Peer‐tutoring: what’s in it for the tutor?

Drawing on role theory and socio‐constructivist ideas about learning, this study explores how peer‐tutoring can support tutors’ learning. The sample comprised ten 16–17‐year‐old biology tutors, working with twenty‐one 14–15‐year‐old students from a science class over eight weeks. Data were collected through an online wiki, tutor interviews, paired tutor discussions and video recordings. Tutors’ perceptions of their role motivated them to learn the material, and their learning was supported by discussion and explanation, revisiting fundamentals, making links between conceptual areas, testing and clarifying their understanding, and reorganising and building ideas, rehearsing them, and working through them repeatedly, to secure their understanding. When tutors employed long answer questions, there was evidence of reflection on their learning and links made between conceptual areas. When preparing to tutor, tutors could focus on key points and engage with basic ideas from alternative perspectives. Mental rehearsal of peer‐tutoring episodes helped them appreciate weaknesses in their own subject knowledge.     

A Peer‐tutoring Scheme to Support Independent Learning and Group Project Work in Mathematics

A peer‐tutoring scheme was introduced to an undergraduate mathematics module. This was to provide a learning support for an independent learning programme. These student support groups also functioned as task groups for group project work. In the independent learning programme, students were directed to read selected passages of text, to attempt certain exercises and to devise peer assessment tasks. For some of the sessions senior students were present and functioned as additional peer tutors. To assess the students’ attitudes to the peer‐supported independent learning programme, an Attitudes to Peer‐tutoring Questionnaire was constructed. The results show that the students readily accepted the need to work in groups and to support one another. Overall, 78% felt that they could work easily without pressure and that the sessions were not a complete waste of time. However, 65% of the students did not appear to enjoy the independent learning sessions and felt that they preferred to be responsible only for their own learning.     

Effects of training peer tutors in content knowledge versus tutoring skills on giving feedback to help tutees’ complex tasks

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of training tutors in content knowledge of a particular domain versus training them in tutoring skills of pedagogical knowledge when tutoring on a complex tutee task. Forty-seven tutor–tutee pairs of fourth-year secondary school students were created and assigned to one of the two treatments. Twenty-two tutors received training in content knowledge and the other twenty-five tutors in tutoring skills. Tutors formulated written feedback immediately after the training. Tutees first interpreted the tutor feedback and then used it to revise their research questions. The results showed that tutors trained in tutoring skills formulated more effective feedback than tutors trained in content knowledge. In addition, tutees helped by tutoring-skills tutors found the feedback more motivating than those helped by content-knowledge tutors. However, no differences were found in tutee performance on revision. The findings are discussed in terms of the set-up of this study and implications for improving the effectiveness of peer tutoring.     

Pause, prompt and praise – peer tutored reading for pupils with learning difficulties

Eila Burns undertook the enquiry that is the subject of this article while studying for her MEd degree at the University of Birmingham. She is now a lecturer in teacher education at Jyvaskyla University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The project she describes here aimed to assess the effectiveness of peer tutoring and the advantages of the structured 'pause, prompt and praise' reading method in improving reading skills among pupils working in Key Stage 4. Action research was undertaken in a secondary level special school catering for pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) in order to explore the benefits of establishing such interventions within special school environment.
The pause, prompt and praise reading sessions were conducted at the beginning of lessons, employing same-age peer tutors and using subject-based texts. The findings reveal that, after a slow start, the tutees' rates of self-correction began to rise, indicating improvements in reading skills. Eila Burns also reports growing skills and confidence in the tutors, suggesting benefits for all involved in the peer tutoring process. She describes, in detail, interesting differences between outcomes for the different tutor-tutee pairings in her work and proposes a number of ways in which her small-scale enquiry could be taken forward. The implications of this study are, however, very encouraging for practitioners considering the use of peer tutoring in their own environments.     

