Assessing the Role of Peer Relationships in the Small Group Communication Course

Students' Perceptions of College Classroom Connectedness, Assimilation, and Peer Relationships

“…Engaging in group work could serve the function of helping students interact more by helping the students associate with one another and work toward common goals together. By engaging in more active discussion amongst each other and working toward common goals, students may feel more connected, thus increasing both Classroom Connectedness, Assimilation, and Peers 327 affective (Johnson, 2009;Myers et al, 2010) and cognitive learning (Frisby & Martin, 2010;Myers et al, 2010).…”

“…For example, instructors may find the results of this study useful by incorporating opportunities for students to build relationships with one another in the classroom through projects or class discussion. Myers et al (2010) suggested that students could move beyond the information peer type by participating in activities that require them to interact on a frequent basis. Engaging in group work could serve the function of helping students interact more by helping the students associate with one another and work toward common goals together.…”

“…Upon arrival at the data-gathering session, data collection proceeded in two steps. First, following the procedures utilized by Myers et al (2010), participants were asked to reference the course they attended prior to the course in which they were recruited to participate in the study. They then were provided with representative descriptions of the three types of peer relationships (i.e., information, collegial, and special) identified by Kram and Isabella (1985).…”

“…Because many of these behaviors are reflective of the behaviors used by employees in their collegial and special peer relationships in the workplace (McDaugall & Beattie, 1997), it is plausible that students enrolled in courses with information peers may perceive classroom connectedness differently from students enrolled in courses with either collegial or special peers. Furthermore, Myers et al (2010) found that students enrolled in a group communication course who reported working in a group with both collegial and special peers reported greater cohesion, consensus, and relational satisfaction with their group than those students who reported working in a group with only information peers. Given these findings, as well as the notion that students' perceptions of classroom connectedness are rooted in the behaviors students use to communicate with each other, it is likely that students enrolled in a course with information peers will report lower levels of classroom connectedness than students enrolled in a course with either collegial peers or special peers.…”

Opening lines: scholarly inquiry and learning outcomes in communication

“…We know peer relationships have proven important in the classroom and can contribute to cognitive learning (Myers et al, 2010). But we do not know much about how peer mentoring activities contribute to particular learning outcomes.…”