Introduction

In school, one of the most widely applied teaching methods is the conversation in pairs in the form of peer learning or peer tutoring (Thurston et al., 2020). However, often these conversations lack sufficient structure and scaffolding, and frequently the teaching method, e.g. Cooperative Learning, is detached from the subject area (Rasmussen & Schmidt, 2022). This can result in unqualified and superficial pair work (Gillies, 2013).

At University College Copenhagen (UCC) we investigate how to qualify peer tutoring through an intervention project called SYKL, an abbreviation for Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring. SYKL has already been developed for and implemented in science and mathematics and is currently being carried out in Danish L1 in all 4th grade classes (students aged 10-11 years) at the 7 schools in Hillerød Municipality in Denmark. This presentation is about the ongoing SYKL project, and it seeks to investigate the students’ dialogic pair work and possible benefits and challenges of SYKL in Danish L1.

Background

Research into peer tutoring in L1 has mainly focused on literacy in general and reading in particular. Several such studies have documented that peer tutoring has a positive effect on both basic reading skills, reading comprehension and self-regulated reading activities (e.g. Spörer & Brunstein, 2009; Tsuei et al., 2020). However, our knowledge is more restricted when it comes to how peer tutoring can be applied, and with what effects, when working with more complex L1 skills such as deep understanding and critical thinking.

Research suggests a close connection – and possibly even causality – between social and academic benefits of peer tutoring (Rasmussen & Schmidt, 2022; Thurston et al., 2020). Accordingly, in SYKL, students are paired based on social as well as academic criteria. Thus, the intent is inclusion through the subjects, which in SYKL is referred to as socio-academic inclusion (Schmidt, 2015).

Research into socio-academic inclusion is sparse. In a review of structured reciprocal peer tutoring from a combined social and academic perspective between 2011 and 2021, Tiftikci (2021) finds only two such studies with direct relevance for Danish L1, both encouraging: Tymms et al., (2011) document positive effects regarding reading for both cross-age and same-age interventions (ES = 0.2 for both). Willis et al. (2012) find in a qualitative cross-age study notable benefits, both for the literacy skills of the tutees (mentees) and the communication, problem-solving and leadership skills of the tutors (mentors).

SYKL in Danish L1

In the SYKL intervention, we view Danish L1 widely as both a language, literacy, text and Bildung subject, and we build upon contemporary research on student communication and reflection (Holmberg, et al. 2019). In this context, we seek to scaffold investigative and explicitly reflective conversation for the students, also known as exploratory talk, which is “hesitant and incomplete because it enables the speaker to try out ideas, to hear how they sound, to see what others make of them, to arrange information and ideas into different patterns” (Barnes, 2008, p. 5). The objective is that such exploratory and dialogic oracy eventually becomes part of the students’ socio-academic norms (Rasmussen & Schmidt, 2022), in order to strengthen the students’ social relationships as well as their deep L1 understandings and strategies.

Research Question

The research question for this presentation is thus:

RQ: What characterise the students’ (speech) acts during SYKL interactions – and what do they reveal about the establishment of socio-academic norms in Danish L1?

The terminology (speech) acts illustrates that the focus of the presentation is the students’ talk and dialogue as well as body language and gesture.

Intervention design The teachers who participate in the SYKL intervention have received training in peer tutoring techniques, including how to support and scaffold exploratory dialogue in Danish L1. The intervention lasted 16 weeks in the autumn of 2022, each week with one SYKL lesson (45 minutes) structured in the following way: 1. The teacher’s introduction to the topic of the task (5 minutes). 2. Pair work with the first part of the SYKL-task, where one student acts as tutor, the other as tutee (15 minutes). 3. Pair work with the second part of the SYKL-task, where the student roles are reversed (15 minutes). 4. Whole class discussion, both on the academic content and the students’ collaboration (10 minutes). The pair work is structured around 6 generic scaffolding prompt cards with headings such as “Remember to encourage your partner!” and “Think aloud!” Moreover, the tutor is provided with a task sheet, specific to the Danish L1 context, containing a brief text (excerpt), e.g. a poem, the task itself, e.g.: “Investigate how the language creates atmosphere in the poem,” and some didactic hints in the form of scaffolding questions, prompts or suggestions, e.g.: “Is there anything you wonder about in the poem?” Data collection Based on the socio-demographics of the schools, 4 classes at 4 schools were selected, and the following video-recorded and transcribed data were collected: - During intervention: observations of 12 randomly selected SYKL lessons across the semester: 3 lessons in each of the 4 classes. - Post intervention: 4 semi-structured focus group interviews with SYKL pairs: 1 randomly selected pair in each of the 4 classes. Data analysis Both observations and focus group interviews are to contribute to elucidate the (speech) acts that are the RQ focal point. The observations show the pair work, while the interviews contain the students’ reflections on the pair work. All data are handled qualitatively. The students’ (speech) acts are coded thematically based on an inductive principle, “reading the transcriptions line by line using an open coding approach, noting emergent and recurring perceptions and observations that were repeated” (Willis et al., 2012, p. 178). The (speech) acts are analysed for dominant patterns in relation to their academic and social nature (cf. Rasmussen & Schmidt, 2022). Selected dialogues are excerpted for close, mainly linguistic, analysis, drawing on pragmatic speech act and politeness theory (Dalton-Puffer, 2005) and the conversation analysis concepts of turn management and repair (Koole, 2013).

