proposal

Observational Learning through Peer Models

Observational Learning through Peer Models

Introduction

Children with and without special needs have been seen to have the abilities to learn new skills in different ways. For instance, children can learn through explicit instruction, prompting as well as reinforcement (Charlop et al., 2018). Learning can be divided into two categories. These are instructive feedback and observational learning. In instructive feedback, children gain knowledge of new information that is not directly taught tor reinforced into them (Henderson et al., 2018). On the other hand, observational learning involves learning skills by observing other people, usually their peers (Grenner et al., 2019). This proposal aims to evaluate ways in which pre-school children with special needs can learn in an inclusive classroom and achieve their potentials. This can be achieved through observational learning (Spriggs, 2016).

Children with such developmental disabilities as autism have more trouble learning in classrooms compared to their peers. As such, it is necessary to encourage and support them with proper learning environments. More specifically, tailoring a classroom to be inclusive of them goes a long way in supporting their education endeavor. This support can be offered in three different ways (Lanter& Singer-Dudek, 2020). One, the children should be able to interact with their peers, friends as well as adults in their community. Two, their environments should be constructed in a manner that the impact of their impairment or disability is effectively reduced. This means that buildings and other facilities in the learning environment must be able to be accommodative of these children with special needs (Foti et al., 2018). Third, these children need to be taught by teachers and parents who help them gain new skills. Fourth, they should be able to meet other people with similar special needs to learn from and act as role models. All these are aspects of observational learning (Byers, 2016, Stone et al., 2018).

Werts et al. (2010) assert that observational learning is a major prerequisite for inclusive learning. Students with peer models, or classmates that have no disabilities, can observe what these peer models do and try to replicate these skills. Most of the studies carried regarding observational learning have been done in highly controlled environments. The students have been seen to acquire the expressive language used by their peers albeit not comprehensively. Egel et al. established that students with autism can learn from models and were seen o imitate discrete responses. The discrete responses that were studied included naming pictures, giving answers to questions, and reading words. Students were made to observe a different stimulus for each of them, and then prompted to respond correctly as per the required stimulus. The studies found one interesting aspect. Most of the skills that were gained by the students involved response chains. Response chains refer to patterns of behavior that occur in a sequence to make up a complex skill.

This study, therefore, aims at establishing whether students with disabilities can learn response chains in a normal environment (that is, away from a controlled environment; in a normal classroom setup) by observing students who complete the prerequisite steps in a realistic situation. Another aim of this research is to evaluate the how students with disabilities would react based in terms of social interaction after they have successfully gone through a peer modeling session. This is due to the fact previous studies have failed to assess how students interact with others in subsequent activities that involving peer modeling. This study, therefore, underscores the focus of inclusive classrooms, which is essentially the social benefits that students with disabilities acquire in a learning environment together with students without these disabilities. Given the above information, we have the following research questions:

i. Can students with disabilities learn response chains in a typical classroom environment by observing a peer model?

ii. How do students with disabilities socially interact with other students after peer modelling sessions? How do they participate in these interactions?

Methods

Setting

The study will be carried out in pre-school classroom. As such, it will follow the typical structure of a preschool classroom structure. The selected students will be enrolled in different classrooms that follow a similar schedule. They will participate in group activities, both small and large, snack and free play sessions. During the free-play sessions, the students will participate in such activities as art, drama as well as such motor activities as motor activities as swings.

An assistant teacher, with specialized expertise was accorded to each of the students’ class and will be responsible in ensuring proper carrying out of the interventions carried out in the study. As such, each of the two teachers that are required to participate in the study were required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in early-childhood special education.

Participants

Four students have been chosen to participate in the study. There are three boys and girl. The participant ages are 4-6 years old and they are diagnosed with developmental delays as well as communication delays, or intellectual disabilities.

All the four participants will be assigned into two classrooms and allocated four peer models each. The sessions for the four children will take place on the floor or on the desks, round table or at the corner of the class depending on what the sessions involved.

Type of Single Subject Design

The study will use a multiple probe design based on response chains that is similar for all the students to evaluate the impact of peer modeling on the students. At first, the students with disabilities will be assessed to determine the response chains that they could not perform. Then, they will be assigned three different response chains. At least one of the response chains assigned to a given student will be assigned to another student.

In the first probe condition, the students with disabilities will be evaluated in all their three selected response chains. The first two response chains will be evaluated on three different occasions while the last response on two different occasions. The peer model will then be taught on how to carry out response chain stepwise. After this the instructional condition will then be introduced. The instruction was carried out in three distinct phases. Phase one will involve probing the student with disabilities on the response chain in question. Phase two will involve calling the peer model to the area of instruction and to model the response chain through the required steps, all the time explaining what he/ she was doing in each step. Phase three will involve probing the student with disabilities on the response chain. After all these activities were carried out, an investigator will record the social interactions between the students with disabilities as well as how they participated in the social interactions. When a student with disabilities has successfully managed to correctly respond to the first two of the three response chains, a probe condition will be reinstated and as the student is assessed on the three response chains.

