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Measures for Assessing Peer Teaching: Collaboration and Communication

To measure growth in specific collaboration skills, have students self-reflect on their own habits. By having students rate themselves on a 1-4 rating scale for each of the following ten statements, you can get specific data on areas of need and areas of growth. 

1. I like to do math with a classmate.
2. I ask questions when I don't understand.
3. I explain my ideas clearly.
4. I share my ideas with my classmates.
5. I ask for help from my classmates when I don't know what to do.
6. I ask my classmates questions when they doesn't know what to say.
7. I help my classmates respectfully.
8. I listen to my classmates.
9. I tell me classmates what I like about their work.
10. I give my classmates suggestions on how they can improve.

Click the images below to make your own copy of the Google Form Self-Reflection in English or Spanish.

LESSONS

HOW-TOs

REFERENCES

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English Google Form

Spanish Google Form

Collaboration and Communication Research Results

Results from my research show that students grew significantly according to their own reflections in their collaboration and communication skills over the course of peer teaching. Statement 2 from research cycle one, "I use information to solve problems," was replaced in research cycle two with "I ask questions in class when I don't understand" and a new Statement 1 was added, "I like to do math with a classmate." The statements receiving the most statistically significant growth over the course of both research cycles were statements 6 (I ask my classmates questions when they don't know what to say), 9 (I tell my classmates what I like about their work), and 10 (I give my classmates suggestions on how they can improve).

Measuring Academic Vocabulary

When you can get kids talking about their own learning, the hope is to hear some some academic vocabulary. When students have the opportunity to talk to classmates about their academic learning daily, their opportunities to use those new terms skyrocket. To measure the growth in academic vocabulary, it's best to let students talk about what they've learned freely. Seesaw was a great platform to capture this since students can use the microphone function to voice record responses without being hindered by typing or writing. Below you'll find the Seesaw links to the pre and post questionnaires. The pre questionnaire needs to be administered before collaborative work begins. The best academic vocabulary growth resulted when students completed the post questionnaire daily after working with a partner but a weekly reflection might be more doable in a tight schedule.

The preliminary questions were:

1. What math activity did you work on?
2. What was a challenge for you?
3. Describe something you learned that you didn't know before.

The post questionnaire had three additional questions:

1. Were you the tutor or the learner?
2. What math activity did you work on?
3. What was a challenge for you?
4. Describe something you learned that you didn't know before.
5. What did you like best about working with a classmate?
6. How did it feel to learn math with a classmate?

Academic Vocabulary Research Results

Students during the first research cycle made very statistically significant gains in their academic vocabulary. During research cycle two, no student demographics made gains in their academic vocabulary. A possible reason for this is students in the second research cycle had only had two weeks to get to know each other due to a reconfiguration of classes for the switch to hybrid learning at the time of research. See the Research page for more information on possible factors contributing to the disparity between the results of both research cycles. 

Measuring Growth in Mathematics

Academic growth in mathematics was measured in a pre and post test during both cycles of research using the norm referenced Renaissance Star Math Assessment. This assessment provided scaled scores and percentile rankings for each student, making it easy to see at a glance, which students were advancing and who needed more targeted help. Since this is a standardized test covering a full range of math concepts and skills, it was helpful to compare results with a unit test from the mathematics curriculum we used, Bridges in Mathematics by the Math Learning Center. Our particular units of study during the two phases of research in 2nd grade mathematics were units 2 on place value and 3 on strategies for addition and subtraction with two digit numbers.

Mathematics Research Results

Results from my assessments showed that peer learners made statistically significant growth in percentile scores on the standardized Star Math Assessment while the class as a whole showed statistically significant growth on the curriculum unit assessment. Peer teachers specifically made large gains on this test. The graphs below show results from both assessments.