The role of teachers on students´ peer groups relations: A critical review on their influence on school engagement and academic achievement

• Muñoz-Hurtado, Javiera Elisa ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Tarapacá

     Universidad de Tarapacá

     Arica, Chile

     
• Localización: Límite: revista de filosofía y psicología, ISSN-e 0718-5065, ISSN 0718-1361, Vol. 13, Nº. 42, 2018, págs. 30-43
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.4067/s0718-50652018000200030
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El rol de los profesores en las relaciones de los grupos de pares de los estudiantes: Una revisión sobre su influencia en el compromiso escolar y el rendimiento académico
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • The purpose of this essay is to analyse why and how teachers should concern themselves with informal peer interactions in the school. It is widely acknowledged that peer group relations are fundamental for children’s development, affecting both, school engagement and students’ academic achievement. However, it has been less discussed what is the role of teachers on these relations. To accomplish the goal of the essay a critical analysis of the literature on the two following topics is conducted: 1) peer relationships in the school context, considering the concepts of homogeneity and engagement, and taking into account the three informal dimensions of peer relations: friendship, status and centrality; 2) teachers’ influence on peer relation, considering their roles as protectors, ‘architects’ or social referents, as well as considering their participation in two different pedagogical approaches: the performance mode or the cooperative mode of teaching. It is concluded that teachers should concern themselves with children’s informal relationships at school, as they consciously or not, influence those relationships. If teachers take an active role in promoting positive and healthy relationships at school, they will be promoting children’s development and fostering school performance. Considering the literature, it is suggested that teachers should adopt a cooperative mode of teaching, act as social referents for their students’ behaviour and avoid negative feedback to aggressive-rejected children to prevent further rejection. However, it is remarked that this is a task to be fulfilled not only by the teachers, but by the school system as a whole.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Adler, P. A., & Adler, P. (1995). Dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in preadolescent cliques. Social Psychology Quarterly, 58(3), 145–162....
  • Bagwell, C. L., Coie, J. D., Terry, R. A., & Lochman, J. E. (2000). Peer Clique Participation and Social Status in Preadolescence. Merrill-Palmer...
  • Boaler, J., Wiliam, D., Brown, M., & Jo Boaler, D. W. and M. B. (2000). Students’ experiences of ability grouping - disaffection, polarisation...
  • Brown, B.B., & Dietz, E.L. (2009). Informal peer groups in middle childhood and adolescence. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski, & B....
  • Buhs, E. S., Ladd, G. W., & Herald, S. L. (2006). Peer exclusion and victimization: Processes that mediate the relation between peer group...
  • Bukowski, W.M., Motzoi, C., & Meyer, F. (2009). Friendship as process, function, and outcome. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski, & B....
  • Cairns, R. B., Cairns, B. D., Neckerman, H. J., Gest, S. D., & Gariépy, J.-L. (1988). Social networks and aggressive behavior: Peer support...
  • Cairns, R. B., Xie, H., & Leung, M.-C. (1998). The popularity of friendship and the neglect of social networks: toward a new balance....
  • Chen, X., Chang, L., & He, Y. (2003). The peer group as a context: Mediating and moderating effects on relations between academic achievement...
  • Chang, L. (2003). Variable Effects of Children’s Aggression, Social Withdrawal, and Prosocial Leadership as Functions of Teacher Beliefs and...
  • Choi, J., Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. (2011). Relationships among cooperative learning experiences, social interdependence, children’s...
  • Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1983). Continuities and changes in children’s social status: A five-year longitudinal study. Merrill-Palmer...
  • Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology,...
  • De Laet, S., Doumen, S., Vervoort, E., Colpin, H., Van Leeuwen, K., Goossens, L., & Verschueren, K. (2014). Transactional Links Between...
  • DeRosier, M. E., & Lloyd, S. W. (2010). The Impact of Children’s Social Adjustment on Academic Outcomes. Reading & Writing Quarterly,...
  • Farmer, T. W., McAuliffe, M., & Hamm, J. V. (2011). Revealing the Invisible Hand: The Role of Teachers in Children’s Peer Experiences....
  • Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence. Review...
  • Furrer, C., & Skinner, E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational...
  • Gest, S. D., Graham-Bermann, S. A., & Hartup, W. W. (2001). Peer Experience: Common and Unique Features of Number of Friendships, Social...
  • Gest, S. D., Madill, R. A., Zadzora, K. M., Miller, A. M., & Rodkin, P. C. (2014). Teacher Management of Elementary Classroom Social Dynamics:...
  • Hamm, J. V., Farmer, T. W., Dadisman, K., Gravelle, M., & Murray, A. R. (2011). Teachers’ Attunement to Students’ Peer Group Affiliations...
