Peer influence shapes classroom engagement, interaction, and discourse quality. Positive peer influence can increase student participation, collaboration, and critical thinking. On the other hand, negative peer influence can lead to disengagement and a lack of involvement. Educators must recognize peers' impact on student learning and behavior to create a positive and productive classroom environment. Teachers can foster positive peer influence by creating a classroom culture that values and encourages participation, collaboration, and critical thinking and actively addressing and addressing negative behaviors. Teachers can also use instructional strategies that promote peer-to-peer interaction, such as group work and discussions (Glasgow et al., 2009).

How Can Teachers Reclaim and Reform Classrooms?

The study by Pierce (2005) highlights the significant impact that peer influence can have on the classroom experience for students. The study suggests that teachers can reclaim and reform classrooms by promoting an environment that values and encourages engagement, active learning, and enjoyment. Are your students happy? Do you ask them? As educators, we must implement strategies to actively work towards addressing negative peer influence that can constrict and poison the classroom experience.

Help Your Students Navigate Complex Social Dynamics?

The study also suggests that students are constantly navigating complex social dynamics within the classroom and that these dynamics can shape their behaviors, roles, and duties. The temporary culture of each class can change as different mixes of students come and go from period to period. Students often make social compromises in response to their peers that can hinder learning and impair a teacher's ability to work with a class. Students often act one way toward a teacher and the class but feel another. Their behaviors, roles, and duties change with each class and are continually mediated and renegotiated with new teachers and in other settings.

Did You Know that a School's Social Structure Dominates Students' Views?

Individual teachers already recognize that students move with their peers from each grade to other. Peer relationships are maintained for long periods and often hold a higher priority in students' lives than teaching and learning. Students experience daily stressors related to school like their personal responsibilities, and interactions with peers. While classroom routines offer consistency, they may not always provide opportunities to explore an interdisciplinary approach, subject area study, diverse subjects /topics, and intellectually stimulating ideas. These ideas emphasize the significance of peer relationships and the social structure of schools in shaping students' perceptions of their classroom experiences. Teachers need to be conscious of these dynamics and take proactive measures to counteract negative peer influences that may hinder or undermine the learning environment.

How Are You Providing Authentic and Meaningful Learning?

Pierce (2005) study highlights the importance of providing authentic and meaningful learning experiences for students to engage them in the classroom. The study suggests that students often prioritize their social and peer relationships over academic work in traditional classroom settings. To combat this, teachers need to adopt different roles and use cooperative learning arrangements that promote a style of teaching and learning that is more like real life. Additionally, the study suggests that making lessons relevant and meaningful to students' lives by connecting them to real-world examples can help capture their attention and balance the competing agendas of students and teachers. Overall, the study emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and identifying students' and teachers' different priorities and agendas to create an equal balance in the classroom environment.

Are You Incorporating Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative learning can engage students by making the learning process more interactive and collaborative. It can also increase motivation by giving students a sense of ownership and responsibility for their learning. Additionally, by providing opportunities for students to work together and rely on each other to achieve a shared goal, cooperative learning can foster a sense of community and belonging among students. Furthermore, some forms of cooperative learning, such as peer tutoring, can also help promote students' academic self-efficacy and confidence.

Do You Recognize The Social Comparisons Happening In Your Classroom?

One of the main ways that peer influence affects classroom engagement is through social comparison. When students observe their peers participating in class and achieving academically, they are more likely to feel motivated to do the same. On the other hand, if they see their peers disengaged or failing, they may feel less motivated to participate and succeed. This can create a self-fulfilling cycle, where students who are more engaged and motivated will help to increase engagement and motivation among their peers (Bankole et al., 2019).

Conclusion

It is important for educators to be aware of the impact that peer influence can have on classroom engagement, interaction, and discourse and to take steps to create a positive and inclusive classroom environment. This can include providing opportunities for students to work together in small groups, encouraging open and respectful discourse, and creating a culture of respect and inclusion. Recognizing the role of peer influence in shaping the quality of classroom engagement, interaction, and discourse is important for educators. Teachers can create a positive and productive classroom environment that promotes engagement, interaction, and discourse by understanding peers' impact on student learning and behavior. By promoting positive relationships among students, educators can create a classroom environment where all students feel valued and respected.

 References

 Bankole Adeyemi, F. (2019). Peer group influence on academic performance of undergraduate students in Babcock University, Ogun State. African Educational Research Journal, 7(2), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.30918/aerj.72.19.010

 Glasgow, N. A., & Hicks, C. D. (Eds.). (2009). What successful teachers do: 101 research-based classroom strategies for new and veteran teachers. Corwin Press.

 Pierce, K. M. (2005). Posing, pretending, waiting for the bell: Life in high school
classrooms. High School Journal, 89(2), 1–15.