Influences on the effectiveness of peer interaction: children's level of cognitive development and the relative ability of partners

Studies of peer interaction among children have generally shown that this experience aids performance, or at the very least does not result in poorer performance in relation to control conditions. Furthermore, working with a more able partner has been found to be a particularly effective form of peer interaction. In contrast, a model proposed by Karmiloff-Smith suggests that at certain phases of cognitive development children may ignore feedback and information from task activities. These two ideas were tested in a study where pairs of 6–7 year old children had to balance a beam on a fulcrum during a computer task. The performance on a post-test did not support either viewpoint. Children who were working with a more able partner were found to perform significantly worse than other children. The findings of a second study suggested that this effect may have been due to the more able children having an incomplete understanding of the computer task and they may have dominated social interaction thereby restricting the progress of the less able pupil. The findings from these two studies indicate that peer interaction can result in poorer learning outcomes, and that Karmiloff-Smith's model should include the possibility of peer interaction effects.