The purpose of this study was to examine whether peer teaching had any effects on the academic self-concept and academic achievement of educationally retarded children in an attempt to help improve the efficiency of education for them.
The subjects i...
The purpose of this study was to examine whether peer teaching had any effects on the academic self-concept and academic achievement of educationally retarded children in an attempt to help improve the efficiency of education for them.
The subjects in this study were 20 students who were selected from among 211 third graders in six different classes in C elementary school located in the city of Ulsan. After all the students took an achievement test at the end of the first semester of 2007, 20 children were selected with the consent of their parents from among those whose mathematics scores were in the lowest 60 percent and ranked overall in the lowest 20 percent. And an experimental group and a control group were randomly made up of 10 students each. The experimental group participated in a peer-teaching program 10 times for a five-week period of time from September 3 through October 6, 2007.
To assess the academic self-concept of the underachieving students, Song In-seop(1982)'s Self-Concept Inventory was modified to fit into the third graders. In terms of academic achievement, their scores in the finals of the first semester of 2007 and midterms conducted on October 29 were selected. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS program. The findings of the study were as follows:
First, peer teaching exercised a positive influence on the academic self-concept of the underachievers.
Second, peer teaching had a positive impact on the academic achievement of the underachievers.
Thus, peer teaching served as a catalyst in boosting the class participation of the educationally retarded children, and the positive participation served to stir up their attention and will to achieve. Therefore peer teaching had a good effect on the academic self-concept and academic achievement of the underachievers.