Peer Status in the Middle School: A Natural Treatment for Unequal Participation

The focus of this study is on the problem of unequal participation of students within small cooperative learning groups in middle-school classrooms. According to previous research using Status Characteristic Theory, this unequal participation stems from differential expectations for competence based on academic and peer status. Previous research had also found that in classrooms where rank on these two status orders was uncorrelated (incongruent classrooms), problems of unequal participation were less severe. This study involved systematic observations of students in working groups in four middle-school science classrooms. The derivation of hypotheses required an extension of Status Characteristic Theory to handle three-to-five-person groups working in a multicharacteristic situation. The results showed good support for hypotheses explaining the effect of incongruence in the social structure on participation of low-status students. Incongruent classrooms had fewer small groups that were highly differentiated on status. Moreover, the degree of status differentiation in the groups was a direct predictor of the participation rates of the low-status students. Thus, the less differentiated groups in incongruent classrooms showed fewer status problems. As a practical matter, the tendency of students to construct peer status orders that are independent of academic status acts as a natural treatment for unequal participation.