Experimental Control

Experimental control will be achieved by ensuring that each student was prompted to carry out a response chain that was carried out by at least one of the other three students. In addition, the students will be assessed beforehand to ascertain if they can perform the response chains before to ensure that they were probed for those reaction chains that they had no prior ability to perform. The children will also be taken through a three tier baseline design.

Baseline Phase

When carrying out the study, a multiple baseline design will be used for the participants in the classes that were used. All the interventions were started for the four students at the same time. The interventions do not necessarily need to start at the same time. However, making sure that they start together enhances evaluation of the utility of the intervention.

The students will be assessed in small groups, consisting of the four provided peer models. Second were free play sessions where the students with disabilities will be involved in activities with every other classmate and in the same setting/ classroom as they had in the small group.

Intervention Phase

The intervention phase will involve probing the student with disabilities on the response chain in question. Phase two involved calling the peer model to the area of instruction and to model the response chain through the required steps, all the time explaining what he/ she was doing in each step.

Maintenance Phase

The maintenance phase will involve probing the student on the response chain as has been presented by the peer model. As such, the student with disabilities is expected to carry out the steps as he/she has observed the peer model perform.

Dependent Variable

The dependent variables are the response chains chosen by the instructor for a student. The response chains that will be chosen are those that the student in question was initially unable to perform. As such, they depend on prior ability of the student to carry them out.

Independent Variables

The independent variables are the students’ disabilities. Each student has their own disability, not necessarily unique to him/her. However, the participants in the study ought to have been diagnosed with a developmental delay to be involved in the study. The disabilities that a given participant has informed his/her performance on the response chains.

General Instructional Procedures

The instructional procedures involve probing. More specifically, the instructor will first probe the student on the response chain that is about to be provided as an intervention. Next, the instructor will teach the peer model on how to carry out a given response chain on-step-by-step basis. Next, the peer model will move to the instructional area, and perform all the response chain as taught by the teacher as the student with disabilities watches. After this, the student with disabilities will be probed by the instructor to perform the response chain as he/she has seen the peer model do.

Fidelity of Implementation

All sessions will be audio-recorded individually. An independent person, a graduate student, will compare the marked copies of the researcher against the audio to affirm any discrepancies. The inter-observer agreement is then calculated using the formula, Agreements/ (agreements + disagreements). Inter-observer is conducted on at least 98% of all administrations with the median agreement of 100%.

Social Validity

The social validity of the research is the fact that the instructors involved appreciated the fact that students with disabilities are in a better position to learn when they are in a classroom setting with students without disabilities. As such, they view this study as a chance to give the four selected students a chance to interact and learn from other students who do not have disabilities. In addition, it is seen as an opportunity to evaluate the impact that of peer modeling in enhancing learning outcomes for students with disabilities and a chance to provide an inclusive classroom.

Results

It is expected that the students with disabilities will be able to perform some of the response chains that were presented to them. It should be noted that these response chains that they were expected to perform after peer modeling are ones that they could not perform before. Since there is no prior numerical data on similar studies, the students are expected to be able to correctly respond to the response chains in an average of 40 minutes spread through the study period of 30 days.

It was expected that some modifications are needed in order to enable the students to carry out the prompted response chains. For instance, a student could experience difficulties when say, correctly punching the buttons of a computer. In addition, when using a calculator, the students may have difficulties inputting the proper sequence of numbers as required. In addition, the students could also have trouble complying with the instructions provided.

It was not easy to estimate the performance of the four students based since there was no previous numerical data to use. However, we estimate the students would fare as follows:

The social interaction and participation among the students was expected to range from 0%- 15% and participation was expected to be around 0%-7%.

Percentage of Overlapping Data

The percentage of overlapping data is expected to be 5%.

Data Variability

The variability of the data collected within a given phase is expected to be close in range. This is mainly because the students exhibit similar disabilities and are expected to have similar learning difficulties. As such, it is expected that the amount of time that they took to successfully complete a given phase was similar.

Functional Relationship

Discussion

The results are expected to show that students show some level of learning when they are exposed to peer models. This is because prior studies have shown that students with disabilities can acquire knowledge through observing other people. In addition, the level of interaction is expected to increase albeit dismally since students with disabilities are likely to interact less with their peers.

Limitations of the Study

There are high chances of absenteeism expected for the participants which could negatively impact the study. There are also limitations on the generalizability of the study as it was based on students with autism and chromosomal disorder.

Future Research

Based on this research, studies could be done on other forms of disabilities to establish whether observational learning would still be effective as a tool for specific disabilities.

References