This is the fourth out of a series of blogs explaining Mosston & Ashworth's Spectrum of Teaching Styles. In this blog, we explain the Reciprocal Style of teaching. This blog is based on episode #259 of the podcast Playing with Research in Health and Physical Education. This blog is almost verbatim from the podcast, so if you prefer the audio version, here is the link for episode #259. You can also listen to the first episodes of this series in the following links #254, #255, and #257, or read the first three blogs #1, #2, and #3. The archive of podcasts are listed by category on a google doc that you can find as the pinned tweet on the account @theHPEpodcast on Twitter. Alternatively, you can find it here. You can find the website where you can download the book for free and find more information and resources at the end of this blog.
Alright! On to the Reciprocal Style!
Style C-The Reciprocal style focuses on the reciprocal social interactions between students who learn to provide content feedback to their peers. The learners make inherent decisions when giving and receiving feedback.
So, let’s explain that as simple as possible. You and I are throwing a frisbee back and forth, and a third classmate is providing feedback to both of us (or one of us specifically) about our form.
The teacher is responsible for setting the task and the criteria that the students will use to provide feedback. While the students essentially peer teach each other the teacher walks around and observes the partnership making sure they are being successful in delivering instructions, using the criteria appropriately, and providing supportive feedback.
More specifically, the teacher will make all decisions about the subject matter, criteria, and logistic decisions, observe how students make decisions while peer teaching, and provide feedback to the learners in the peer teaching role.
The learners’ role on the other hand is to work in partnership relationships performing the task or providing ongoing feedback to improve performance. In this process, the “doer”, that is the student performing the task is making the same nine decisions we discussed in the practice style, while the “observer” offers feedback to correct the doer’s performance guided by a criteria card previously designed by the teacher.
One benefit of this style is that learners receive immediate feedback. Having students take a peer teaching role gets the ratio down to one teacher for every learner.
What does this look like?
So, the teacher will organize the class in pairs with each member having a role, being the doer or the observer. The teacher only communicates with the observer. So, every feedback given to the doer comes from the observer. The observer then has to make a series of decisions with the responsibility of knowing the criteria established by the teacher provided in a criteria card. With this knowledge, the observer should be able to compare, contrast, and make conclusions to communicate the results and help the doer improve the performance of the practiced task.
The subject matter objectives of this style focuses mainly on the internalization of the subject matter by visualizing the steps, sequence, and details of the task. The learners are able to practice multiple times without the teacher and learn the criteria to compare, contrast, and assess performance while correcting errors immediately.
Thinking about the standards of learning in PE, students are performing the psychomotor aspects of a task while also having the opportunity to reflect on the cognitive aspects of that same task. In other words, when assessing a peer and correcting through guided feedback students are encouraged to go beyond the performance of a skill being practiced (psychomotor domain) to developing a cognitive understanding of the task by analyzing another person performing the movement while being able to explain how to improve.
In addition, the behavioral objectives focus on the communication and verbal behavior needed to enhance the reciprocal relationships. This socializing process leads to the development of social bonds through respectful interactions. So, students learn to be patient, help each other, and feel rewarded when their partner succeeds on the task as a result of their work together.
All in all, with this style you are teaching in 3 domains, psychomotor (the “doer” doing this skill), cognitive (the “observer” giving feedback based on the correct skill) and affective (communicating respectfully with each other).
Let’s position this in the Spectrum. Up to this episode we’ve talked about the command and the practice styles. I was able to provide examples that most likely everyone has seen in a PE or a physical activity setting. Meaning, you have the teacher making most of the decisions while the students follow exactly what the teacher demonstrates, or the teacher provides very straightforward tasks and the students practice exactly what was explained. The reciprocal style on the other hand may not be as familiar. The new roles taken by the teacher and the students may create new social and psychological demands since it’s the first style in which the decision of feedback is shifted to the learner. The learner then should learn how to use the power of providing feedback responsibly. At the same time, the teacher needs to trust that the learners will make these decisions and control the urge to step in and correct the doers incorrect performance. So, both the learner and teacher need to navigate this experience with trust and comfort.
Let’s briefly describe how this could work in practice.
