Student facilitation and predictors of engagement in peer-led literature circle discussions.

摘要

The purpose of this research was to examine the relation between students' personality traits and the extent of their engagement and facilitation in peer-led literature circle discussions. The research was guided by two questions. To what extent do reading ability, gender, and personality traits predict the quality of verbal engagement in literature circles? and How do highly engaged participants facilitate discussion in the circles?;The researcher video-taped 17 fourth-grade students' literature circle discussions for a total of 136.7 minutes collected on two separate occasions across two weeks. To answer the first question student contributions in discussions were quantified into a measure of quality of verbal engagement score (cf. Costa & Kallick, 2000). This quality of verbal engagement score served as the dependent variable in a multiple regression. The seven independent variables were (1) extroversion, (2) agreeableness, (3) conscientiousness, (4) emotional stability, (5) openness, (6) reading ability, and (7) gender. The quantitative analysis in this study revealed that emotional stability was the only significant variable that predicted higher quality of verbal engagement. A post hoc analysis that included group size as an additional variable revealed that groups composed of three members correlated with higher overall quality of verbal engagement. The second question was answered through a qualitative analysis of the following: exploratory talk, elaborative feedback, topic management, confessionals, and accountability. Results of this analysis suggest that highly engaged students frequently enhance the group discussions through facilitation.;This study extended the extant research by investigating individual factors that may influence the quality of literature circle discussions as well as suggested a framework for understanding facilitation in peer-led literature circle discussions. Further research is needed to determine the influence of group size and personality on varying grade levels.