Peer Tutoring in Crystallography

In the Materials Department of Imperial College we have introduced a peer tutoring scheme for the first-year subject of crystallography. It is a subject which students find difficult since it involves new concepts, in particular the use of three-dimensional lattices and structures. Formally, the subject is taught through lectures, class work and general tutorial sessions. We have trained peer tutors over 2 days, to understand the need to draw out students so that they work through and think out for themselves some of the more confusing aspects of the subject. Within a very short period of time, the tutors had developed so that, rather than seeing their role as a surrogate teacher, they understood their role to be that of a facilitator. The fact that the peer tutors could use real scientific concepts in their role plays helped to provide a focus. It also ensured that the tutors realized that they really could use group process and discussion to solve even technical problems. The scheme, with its possible pitfalls and solutions, is discussed in the context of materials science. It is found that peer tutoring, which is often used in more discursive subjects, provides an excellent way to effect a more questioning approach to a very technical subject.     

'I felt like I did something good'— the impact on mainstream pupils of a peer tutoring programme for children with autism

There have been many research projects studying the use of peer intervention strategies to develop the social, communication and interaction skills of children with autism, yet few of these studies focus in detail on the impact of such strategies on the mainstream peers. In this article, Val Jones, an advisory teacher for autism spectrum conditions, explores the impact of peer tutoring children with autism on the peer tutors themselves. This enquiry focuses on ten to eleven-year-old mainstream pupils who were paired with twelve children with autism and associated learning difficulties for weekly peer tutoring sessions at a primary school with a specialist autism unit. At the end of a series of tutoring sessions, the perspectives of the peer tutors were gathered through questionnaires. All of the peer tutors reported that they had enjoyed the experience and most felt that the peer tutoring had brought them direct benefits by building confidence, teaching responsibility, encouraging caring attitudes and helping them to acknowledge diversity. Val Jones also gathered the views of parents and school staff who again reported largely positive outcomes from the peer tutoring process. While this small-scale study focuses on findings from one school, there are wider implications here for the development of inclusive policies and practices and this article will be of interest to professionals working across the range of specialist and mainstream settings.     

The role of questioning in writing tutorials: a critical approach to student-centered learning in peer tutorials in higher education

ABSTRACT

Peer tutoring in higher education aims to enhance student learning, and confidence. In writing centres, peer writing tutors use critical questioning to make the tutorial sessions student-focused and productive. The nature of questions influences the outcomes of the tutorials, yet research has not devoted sufficient time to unpacking what form this questioning takes, and the potential value for students and tutors. This paper explores the kinds of questions asked, the challenges posed to students and tutors, and implications for the learning process. Tutors’ experiences during tutorials and their reflections in written reports are used to unpack and explore questioning in tutorials. The paper highlights questioning as relevant in writing centre spaces due to its central role in shaping student learning about writing. The findings have relevance for peer tutoring in higher education generally, and indicate the importance of peer tutors learning to use questions to engage effectively with students.     

Tutor learning: the role of explaining and responding to questions

Previous research on peer tutoring has found that students sometimes benefit academically from tutoring other students. In this study we combined quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore how untrained peer tutors learned via explaining and responding to tutee questions in a non-reciprocal tutoring setting. In support of our hypotheses, we found that tutors learned most effectively when their instructional activities incorporated reflective knowledge-building in which they monitored their own understanding, generated inferences to repair misunderstandings, and elaborated upon the source materials. However, tutors seemed to adopt a knowledge-telling bias in which they primarily summarized the source materials with little elaboration. Tutors’ reflective knowledge-building activities, when they occurred, were more frequently elicited by interactions with their tutee. In particular, when tutees asked questions that contained an inference or required an inferential answer, tutors’ responses were more likely to be elaborative and metacognitive. Directions for future research are also discussed.     

Tutoring online tutors: Using digital badges to encourage the development of online tutoring skills

Online tutors play a critical role in e‐learning and need to have an appropriate set of skills in addition to subject matter expertise. This paper explores how digital badges can be used to encourage the development of online tutoring skills. Based on previous research, we defined three digital badges, which are examples of essential tutoring skills. These skills were self‐assessed during two weeks by online tutors in K‐12 mathematics, who also wrote a self‐reflection based on their experience. The digital badges motivated tutors to reflect on online tutoring practices. The tutors described that they gained a more detailed understanding of the tutoring process when continuously analyzing ongoing conversations. However, it was a challenge for the tutors to balance the private activity, reflection on tutoring skills, and the social activity, communication with the K‐12 students. It is essential to take into account when tutors will have time to reflect, for example, by scheduling time for reflection or enabling opportunities for reflection that is flexible in time. A challenge for further research is to better understand the potential benefits of different types of badges.     

