Premium
Relationship between ability‐paired interactions and the development of fifth graders' concepts of balance
Author(s) -
Carter Glenda,
Jones M. Gail
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660310807
Subject(s) - psychology , balance (ability) , mathematics education , test (biology) , developmental psychology , academic achievement , social psychology , paleontology , neuroscience , biology
This study describes the effects of ability‐paired student interactions on achievement as fifth graders (10‐year‐olds) worked on laboratory activities relating to balance. Achievement gains were assessed ( n = 83) by analysis of pretest–posttest differences on the lever concept test. Audio recordings and field notes ( n = 30) were analyzed for the following laboratory behaviors: number of words spoken, tinkering, block moving, turns speaking, incidence of helping and distracting behavior. Results revealed that: (1) low‐ability student achievement is greater when students are paired with high‐ability partners; (2) low‐ability students speak more words, exhibit less distracting behavior, and move blocks on the lever less when they are paired with a partner of high ability; (3) high‐ability students speak more words, take more turns speaking, and exhibit more helping behaviors when they are paired with low‐ability students rather than with other high ability students; and (4) there are no achievement differences for high‐ability students regardless of the ability level of their partner. These findings suggest that heterogeneous grouping of students in science can be beneficial to low‐ability students partnered with high‐ability students, without being detrimental to the high‐ability partners.