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ABSTRACT
This study examined the effects of peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS) on students' literacy development and beliefs about reading, when PALS is implemented with secondary-level students in remedial and special education classes. Teachers were assigned to PALS (n = 9 classes) and contrast (n = 9 classes) treatments. Teachers implemented PALS with their entire classes five times every 2 weeks, for 16 weeks. To designate research participants for outcome measurement, teachers identified all students whose reading instructional levels were Grades 2 through 6. Reading comprehension and fluency were measured before and after treatment: beliefs were indexed after treatment. Analyses of variance indicated that, compared to contrast counterparts, PALS students grew more on reading comprehension and reported more positive beliefs about working hard to improve reading. However, PALS and contrast students grew comparably on reading fluency and reported similar beliefs about being and wanting to become better readers. Implications are discussed for developing effective forms of peer-mediated instruction for use in high school remedial and special education classes.
THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH LIMITED READing competence are well documented. Compared to skilled high school readers, high school students with poor reading skills have lower self-esteem, pose greater discipline problems, and are less likely to complete school (Juel, 1996). For adults, reading deficits are associated with unemployment, incarceration, lack of civic awareness and involvement, poor health maintenance, and poverty (U.S. Department of Labor, 1989). Twenty-five percent of adults in the United States are functionally illiterate; they cannot read a note sent home from school or the information on a medicine bottle. For individuals with disabilities, figures are even more alarming, with estimates of illiteracy ranging as high as 73% (Riley, 1996).
These troubling statistics challenge educators to identify methods to promote students' reading development. One of several promising practices to emerge over the past two decades is classwide peer tutoring (e.g., Cooke, Heron, & Heward, 1983). As framed by Greenwood and colleagues (e.g., Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1989), classwide peer tutoring pairs higher- and lower-performing students in general education classrooms to work on structured reading activities: sustained reading by each partner, followed by the higher-performing student asking the lower-performing student who, what, where, when, and why questions. Research has demonstrated that classwide peer tutoring effects substantial...