The impact of a peer-tutoring program on quality standards in higher education

The purposes of this study were, on one had, to determine the impact of a peer tutoring program on preventing academic failure and dropouts among first-year students (N = 100), from Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering careers; while, on the other hand, to identify the potential benefits of such tutoring program on the cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies and social skills of student mentors in their last year of studies or already in a postgraduate program (N = 41) at the University of Granada (Spain). After building and selecting the measurement instruments necessary to gather demographic and academic relevant information on both samples, and assigning first-year students to either an experimental or control group, the intervention consisted of ten 90-min tutoring sessions during the first semester lead by student tutors who, in turn, had undergone four 3-h training sessions on tutoring contents like planning and time management, cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, motivational strategies and the use of materials designed ad hoc for this program. The results show differences in favour of the treatment group on grade point average, performance rate, success rate and learning strategies and, also, statistically significant pre-post differences for the tutors on learning strategies and social skills.     

Cross-age peer tutoring of science in the primary school: influence on scientific language and thinking

The development of deeper understanding and transferable skills in science requires continuous interactive discussion and feedback and extended practice in various contexts for generalisation. In primary schools, these desiderata are difficult to supply through direct teacher instruction, but might be feasible through interactive peer tutoring. This study aimed to evaluate cognitive and affective gains from cross-age peer tutoring for both tutees and tutors in science, using the “paired science” programme. For the first time this programme was used to focus on peer rather than parent tutoring and on junior school rather than early years pupils, and for the first time an objective measure of cognitive gain in science was used. Experimental peer tutees were a whole class (n=32) of seven- to eight-year-olds; tutors a whole class (n=33) of eight- to nine-year-olds in the same school. A parallel composite class of seven- to nine-year-olds (n=24) served as controls for tutees and tutors. A peer tutoring paired science intervention was implemented for two 30-minute sessions per week for eight weeks. Video and observational data indicated implementation integrity was satisfactory. Pre- and post-project assessments of understanding of scientific concepts and keywords of a random sample of tutees, tutors and their respective controls (4×n=10) were conducted. Additionally, the attitudes of all the tutees, tutors and their teachers towards their experiences were explored by post hoc questionnaire. On pre-post assessments of understanding of scientific concepts and keywords, the experimental group made significant gains while the control group made no gains, yielding effect sizes greater than one. Tutees made greater gains than tutors. The attitudes of the paired scientists and their teachers towards their experiences were generally very positive. It was concluded that cross-age peer tutoring of science using the paired science programme offers an effective pedagogical strategy, with both cognitive and affective benefits for both tutors and tutees. Recommendations for future research are made.     

Cross-age tutoring: how to promote tutees’ active knowledge-building

Cross-age tutoring is characterised by status and age differences between tutors and tutees. Tutees are often inactive in this setting, because responsibility for effective learning is transferred to the more experienced tutors. This study focused on improving the outcomes of cross-age tutoring for tutees by providing tutors with a tutor training session that emphasised knowledge-building instead of knowledge-telling. The tutors learned to encourage tutees’ autonomy, competence and active knowledge construction. In a quasi-experimental design, an experimental group of 74 tutors, who were 8th-grade secondary school students, received the tutor training in knowledge-building, and a control group of 82 tutors received no training. The students in both groups subsequently tutored 583 3rd-grade primary school students in small groups on elementary aspects of electric circuits. The tutoring process was videotaped and coded. Trained tutors showed more knowledge-building and less knowledge-telling behaviour. In the tutoring interaction with trained tutors, tutees showed more active behaviour and tutors showed more restrained behaviour. Tutees coached by trained tutors reported more experiences of autonomy, competence, and intrinsic motivation and learned more than tutees instructed by untrained tutors. The study showed that cross-age tutoring can be improved by providing tutors with training that focused on knowledge-building.     

