guide a learner through their Zone of Proximal Development through scaffolding and continued interactions.

In the theory of constructivism, Lev Vygotsky (1978) posed the importance of a community in supporting children with the process of “meaning making.” Peer relationships are a significant part of a student’s community. Students often engage with others who may have a different lived experience and a different knowledge base than they do (MKO) and they use that perspective to understand their place in society. When students are influenced by peers who are engaging in a similar experience as they are, the sense of community allows students to engage in academic tasks more intently.

Figure 1. Lev Vygotsky’s View of Social Constructivism, explained

Critiques of Vygotsky

Vygotsky’s views, however, face criticisms from those who see learning and development through a Biology lens. His theory focuses on behaviors that are developed and not innate to human beings. Miller (2011) argues that while Vygotsky’s theory has value, it does not suffice as it does not encompass the ideas of cognitive development that happen in children that contribute to their understanding of the world.

Furthermore, Daniels (2001) notes that Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism does have particular time frames in which it operates, and then argues that this makes it difficult for the theory to be operationalized consistently in the classroom and other spaces where children are learning. Vygotsky’s views learning as an acquired and iterative process. The skills that students acquire and the interactions they have in developing those skills determines the width of the gap between what they can do with assistance and what they can do independently.

Vygotsky's theory can be seen as very complex and therefore, can be more difficult to operationalize. Since there is no age attached to the phases of development, it may be difficult for educators to understand when the zone of proximal development may emerge in students. 

Media embedded August 5, 2024

Video 1. Sociocultural Theory - Lev Vygotsky

Jean Piaget

With a more cognitive point of view on constructivism, Jean Piaget offers a polarizing view that that of Vygotsky. He believed that learners develop schemas, which serve as the basic building blocks to making meaning of more complex ideas. Learners go through four stages of cognitive development in their lives in which they continue to incorporate more schemas as they engage in more sensory experiences.

At each stage, humans adapt to the established cognitive structures while acquiring aspects of the new stages with respect to their social experiences. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage which takes place during the first two years of life. Children grasp basic skills that create the foundation of their understanding of the world.

The second stage is the preoperational stage which typically occurs from ages 2-7. In this stage, children start to comprehend abstract concepts and symbolism.

The third stage, the concrete operational stage, happens from in children’s pre-adolescent years, about ages 7-11, and this is when children develop their understanding of the physical world. They begin to understand how physical objects can shift appearance without changes in its makeup. The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s theory is the formal operational stage. Piaget named this stage to happen around 12 years of age and continue into adolescence. He characterized this stage as a point when teenagers develop the ability to think more abstractly and test hypotheses.

While Piaget’s views take into account the biological perspective of human development, it neglects the role of culture and spheres of influence(including people) that influence a child’s development. It does include that interactions are part of a child’s development, but it does not emphasize the role of those interactions in development. Rather, Piaget sees cognitive development as a biological process of which social interactions are a minor part.

Figure 2. A table that shows the differences between Piaget and Vygotsky’s views on Constructivism

Motivation and Engagement

In Wentzel and Muenks (2016), researchers further support Vygotski’s theory by exploring the nature of peer relationships that could contribute to students’ motivation and academic achievement. There are multiple factors that are incorporated into peer relationships, such as socioeconomic status, dyadic versus multi dynamic relationships, and qualities of specific peer groups. The nature of these peer-related experiences are also focused on the classroom setting. (page 14). One particular area that Wentzel and Muenks focuses on is the idea of peer acceptance. They have concluded that over time, peer acceptance plays a bigger role in a student’s motivation for engaging in academic tasks. In high school, there has historically been a notion about particular social groups, often characterized as the “jocks,” or “nerds,” which can reflect attitudes towards academics. When students feel connected to or accepted to a social group, it can have a “powerful impact on students’ motivation and emotional well-being” (Wentzel and Muenks (2016).

In a study done by Yu et. al (2016), “the quality of personal relationships significantly and positively correlated with academic performance.” Students who have positive relationships with their peers tend to be more engaged in academic tasks more than those who may have negative experiences with their peers.

Theory to Practice: Peer Tutoring and Academic Performance

Peer-to-peer interactions play a significant role for students when it comes to experiencing academic success. By Vygotsky’s theory in social constructivism, collaboration and support from peers can enhance a student’s academic performance. One practice that has shown this is the use of peer tutoring in schools.

According to ul-Ain et. al (2023), there are a couple types of peer tutoring in which student can engage and “has been reported to improve cognition in students to learning and inducing motivation:

Reciprocal peer tutoring, where students who are in the same grade level interchangeably take on the role of tutor and tutee.

Fixed per tutoring, where a tutor is assigned to a particular student and continues to act as the tutor.

Media embedded August 5, 2024

Video 2. This video explains the types of peer tutoring in which students can engage.

In peer tutoring, the peer tutor acts as the more knowledgeable other and uses their skills to scaffold learning for the tutee.

Ul-Ain, et. al (2023) found that peer tutoring has the following cognitive and social effects:

  • The peer tutor can pose cognitive challenges that provoke the tutee to regroup their understanding of the concepts.
  • By interacting with the world around them, students are more motivated to persevere in their learning experiences and therefore, there are higher attainment rates, especially in mathematics classes.
  • For English Language learners, their confidence levels increase when they engage in peer tutoring.

