Peer Support in Mathematics
Overview
John Sexton of James Young High School in Livingston, West Lothian, wanted to encourage collaboration and peer support within his S4 Maths class. He chose to explore this initially through use of a Discussion Board within a Glow Group.
In this cookbook we’ll look at how the Discussion Board was set up, see some examples of how pupils used it, and hear about the impact that they and the teacher felt it had on their learning.
Context
John’s class was an S4 Credit Maths class, and having taught them throughout the previous year, he wanted to encourage more interaction between the pupils in the class.
He was also keen to look for opportunities that would go some way towards addressing elements of the Maths Curriculum for Excellence Principles and Practice document, such as
• “ young people should experience success in mathematics and develop the confidence to take risks, ask questions and explore alternative solutions without fear of being wrong”
• “learning collaboratively and independently”
• “opportunities for discussion, communication and explanation of thinking”
• “using technology in appropriate and effective ways”
• “building on the principles of Assessment is for Learning”
John wanted to give pupils a forum to ask for help when doing homework and so initially did a poll to determine how many of the class had internet access at home. A very small number of pupils in the class did not have home access, but as they were happy to go to friends and family to enable them to participate, John was keen to proceed. So, he set up a Discussion Board in a Glow Group to enable the pupils to post their questions about things they needed help with when tackling their homework.
In this cookbook, we will find out:
• what it looks like
• how to replicate it
• what the impact was
Ingredients
What did John initially need to facilitate the homework support?
1. A Glow Group
2. A Discussions web part
It was also necessary to ensure pupils had sufficient permissions within the Glow Group to enable them to take part in discussions. In this case, contributor rights were given, although Reader with Discussion permissions would have been sufficient.
John also wanted to ensure that pupils were clear about where to access the Discussion Board and so customised the Glow Group by renaming pages and renaming the Discussion Board, to reflect its specific purpose.
Once the Glow Group was set up, the pupils were given some basic instruction on how to access and use the Discussion Board and were told they could post a question asking for help if they were having difficulty with any part of their homework.
John was naturally keen to support his class and was efficiently answering all of the questions posted. However, very quickly, the pupils became frustrated with this, as they wanted to help one another! So, after discussion within the class, John agreed not to answer for the first 24 hours after a question was posted, to give pupils the opportunity to answer each others’ problems. The impact was therefore pupil-driven peer support.
Perhaps interestingly, pupils did not merely tell one another the answer to a question they were having difficulty with. They explained the process and directed one another to appropriate examples to look at within their class notes. This was beneficial to both the person receiving the support and the person giving it, as they had to have a good understanding themselves in order to explain to their peers.
Recipe
In this section, we’ll take a look at this S4 Maths Glow Group and learn how to recreate elements within it.
What does the S4 Maths Glow Group look like (4:31)
How to add and rename pages in a Glow Group (3:08)
How to rename the Discussions web part (0:54)
How to add and reply to posts in a Discussion Board(2:26)
Impact
The interaction through the homework help Discussion Board had a huge impact on the rapport within the class and allowed pupils who might not normally speak out to have a voice. There was also a feeling amongst pupils that their understanding of maths and perhaps even more importantly, their confidence, was greatly improved by use of Glow.
Whilst it might be difficult to prove a direct correlation between giving support to peers through use of the Discussion Board and subsequent exam results, interestingly, many of this maths class scored better in the Reasoning and Enquiry element of the Credit Maths exam than in the Knowledge and Understanding part. This is different than might normally be observed, and perhaps is as a result of pupils increased confidence and willingness to try things they might not have done previously.
Pupils’ thoughts on the benefits of using the Discussion Board for homework support can be seen in the video clips below:
What did pupils think about using Glow?
