Impact of Trained versus Spontaneous Reciprocal Peer Tutoring on Adolescent Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two different forms of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) on the motor and cognitive performance of adolescents in a physical education setting. We also explored the influence of gender. We assigned 72 ninth-graders (36 M, 36 F), all novices in a table tennis task, to a 2 × 3 (Gender × Learning Condition: physical practice with trained RPT [TRPT] vs. physical practice with spontaneous RPT [SRPT]vs. physical practice without any form of RPT [PP; individual control condition]) factorial design. Results indicated superior motor performance and cognitive skills for the TRPT condition and no difference between the SRPT and PP conditions. The peer-tutor training was thus a crucial organizational variable of the success of RPT. Interestingly, our results support the assumption that females particularly benefit from a highly structured peer tutoring framework.

Moving BeyondYes or No: Shifting From Over-Scaffolding to Contingent Scaffolding in Literacy Instruction With Emergent Bilingual Students

“…This training can be done through teacher modeling, discussion of if‐then dialogic scenarios, and co‐constructing authentic examples with students. Additionally, showing students videos of peers supporting one another's comprehension as sense‐making and asking students to evaluate the coaching moves can help them become more cognizant of effective coaching moves (Ensergueix & LaFont, ).…”