In a study conducted by Ullah et. al (2018), the following recommendations were made in regards to positive effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement:

  • Peer tutoring programs require structure and supervision. Therefore, when implementing a peer tutoring program, educators should ensure that tutors receive the appropriate training.
  • While results show that peer tutoring is effective in increasing academic performance, it should be used as a supplement to classroom instruction and not the primary technique of learning.
  • When pairing a student with a tutor, the MKO should have a higher skill level in the subject area and should be provided with rewards to further motivate them to encourage their tutee to feel successful.

Practice to Theory: Constructivism in Peer Tutoring

The impact of peer tutoring is highly supported by both Vygotsky and Piaget’s views on constructivism. Vygotsky highly emphasizes the role of social interactions in a child’s development. Peer tutoring very much exemplifies the role of a peer as the more knowledge other supports their peer with acquiring the knowledge and skills they need in order to be academically successful.

Furthermore, in peer tutoring, there is collaboration between the tutor and the tutee. Peer tutors have to constantly communicate with their tutees about thought processing, conceptualizing ideas, giving them feedback, and stamping their understanding of concepts. Ultimately, this relationship goes through stages of the Zone of Proximal Development as the tutor helps the tutee connect what they can do with help with what they can do independently.

Through building these positive connections, Ullah, et. al (2018) emphasizes that students who receive peer tutoring tend to have higher levels of motivation and higher rates of persistence in their academic tenure.

Through Piaget’s lens, the peer tutoring relationship influences the process of meaning making a learner experiences academically. Students are able to make meaning and build their cognitive processes by actively engaging with different skills. The peer tutor supports the cognitive development of their tutee by building interactions in which they scaffold learning and model different strategies for learning. Wood et. al (1976) notes that when the peer tutor is able to break down information and tasks into digestible pieces for the learner, the learner is more likely to persist in continuing learning. Peer tutors also provide more immediate feedback to learners that allows them to course correct immediately and continue growing their skills, most importantly their cognitive development skills.

In alignment with the findings of Wentzel and Muenks (2016), the peer tutoring relationship brings about the influence to be more academically motivated through norms and expectations, spoken and unspoken. The peer tutor, the more knowledgeable other, can leverage their position as such to encourage their tutee to be more inclined towards being academically successful.

Media embedded August 5, 2024

Video 3. A breakdown of Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development

Take for example Jenna, a high school student who has excelled in Algebra class. She is paired with Alexander, who is struggling in his Algebra class. Alexander has not submitted homework assignments and performs poorly on assessments due to testing anxiety and low confidence. He is reluctant to answer questions in the class because his confidence in math class is so low. Jenna has working knowledge of Algebra and is able to conceptualize Algebraic concepts. She works with Alexander twice a week and models problems with him step-by-step. After a few models, Alexander starts to understand the concepts and starts to be able to apply them independently. Additionally, in her scaffolding, Emily models questions that Alexander can ask when he approaches different types of algebra questions. Alexander then starts to see himself as a learner of math. He starts asking and answering more questions in class. He knows how to study for his tests because of all of the practice he did with Emily, and he can even support his other classmates who may be struggling. Not only does Alexander feel confident and is academically motivated, but Jenna’s influence has also helped him socially. Alexander can have a better academic experience knowing that he is less isolated in his endeavors.

In order for a student to become academically successful, peer influences are critical to support their cognitive development. Both Vygotsky and Piaget make compelling arguments about the processes of learning and development for a child. However, both theories, when they work in tandem, can actually lead to better academic outcomes for students. Children will develop different cognitive skills in various stages of their lives. However, the environment and the more knowledgeable others in children’s lives will determine how quickly and how broadly they acquire those skills. Therefore, peer influences do play a major role in academic motivation and overall performance. When a student can work in collaboration with their peers to support their own cognitive processes, they are more likely to feel confident and successful, leading to improved outcomes that go beyond their academics and into their lives.

References

​​Daniels, H. (2001). Vygotsky and Pedagogy. Routledge.

Miller, P. H. (2011). Theories of Developmental Psychology (5th ed.). Worth Publishers.

Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. International Universities Press.

​​Qurat ul Ain, Thurston, A., MacKenzie, A., & Ozkaya, C. (2023). What does previous research tell us about the effects of peer tutoring on metacognition in primary and secondary schools? Education 3-13. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2183070

Roscoe, R. D., & Chi, M. T. H. (2007). Understanding tutor learning: Knowledge-building and knowledge-telling in peer tutors' explanations and questions. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 534-574.

Ullah, I., Tabassum, R., & Kaleem, M. (2018). Effects of peer tutoring on the academic achievement of students in the subject of biology at secondary level. Education 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2018.1508501

Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89-100.

Wentzel, K. R., & Muenks, K. (2016). Peer influence on students' motivation, academic achievement, and social behavior. In K. R. Wentzel & G. B. Ramani (Eds.), Handbook of Social Influences in School Contexts: Social-Emotional, Motivation, and Cognitive Outcomes (pp. 13-30). Routledge.

Wolfe, B.(2018). The Impact of a Peer-Tutoring Model on the Academic Performance of Secondary Students. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4468

Yu X, Wang X, Zheng H, Zhen X, Shao M, Wang H, Zhou X. Academic achievement is more closely associated with student-peer relationships than with student-parent relationships or student-teacher relationships. Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 16;14:1012701. doi:

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