A study examined the effectiveness of coworker instruction, a natural support strategy, in improving the integration of four adolescents with disabilities transitioning into a competitive-employment setting. Results indicated the intervention strategy increased the social integration of the students with disabilities. (Author/CR)

Aging 2000 is a Rhode Island organization of community-based networks working to improve geriatric health care through consumer empowerment. Evaluation of workshops on health behavior and the health-care system shows the viability of using older adult volunteers as peer teachers. (SK)

Describes the Peer-Assisted Learning System (PALS) program at Merced High School. PALS was designed to facilitate the transition of disabled students returning to their home schools by pairing them with peers who served as instructors, friends, advocates, and decision makers in several arenas of school life. (Author/MKA)

Discusses and presents examples of alternative styles of transmitting mathematical knowledge at the tertiary level, with a view to promoting debate on the issue. Emphasizes processes rather than skills, and considers problem solving and peer tutoring. (Author/ASK)

A drug-and-alcohol-prevention program in which elementary school parents serve as parent-to-parent facilitators is described as a peer-education model of adult education. (SK)

Discusses some initiatives that address problems of a fragmented curriculum and student isolation in large college classes through restructuring. These include peer-facilitated learning communities (such as emerging scholars programs), linked-class learning communities (e.g., linked writing courses), course-cluster learning communities, and…

Presents two primary-level peer tutoring field studies and suggests ways to implement peer tutoring in a classroom. Lesson planning, students' journal writing, manipulative activities, and students' responses are discussed. Among the benefits of peer tutoring are enhanced self-esteem, enhanced sense of responsibility, improvement of skills,…

Describes taking laboratory experiments, modifying them to include aspects of peer instruction and collaborative learning, and using pre- and post-tests to measure student learning gains in two of these labs. Data indicates that this modification substantially increases student learning-it increases the average student learning gain from pre- to…

Introduces an issue on promoting thinking via peer learning. Articles address decisions needed when using peer learning, focusing on who learns in a group, what changes in those interactions, and how to assess learning from peer interaction. Influences on peer learning are described (e.g., the anticipated nature of collaboration, the teacher's…

Describes the involvement of two Grade 11 drama classes with the PAL (Peer-Assisted Learning) program, a coaching model in which senior students in Ontario secondary schools function as instructional aides for younger peers. Suggests that both coaches and students benefit when seniors act as learning partners for their younger peers. Includes…

The special needs education and peer tutoring programs developed by the Maryland Department of Education reach the large numbers of inmates with low literacy levels or learning disabilities. They have been instrumental in making instruction more effective for all students. (JOW)

Describes a writing class activity to encourage peer feedback when peers are reluctant to give it. Notes how it invites personal dialectic and critical analysis while protecting the writer's originality and sense of control. (SR)

Demonstrates that tutorial assistance, independent of variables of gender, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score, math placement level, and high school grade point average (GPA), had a significant effect on students' final examination scores in a mathematics course. Finds that math performance of the selected sample had a positive relationship to…

Continues a discussion of critiquing peer tutoring groups by underscoring a typically unacknowledged component: the way in which an emphasis on "peerness" disguises the inherent aggression in tutoring relationships. Defines "peerness" as a complicated relation that involves power and aggression as well as equality. (SG)

This article discusses the use of play as a medium for extending and enriching the communication exchanges and symbolic language of children with autism. It provides a case illustration of how an adult-facilitated dramatic peer play led to a breakthrough in symbolic behaviors in a 9-year-old girl with autism. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)