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The impact of individual differences on the performance of 2 roles - learner and learning facilitator - was assessed during dyadic cooperative learning. Eighty university students, 40 men and 40 women, participated in same-sex groups of 4. Each student cooperatively learned a text passage with 1 partner and then learned a 2nd passage with another partner. In a later session, the students recalled the information contained within both text passages and completed several personality measures. A social relations analysis (D. A. Kenny & L. LaVoie, 1984) was used to partition the variability in recall for the passages into various sources. Variability in recall depended strongly on individual differences in learning ability and (to a lesser extent) on individual differences in the ability to facilitate others' learning. Differences in the ability to learn text passages were independent of individual differences in the ability to facilitate others' learning. Effective learners were high in verbal ability, whereas effective learning facilitators were low in public self-consciousness and in self-monitoring. The influence of cognitive and rapport factors on the performance of the learner role and the learning facilitator role is discussed.

This study demonstrates that tutorial interaction can be structured so that same-ability age mates can scaffold each other's higher order thinking and learning. Seventh graders were assigned in pairs to 3 mutual peer-tutoring conditions: explanation only (E), inquiry plus explanation (IE), and sequenced inquiry plus explanation (SIE). Tutorial sessions followed teacher-led science lessons over a 5-week treatment. IE and SIE students were trained to ask comprehension and thought-provoking questions on the material when in the tutor role and to explain material to partners when acting as tutee. SIE students received additional training in asking their questions in a particular sequence. E students explained material to each other. SIE students outperformed IE and E students on ability to construct knowledge both during their tutorial interaction and on written measures.

The present study examined the effects of a home-based, parent involvement (PI) intervention and the reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) intervention on the self-concept and mathematics achievement of academically at-risk urban elementary school students. Seventy-two 4th- and 5th-grade students evidencing difficulties in mathematics were selected. Students were assigned randomly to 3 conditions: PI + RPT, PI, and practice control (PC). Student self-concept reports showed that students in the PI + RPT and PI conditions reported higher ratings of scholastic and behavior conduct than controls. Students in the PI + RPT conditions perceived themselves as more socially confident than did PI or PC students. Mathematics findings indicated that students who received PI + RPT displayed higher levels of accurate mathematics computations on a curriculum-based measure than PI or PC students. PI + RPT students also had significantly higher scores on a standardized measure of mathematics computation than PC students. The relationships between the PI intervention components and school adjustment were discussed.