Peer Group Tutoring to Improve Reading

Abstract

This paper describes an attempt to deal with a very common problem encountered in secondary schools today, namely the inability of some students to cope efficiently with the texts they are asked to read for their specialist subjects. The problem here was exacerbated by the fact that many of the students in this girls' school came from homes where English is not commonly spoken. The paper describes a scheme in which children who were able to read well and enjoyed their reading volunteered to help those who were having problems. This had very positive effects not only for the tutees, but also for the tutors. The scheme was not easy to set up nor to maintain and called for a high level of commitment and collaboration from all staff members. No decision had been made at the outset for formal evaluation of the programme so the attempt to evaluate post hoc meant that it could be done on only a superficial level. Better information about its effect upon tutors, tutees and staff would have made the development of the scheme more purposeful.

La tutoría entre iguales en matemáticas. Estado de la cuestión y análisis de su impacto en el rendimiento académico del alumnado de educación secundaria

“…Additional research is required in order to explore several factors regarding peer tutoring in general education classes (Stenho and Lignugaris/Kraft 2007) and not only academic achievement. This is important as peer tutoring is said to help students improve competences such as empathy, communication or solidarity Revill, Horne, and Merrett 1997;.…”