  • Hartup, W. W. (1996). Cooperation, close relationships, and cognitive development. In W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup (Eds.),...
  • Hartup, W.W. (2009). Critical issues and theoretical viewpoints. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer...
  • Howe, C. (2010). Peer groups and children’s development. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Howes, C., Hamilton, C.E., & Matheson, C.C. (1994). Children’s Relationships with Peers: Differential Associations with Aspects of the...
  • Hughes, J. N., & Kwok, O. (2006). Classroom engagement mediates the effect of teacher-student support on elementary students’ peer acceptance:...
  • Kindermann, T. A. (2007). Effects of Naturally Existing Peer Groups on Changes in Academic Engagement in a Cohort of Sixth Graders. Child...
  • Kindermann, T. A. (2011). Commentary: The Invisible Hand of the Teacher. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32(5), 304–308.
  • Kindermann, T. A., & Gest, S.D. (2009). Assessment of the peer group: identifying naturally occurring social networks and capturing their...
  • Kindermann, T. A. & Vollet, J. W. (2014). Social networks within classroom ecologies: peer effects on students’ engagement in the context...
  • Ladd, G. W. (1990). Having friends, Keeping friends, making friends, and being liked by peers in the classroom: Predictors of children’s early...
  • Ladd, G. W., & Burgess, K. B. (1999). Charting the relationship trajectories of aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive/withdrawn children...
  • Ladd, G. W., Kochenderfer, B. J., & Coleman, C. C. (1997). Classroom peer acceptance, friendship, and victimization: Distinct relational...
  • Luckner, A. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2011). Teacher-Student Interactions in Fifth Grade Classrooms: Relations with Children’s Peer Behavior....
  • McAuliffe, M. D., Hubbard, J. A., & Romano, L. J. (2009). The Role of Teacher Cognition and Behavior in Children’s Peer Relations. Journal...
  • McFarland, D. A. (2001). Student resistance: How the formal and informal organization of classrooms facilitate everyday forms of student defiance....
  • Mercer, S. H., & DeRosier, M. E. (2008). Teacher Preference, Peer Rejection, and Student Aggression: A Prospective Study of Transactional...
  • Newcomb, A. F., & Bagwell, C. L. (1995). Children’s friendship relations: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 117(2), 306–347....
  • Newcomb, A.F. & Bagwell, C.L. (1996). The developmental significance of children’s friendship relations. In W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb,...
  • Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence. (pp. 289-321). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
  • Newcomb, A. F., Bukowski, W. M., & Pattee, L. (1993). Children’s peer relations: A meta-analytic review of popular, rejected, neglected,...
  • Ollendick, T. H., Weist, M. D., Borden, M. C., & Greene, R. W. (1992). Sociometric status and academic, behavioral, and psychological...
  • Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin,...
  • Parkhurst, J. T., & Hopmeyer, A. (1998). Sociometric popularity and peer-perceived popularity: Two distinct dimensions of peer status....
  • Runions, K. C., & Shaw, T. (2013). Teacher–child relationship, child withdrawal and aggression in the development of peer victimization....
  • doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2013.09.002
  • Serdiouk, M., Rodkin, P., Madill, R., Logis, H., & Gest, S. (2013). Rejection and victimization among elementary school children: The...
  • Silver, R. B., Measelle, J. R., & Armstrong, J. M. (2005). Trajectories of classroom externalizing behavior: Contributions of child characteristics,...
  • Skinner, E. A., & Belmont, M. J. (1993). Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across...
  • Smith, P. K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2011). Understanding children’s development (5th ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Spilt, J. L., van Lier, P. A. C., Leflot, G., Onghena, P., & Colpin, H. (2014). Children’s social self‐concept and internalizing problems:...
  • Taylor, A. R., & Trickett, P. K. (1989). Teacher preference and children’s sociometric status in the classroom. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,...
  • Troop-Gordon, W., & Kopp, J. (2011). Teacher-Child Relationship Quality and Children’s Peer Victimization and Aggressive Behavior in Late...
  • Vygotsky, L.S. (1981). The genesis of higher mental functions. In Wertsch, J.V. (ed.) The Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology, Armonk,...
  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press,.
  • Wentzel, K. R. (2009). Peers and academic functioning at school. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer...
  • White, K. J., & Jones, K. (2000). Effects of teacher feedback on the reputations and peer perceptions of children with behavior problems....
  • White, K. J., & Kistner, J. (1992). The influence of teacher feedback on young children’s peer preferences and perceptions. Developmental...
  • Xie, H., Cairns, R. B., & Cairns, B. D. (1999). Social networks and configurations in inner-city schools: Aggression, popularity, and...
  • Zajac, R. J., & Hartup, W. W. (1997). Friends as coworkers: Research review and classroom implications. The Elementary School Journal,...