Do Peers Influence the Development of Individuals’ Social Skills? The Potential of Cooperative Learning and Social Learning in Elementary Schools

Abstract

Promoting social skills in addition to teaching curricular content is challenging for elementary-school teachers. Teaching methods that implicitly foster social skills could support teachers and students alike. Peer influence and social learning, as a mediating peer-influence mechanism, could be beneficial. If peers can show their social skills in class, students with lower social skills could adopt their skillset. An intervention study investigating the peer influence effect of cooperative learning on the development of social skills was conducted with 558 students (Mage = 8.66; 49,3% female) of 26 classes. Over the course of four weeks Cooperative Learning was implemented daily in intervention classes to determine the effects of peer influence as well as additional effects of Cooperative Learning on the development of social skills. The results suggest that students with low social skills can benefit from Cooperative Learning if they are taught in highly socially skilled classes. The article discusses possibilities to enrich Cooperative Learning to benefit all students.