Automating Peer Learning to Reduce Alcohol Use and Related Deviant Behavior in Middle School

Abstract Peer influence is one of the most important predictors of alcohol and other drug use in adolescenceand these affiliations often arise when socially marginalized youth self aggregate and reinforce alcohol use and other deviant activityi edeviant peer clusteringEven though the field has developed efficacious school based prevention programseffect sizes are generally smalland these programs can be difficult to disseminate with fidelity and challenging to sustain due to complex designs and the significant time and money expenditures required for materials and trainingThusexisting school based prevention programs have not provided compelling value to schoolswhich has limited their disseminationIn a recent RCTwe aimed to reduce alcohol use in middle school by exposing at risk youth to a broader cross section of the school social networkand interrupting the process of deviant peer clusteringthrough collaborativegroup based peer learning activitiesAfter one yearwe found significantly lower rates of deviant peer affiliation and alcohol and tobacco use in intervention schools as compared to control schoolsPeer learning also has moderate to strong effects on bullyingvictimizationand student engagement and achievementso peer learning represents a highly attractive approach to alcohol use prevention that can support positive behavioralsocialand academic outcomes simultaneouslyHoweverteachers in our intervention schools encountered a few challenges when implementing peer learningincludingfidelityi eensuring that peer learning provided the most positive student experience by including all the essential design elementsandinstructional supporti emanaging the flow and timing of the activities to complete the lesson on time and dealing with unexpected disruptionsThusin this Phase I SBIRwe aim to develop a mobile software application that will provide easy to usescalable organizational templates with workflow support that teachers can use to automate the design and delivery of evidence based peer learning activitiesWith this appthe teacher will design their lesson by selecting from a library of pre existing templates for different lesson types which they can customize and populate with their own learning materials as neededDuring lesson deliverythe app will manage membership in learning groupsincluding changes required by late arriving or absent studentsdirect student activities according to a specified timetablemanage student work productssupport teacher observations of student behaviorand deliver post lesson content reviews and assessmentsThe app should be highly attractive to both teachersfor its ease of userapid implementationflexibilityinstructional supportand school administratorsfor its evidence based approach to the prevention of a variety of behavioral problemsgreater student motivation and achievementIn Phase Iwe will focus on the jigsaw lessona standard peer learning activity that is widely recognized and acceptedWe will develop the app iteratively in conjunction with actual teachers and studentswho will use the app in their classrooms and provide feedback to guide development Narrative We recently demonstrated that collaborativegroup based peer learning activitieswhen implemented in middle schoolscan reduce rates of deviant peer affiliation and alcohol and tobacco use while also promoting student motivation and achievementHoweverteachers encountered a few challenges when implementing peer learning activitiesincludingfidelityi eensuring that these learning activities provided the most positive student experience by including all the essential design elementsandinstructional supporti emanaging the flow and timing of the activities in the classroom to complete the lesson on timeThusin this Phase I SBIRwe aim to develop a mobile software application that will provide easy to usescalable organizational templates with workflow support that teachers can use to automate the design and delivery of evidence based peer learning activitiesenabling them to provide an even more powerful learning experience for studentsand to provide it more frequently and with less effort