It is a great pleasure to introduce this special themed edition of the Middle Grades Research Journal. The special theme for this edition focuses on peer learning. Peer learning has a long and established impact on school-based learning. Recent meta-analyses have illustrated the impact on academic attainment (Rohrbeck, Ginsburg-Block, Fantuzzo, & Miller, 2003) and social development (Ginsburgh-Block, Rohrbeck, & Fantuzzo, 2006). The special issue draws together manuscripts from researchers based in the United States, the United Kingdom, and mainland Europe. The special issue illustrates how the use of peer learning transcends national boundaries, school systems, and even the language of tuition. It should also illustrate the diverse nature of peer learning from cooperative learning (Slavin, 1992) to peer tutoring (Thurston & Topping, 2007) and illustrate how these pedagogical approaches may be able to enhance learning and outcomes for pupils.
The first article from David and Roger Johnson provides an excellent overview of the challenges and opportunities for cooperative learning with middle grade students. The Johnson brothers’ social interdependence theory has widely influenced approaches to peer learning throughout the world. In this manuscript David and Roger provide us with an excellent critical summary of the available literature on peer learning in middle schools. They go on to make a strong case for the importance of interpersonal relationships to achieve success in school. They round off by looking at the nature of cooperative learning in schools and make recommendations for those who would use such in middle grade schooling. The second manuscript in the special edition is from Allen Thurston, Donald Christie, Eleni Karagiannidou, Pauline Murray, Andrew Tolmie, and Keith Topping. This article has echoes of the message carried in the Johnson manuscript. However, this time data is presented from a specific study that followed pupils in a 2-year longitudinal study as they underwent transition from elementary school. It explored data and reported that cooperative learning could promote outcomes in school science at the point of transition. The importance of peer relationships for outcomes after school transition was also reported. Thurston and colleagues conclude that peer learning may promote learning and development at points of school transition and hypothesize that the interrelationship between peer learning and metacognition may be responsible for this.
The third manuscript from Hilde Van Keer and Ruben Vanderlinde explores outcomes from a cross-age paired reading initiative. The authors report data from a large-scale experimental study that examined the effect of peer learning on metacognitive process and selfregulation of reading. The article reports that peer learning (in the form of paired reading) can promote both metacognition in relation to reading and can enhance the quality of reading strategy adopted by learners. The challenge may be for how middle schools may be able to collaborate with elementary schools to facilitate such cross-age paired reading initiatives. The literacy theme is continued in the final study presented by David Duran. David’s work is drawn from the top end of the middle stages. The manuscript draws together theoretical perspectives from David and Roger Johnson’s work with the peer tutoring aspects of Hilde Van Keer’s work. Studies using peer learning to enhance writing are seldom reported so David’s work is a welcome addition to the literature in this respect.
What should be noted is that the three main empirical studies in this special issue took place in schools in different countries, where learning and teaching takes place in three different languages (English, Flemish, and Catalan) and they were separated spatially by thousands of miles. However, the universal message is that peer learning may have something to offer in the all stages of the middle grades. The Johnson brothers tie these disparate educational contexts together with an exposition of their “social interdependence theory.” They provide a strong theoretical approach to peer learning based on years of experience and empirical research. This theory of peer learning should have value for all teachers of pupils in their middle grades of schooling. Peer learning has much to offer the social and academic development of pupils in the middle grades. The fact that positive effects of peer learning are reported from such different educational contexts and seem to transcend language and culture is testament to this.
