Re: Lisa Butler's request for info

Barbara J Smith (bjsmith who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Tue, 5 Mar 1996 13:43:08 -0500 (EST)

When I have analyzed classroom discourse, I have noticed that the
students with more expertise rarely relinquish control over their
roles. This is why I think peer teaching has something to offer novice
students from an older grade. I have found that students tend to accept
older students in expert roles - which allows novices from one
classroom culture to become more central participants in another
classroom culture. What is a shame is that peer teaching is usually
reserved for those 'gifted' students who have already demonstrated
expertise in and amongst their own culture - when it has such potential
for enabling students to move beyond passively accepting someone else's
control.

Barb Smith
OISE/U. of Toronto

On Tue, 5 Mar 1996, Keith R Sawyer wrote:

> You may want to contact Margarita Azmitia, here at UC Santa Cruz. She
> gave a presentation yesterday on a study she did of expert-novice
> collaboration among same-age peeres. She found that the expert children
> viewed their expert role as a source of power, and never relinquished the
> control of that role; thus, the novice was not allowed to become a more
> central participant. She found this to be the case even when she
> "secretly" trained the novices in advance so that they were as skilled as
> the expert, but without the expert's knowledge.
>
> Keith Sawyer
> Department of Psychology
> University of California, Santa Cruz
> Santa Cruz, CA 95064
>
>
>