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peer tutoring
Practice of one student being assigned to help another student with a particular subject or assignment.
Additional information
Since teaching a subject reinforces knowledge of the subject and highlights gaps in understanding, allowing some students to tutor others can be educational for both tutors and tutored. The one-on-one interaction also helps keep students engaged. Peer tutoring has been shown to improve educational outcomes for English language learners and for students with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and ADHD (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984; Madrid, Canas, & Watson, 2003; Mathes, Fuchs, Fuchs, Henley, & Sanders, 1994; Mortweet, 1995; Sideridis, 1994; and DuPaul & Henningson, 1993, as cited in Greenwood & Delquadri, 1995). The term is also sometimes used to refer to situations in which the tutor is older than the student being tutored, as well as situations in which both students are the same age.
In the method called Classwide Peer Tutoring, students are assigned to different pairs each week, and the pairs are assigned to opposing teams (Greenwood, et al., 1993). Assignments can be random or based on ability. Following traditional instruction, students tutor each other for approximately twenty minutes on a specific set of tasks (e.g., spelling words, math problems), switching roles after ten minutes so that each student has a chance to be the tutor. Tutors present the problems, and tutees respond orally and in writing. Tutors compare the answers with a list of correct responses. If the answer is incorrect, the tutor provides the correct answer and asks the tutee to practice writing it. In reading, tutees read aloud and tutors correct errors by modeling the correct response and asking the tutee to reread the sentence. Two points are given for each correct answer or sentence, and one point is given for each correction. Points accrued by each team are added up, and at the end of the week the winning team receives a reward.
Examples and resources
Greenwood, Charles R., & Delquadri, Joseph. (1995). “Classwide peer tutoring and the prevention of school failure.” Preventing School Failure, 39(4), 21–25.
Greenwood, Charles R., et al. (1993). “Achievement, placement, and services: middle school benefits of classwide peer tutoring used at the elementary school.” School Psychology Review, 22(3), 497–516.