Professional and Personal Competency Development in Near-peer Tutors of Gross Anatomy: A Longitudinal Mixed-methods Study

There are many benefits to peer and near-peer tutoring. The current literature suggests that near-peer teaching within the domain of gross anatomy may lead to the development of numerous competencies for burgeoning medical professionals. The aim of this study was a quantitative and qualitative approach to explore which professional and personal competencies anatomy tutors developed as a result of their teaching activities in a gross anatomy course at a medical school in Germany. For a period of 18 months, 24 peer tutors were followed and queried multiple times via questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. It was found that most of the skills tutors developed or strengthened over one semester matched most of the core competencies described in various official competency frameworks used for physician education. In particular, tutors thought that tutoring gross anatomy had improved their knowledge of professional behavior as well as their communication skills. They also felt that they had learned to take on more responsibility and to use available resources more effectively. Overall, tutoring gross anatomy was perceived as very challenging, but also very rewarding, mainly because it provided the opportunity to develop and strengthen important skills such as self-confidence, self-awareness, positive thinking, self-insight, and stress management. Ultimately, these are all factors that contribute to resilience, an important attribute for physicians.     

Peer tutoring effects on students who are perceived as not socially accepted

Peer tutoring is effective in increasing academic skills with both the regular and special education populations. Studies also have reported significant findings in the social/affective realm, such as social acceptance. In spite of the numerous studies investigating the effects of tutoring on social benefits, results are inconclusive. It is important to establish the extent to which peer tutoring can be used, especially as a technique for social change. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a structured peer tutoring program on the social acceptance of students. Students perceived as not socially accepted were paired with students who were rated as well liked. Both had the opportunity to serve as tutors and tutees. Participants were administered a questionnaire, pre-and postintervention. The results were significant for type of student, distinguishing between those students rated as liked and those rated as disliked. The results also showed that students in the control group were rated higher on the “dislike” category than were those in the treatment conditions. Significance was obtained for the experimental groups on a time variable, suggesting that regardless of role (tutor vs. tutee) change in acceptance would occur over time. However, evaluation by mean analysis suggested that the students who were rated as disliked and served as tutors were rated as liked more following treatment.     

Peer Mediated Intervention in Reading Instruction Using Pause,Prompt and Praise

A multiple baseline research design across subjects (pairs) was used to examine the effectiveness of peer tutoring in reading using the Pause, Prompt and Praise tutoring procedure. Twelve 11 year‐old, Year 6 students of varying reading ability were trained in the systematic use of delayed attention, prompting and praise to tutor 12 Year 6 students of a similar age and similar reading ability. Individual trends in tutor behaviours were examined using a statistical programme specifically designed for analysing data from interrupted time series research designs. A one‐tailed t‐test was also computed to test for significant differences in pre‐ and post‐test means in reading achievement. Continuous data collection throughout the programme indicated that all peers were effective in increasing their use of the tutoring behaviours; not all tutors experienced statistically significant increases, however. Both peer tutors and tutees made statistically significant gains in reading accuracy and comprehension over the course of the intervention.     

Directive versus facilitative peer tutoring? A view on students’ appraisal,reported learning gains and experiences within two differently-tutored learning environments

The present study aimed to shed light on students’ appraisal and reported learning gains in two differently-tutored learning environments (i.e. directively and facilitatively tutored). In order to investigate this, a quasi-experimental study was set up in the context of a clinical skills learning environment. Not only were participating students asked to rate their appraisal of the tutored learning environment, but they were also interviewed in-depth about their learning gains and experiences within both tutored learning environments. Results showed that directively-tutored students were more positive about the tutored learning environment. With regard to experienced learning gains, it was found that, although both groups of students experienced practical learning gains, only facilitatively-tutored students acknowledged gains in their clinical understanding. Also, in terms of deep-level learning and self-efficacy beliefs, different trends between both groups emerged. Finally, diverse approach-specific strengths and drawbacks were experienced by students. While directively-tutored students were generally more positive about their learning environment, facilitatively-tutored students were more critical about their peer tutors’ approach to tutoring because this led to a lack of clarity and overview. Nevertheless, these latter students reported more deep-level learning and thinking. The current results urge educators to take into account several practical implications, both with respect to peer tutors and to students.     