Think about a teacher teaching the pickleball serve in a PE class. Before class, the teacher develops criteria cards that have an illustration of the expected skill and the critical elements of the serve written down. The card also has cues that exemplify feedback that may be used by the learners. When the teacher gets to class they will explain to the learners the need for reciprocal relationships and the benefit of students being able to provide immediate feedback to improve performance.
The teacher then explains the roles and expectations of the decision-making process. For example, the teacher may say:
“one of you will have a criteria card and will observe your partner practicing the pickleball serve. Compare the movement to the card and help your partner improve their serve. I will walk around and talk with the observers.”
The teacher then demonstrates the task, in this case, the pickleball serve, providing a clear model of what is expected of students. The teacher should also model how to provide feedback, making sure that students understand that it should be informative and supportive. Students are taught NOT to use the basic “good work”, or, “nice job” but something more towards the line of “you could improve your grip on the racket by adjusting your hand in a “handshake” position that makes a V with your thumb and indicator finger”. Or “make sure you follow through completing the serve movement at the end of your serve”.
The learners then pick up the equipment and position themselves safely throughout the gym and start practicing and peer teaching each other. The teacher observes enough to hear the interaction, provides feedback to the observer (not the doer) if necessary, and moves on to the next pair. At the end of class, the teacher provides closure with feedback to the entire class. The reciprocal style may take a little longer for students to start a task the first time this style is used but as soon as the students understand how it works, so, in following classes, the learners will begin the task performance way faster.
In summary, in the Reciprocal style, the feedback variable of the task is transferred to the student who takes the role of observer, corrector, and reinforcer of the task. The objective is to enhance socialization by having students help each other, learn to receive feedback, and evaluate each other.
If you want to learn more about how to develop a criteria card to successfully use this style, I suggest you take a look at the book. The criteria card can determine the success or failure of your class using this style of teaching.
A few of the concerns pointed out that need to be thought about when using the reciprocal style are:
ONE: The teacher needs to respond when students provide impatient or crude feedback or if there is no feedback. The reciprocal style not only reinforces the correct performance but has the main focus on socializing aspects. It is important to have patience. Many students may need time to learn how to provide appropriate feedback. AND, you as the teacher should be modeling this. This is a process and they will learn. So, it takes trust and effort working with your students to achieve the desired outcomes.
TWO: Selecting pairs can be a challenge. The suggestion is that when teachers start using the reciprocal style students should select the partner they wish to work with. This improves the possibility of students working with pairs they feel more comfortable with resulting in higher success in understanding the dynamics of the style. However, as soon as the learners get comfortable with the reciprocal style, the teacher should have students working with other students. Again, the objective of this style is to develop socialization…. And by working with non-friends encourages learners to develop social tolerance, patience, and empathy.
In starting to wrap this up, we just want to talk about a few misconceptions regarding the reciprocal style that is brought up in the book. The first one is that the teacher has less work in this style. In the reciprocal style, even though the learners are peer teaching each other the teacher has a fundamental role of constantly engaging with the students and supporting them in the process. There is a need to prepare and plan to make sure that the expectations are clear and that students can take over the teaching role. But this does not mean that the student took over the job of the teacher.
The second point is the misconception that learners who have a difficult time comparing and contrasting performance criteria will not be successful in the tasks. This style is excellent for learners who need more time in cognitive operations since they take roles in supportive behavior. In competitive activities, these students may be excluded. The reciprocal style, in contrast, provides a cooperative sense of participation that can help develop confidence and positive relationships among the students.
It is very important to understand that the role of the observer is not to evaluate the doer. The feedback based on the criteria is supposed to be informative since it aims to reinforce and improve performance and not judge the performance.
Finally, by having partners take both roles, there is a sense of equality between the students who learn the content and improve together.
That’s all we have for you on this one, next week we talk about the Self-check Style (D).
Thanks for reading!
Alba and Risto
For more resources see below:
Full Cite: Mosston, M., & Ashworth, S. (2008). Teaching physical education: First online edition, 2008. https://spectrumofteachingstyles.org/index.php?id=16
Visit: https://www.spectrumofteachingstyles.org
Twitter: @spectrumots