A comparison of teacher‐directed versus peer‐assisted instruction to struggling first‐grade readers

The purpose of this research was to provide more definitive answers about best instructional delivery arrangements for accelerating the reading growth of struggling readers. 2 instructional methods-peer-assisted instruction using carefully prescribed materials and routines and small-group teacher-directed instruction-were compared both to typical undifferentiated instruction and to each other. 22 general education first-grade teachers of 89 economically and ethnically diverse students who were low performers in reading participated in this research. 7 teachers conducted first-grade PALS, 7 teachers conducted teacher-directed small-group lessons, and 8 teachers served as the contrast group. To ensure that effects of the instructional delivery arrangement were truly being examined, both small-group teachers and peers taught from parallel materials and followed parallel routines that had been validated previously. Multiple measures of reading were collected, including pre- and postmeasures of timed and untimed word identification and phonetic decoding, and comprehension. Likewise, measures of phonemic segmentation and oral reading fluency were collected every 2 weeks. Results suggested that both peer-assisted instruction and small-group teacher-directed instruction, on average, enhanced reading performance of struggling readers more than typical, undifferentiated instruction both in terms of statistical significance and in terms of educational relevance. Results also implied that receiving instruction from a teacher in a small group was somewhat more powerful than similar instruction delivered by a classroom peer.