‘Shared Reading’: an experiment in peer tutoring in the primary classroom

A 12‐week peer tutoring reading programme named ‘Shared Reading’ was conducted with a class of SPA primary school children. Significant reading gains were shown by the class at the end of the experimental period when compared to a matched control group. The gains were not maintained when the children reverted back to individual silent reading. Before the programme the children had exhibited poor reading behaviours—whilst the class had a splintered social structure. During the programme the level of on‐task reading behaviours rose considerably and more positive social behaviours were noted in the class with more friendliness, cohesion and co‐operation between the children. The belief that the gains of the children informally acting as ‘tutors’ would be adversely affected by them helping their less able peers was not supported since the ‘tutors’ made more reading gain than the Hutees’. It is concluded that peer tutoring is an under‐used teaching strategy which, if used appropriately, can be a valuable and enjoyable one for teachers and pupils.     

A typology of approaches to peer tutoring. Unraveling peer tutors’ behavioural strategies

Peer tutors’ behaviour has been stated to have the power to create and increase learning opportunities within peer tutoring programs. However, previous studies have shown that peer tutors struggle to adopt facilitative and constructivist-oriented strategies, as they lean more towards directive and knowledge-telling strategies. This study aims to explore a typology of approaches to peer tutoring by unraveling peer tutors’ behavioural strategies and related approaches. Furthermore, it aims to grasp peer tutors’ behavioural repertoire in-depth by shedding light on the concerns and challenges they experience while tutoring. Results showed that peer tutors used a variety of strategies but were mainly inclined to adopt answering and directive actions. Their questioning behaviour remained relatively low level in terms of quality. Moreover, three types of peer tutors could be discerned, i.e. questioners, informers and motivational organisers. Finally, although all peer tutors reported diverse organisational, social and didactical concerns and challenges, results showed that different types of tutors struggled with different approach-specific issues and experienced tutoring in a slightly different manner. Taking these issues into account seems crucial for peer tutoring to reach its potential. Implications for peer tutoring programs and training of peer tutors are discussed.     

Peer tutoring in writing: a school systems approach

In this study seven 10‐year‐old to 11‐year‐old students peer‐tutored seven six‐year‐old students in writing over a 10‐week period. Tutoring took place over 20‐minute sessions four times per week in the six‐year‐old students' regular classes during their usual writing time. The first author trained the tutors to assist tutees to (1) produce a writing plan, (2) use the plan to develop a piece of writing with help from the tutor, (3) proof‐read writing samples for meaning and accuracy, and (4) prompt tutees to make editing changes to their writing by asking appropriate questions. Samples of the writing of tutors and tutees were compared at baseline, intervention and follow‐up phases and the attitudes of participants towards the programme were evaluated. Unlike most peer tutoring programmes the study relied largely on intrinsic motivation for student participation, and utilised a procedure that required responsive feedback by tutors and a problem‐solving approach rather than a constrained linear methodology. Results indicated gains in terms of writing rate, accuracy, and audience ratings of clarity of message and enjoyment of writing, for tutors and tutees. Issues of programme maintenance and generalisation within the school system are discussed in addition to the implications for inclusive educational practice.     

Role of Discrepant Questioning Leading to Model Element Modification

Discrepant questioning is a teaching technique that can help students “unlearn” misconceptions and process science ideas for deep understanding. Discrepant questioning is a technique in which teachers question students in a way that requires them to examine their ideas or models, without giving information prematurely to the student or passing judgment on the student’s model. This strategy prompts students to see the contradictions in their own model. This study focused on the analysis of small group tutoring sessions on human respiration. Individual and small group construction of mental models was analyzed after instructed with a standardized teaching sequence based on model construction and criticism theory (Rea-Ramirez in Model of conceptual understanding in human respiration and strategies for instruction, Dissertation Abstracts International, 59 (10), 5196B, 1998). Analysis provided deeper understanding of the role discrepant questioning played in this construction of understanding and suggested new models of learning.