The data have not yet been fully analysed. However, as mentioned, SYKL has already been implemented in science and mathematics. From this research, a mainly quantitative study (Falkenberg & Petersen, 2022) shows that the students are on task approximately 90% of the time and that the work is characterized by a negative environment in only 1% of the time. Even the occasional digressions off topic are found to be, socially and academically, conducive most of the time. A mixed study of how conversational actions foster the socio-mathematical norms during SYKL (Rasmussen & Schmidt, 2022) documents the intertwinement of ‘social’ and ‘mathematical’ actions as they develop over time: “Encouragements are exchanged for a general positive disposition to each other and attempts to create meaning in the tasks are exchanged for a more daring propensity to propose solutions, even if [the students] risk making mistakes along the way.” (p. 7). Based on these findings and our preliminary analyses, we expect SYKL in Danish L1 to strengthen the students’ development of socio-academic norms through equal and exploratory collaboration. However, the preliminary analyses point to a challenge concerning the tutor’s contribution to the pair work. Because when the tutor is in possession of pre-produced hints and is also obliged to encourage the partner, how can the tutor facilitate a more critical investigation? Finally, obvious differences between SYKL in relation to science, mathematics and Danish L1 should be noted. Regardless of subject, the task itself and the associated hints are decisive for the pair work. SYKL research finds benefits for working with concrete artifacts in science and mathematics (Falkenberg & Petersen, 2022). Danish L1, on the other hand, evolves around texts and more phenomenological-hermeneutic (speech) acts at the core of the socio-professional norms. In addition to the main results, such comparative findings will be discussed.

Barnes, D. (2008). Exploratory Talk for Learning. In: N. Mercer & S. Hodgkinson (Eds.) Exploring Talk in School (pp. 1-15). SAGE. Dalton-Puffer, C. (2005). Negotiating interpersonal meanings in naturalistic classroom discourse: Directives in content-and-language-integrated classrooms. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(8), 1275-1293. Falkenberg, L. L., & Petersen, S. K. (2022). Elevers faglige og sociale talehandlinger i SYKL. In M. C. S. Schmidt & S. Thygesen (Eds.) “Når jeg hjælper andre, kan jeg bedre forstå det selv” (pp. 25-38). UCC. Gillies, R. M. (2013). Productive academic talk during inquiry-based science. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 8(2), 126-142. Holmberg, P., Krogh, E., Nordenstam, A., Penne, S., Skarstein, D., Karlskov Skyggebjerg, A., Tainio, L., & Heilä-Ylikallio, R. (2019). On the emergence of the L1 research field. A comparative study of PhD abstracts in the Nordic countries 2000-2017. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 19, 1-27. Koole, T. (2013). Conversation analysis and education. In Carol A. Chapelle (Ed.) The encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 977-982. Blackwell Publishing. Rasmussen, K., & Schmidt, M. C. S. (2022). Together in adidactic situations – Student dialogue during reciprocal peer tutoring in mathematics. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, 1-8. Schmidt, M. C. S. (2015). Sociofaglig inklusion og elevfællesskaber. Til didaktiseringen af kammerathjælp i matematikundervisning på folkeskolens begyndertrin. Nordisk Matematikkdidaktikk, 20(2), 27-52. Spörer, N., & Brunstein, J. C. (2009). Fostering the reading comprehension of secondary school students through peer-assisted learning: Effects on strategy knowledge, strategy use, and task performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(4), 289-297. Thurston, A., Roseth, C., Chiang, T.-H., Burns, V., & Topping, K. J. (2020). The influence of social relationships on outcomes in mathematics when using peer tutoring in elementary school. International Journal of Educational Research Open. Tiftikci, N. (2021). SYstematiseret KLassekammerathjælp (SYKL). En brief systematisk forskningskortlægning over studier, der undersøger socialt og fagligt udbytte af SYKL. UCC. Tsuei, M., Cheng, S. F., & Huang, H. W. (2020). The effects of a peer-tutoring strategy on children’s e-book reading comprehension. South African Journal of Education, 40(2), 1-12. Tymms, P., Merrell, C., Thurston, A., Andor, J., Topping, K., & Miller, D. (2011). Improving attainment across a whole district: school reform through peer tutoring in a randomized controlled trial. School effectiveness and school improvement, 22(3), 265-289 Willis, P., Bland, R., Manka, L., & Craft, C. (2012). The ABC of peer mentoring – what secondary students have to say about cross-age peer mentoring in a regional Australian school. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18(2), 173-185.