Introduction
Social foundations are an area that highlights the impact that social, cultural and historical factor on education. Apart from the acquisition of knowledge, there are factors that determine whether education offered reflects the interests of the society. Social foundations have influenced curriculum and one concept that should be highly regarded when formulating a curriculum is the fact that peer groups become important in the procession of children from childhood through adolescence (Talawar,2010). This has a big influence on social behavior and subsequently academic success.
An article, “Peer Effects in the Classroom” by Linda Gorman shares the same point of view relating to the effect of peer education in learning .Using Black and Hispanic students in a case study, the article seeks to show how peer group may affect academic achievement. As much as the effect of peer may not be directly seen or measured, they do exist. In Texas, Black and Hispanic adolescents tend to be affected by academic performance of their peers. There has been a debate as to what effect does peer groups affect academic performance among highly scoring students and lowly scoring students. There is a conviction lowly scoring students within peer groups tend to perform highly whereas high performers within peer groups tend to deteriorate (Gorman, 2014). However, Linda points out that a student’s own test score rises from 0.1 to 0.55 points.
This article is in line with the social foundations concept and as such, shows how the just immediate peer group affects academic performance. The effect of peer should thus be a major consideration when formulating the curriculum
As seen from the article, peer groups have the potential to influence academic success. This means that, in the formulation of the curriculum, due attention should be given to peer groups .Curriculum should embrace cooperative/collaborative learning to enhance the exchange of knowledge between peer members. However, curriculum developers should ensure that students are in groups that promise academic success.
References
Gorman, L. (n.d.). (2014) Peer Effects in the Classroom. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from http://www.nber.org/digest/apr01/w7867.html
Talawar, M. S., & Pradeep, K. T. (2010). Philosophical & SOCIAL foundations of education. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.
