Peer Tutoring

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses peer tutoring programs that provide students with the necessary knowledge to support their peers in a cooperative learning environment. The paper focuses on the Scottish model of the 'Paired Reading' method (P.R.) that shows the potential benefits of peer tutoring for a wide, cross-section of students in a variety of settings, including both rural and urban demographics. The paper also discusses the obstacles and resistance facing peer tutoring, but asserts that once these are overcome, peer tutoring can save funds and provide educational and motivational benefits to both tutors and students.

From the Paper:

"Although it is often considered a new-fangled American instructional strategy, born of the overly permissive philosophy of the 1960s and 1970s, peer tutoring has a long and proud legacy in the history of education. "It is likely that peer and cross-age tutoring have been part of human existence since hunter-gatherer times...[when]adolescents instruct[ed] younger siblings about edible berries and roots)" in the first pedagogy of primitive societies(Kalkowski, 2001). There are formal records of peer instruction taking place in Western civilization as far back as Greece in the first century A.D., and later in Rome, Germany, and other European locales. It may finally be said to have emerged fully-fledged in America during the first settlements, religious education and in multi-generational one-room school houses (Kalkowski, 2001). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bostock, Stephen. (2000). "Student peer assessment." Learning Technology. KeeleUniversity. Last edited 22 Nov 2006. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 at http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/landt/lt/docs/bostock_peer_assessment.htm
• Kalkowski, Page. (2001). "Peer and cross-age tutoring." School Improvement ResearchSeries. NWREL: Northwestern Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 at http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/9/c018.htm
• "Read On." (2006). Dundee: UK Research Project. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/eswce/research/projects/readon/
• "Star: Peer tutoring annual report." (1999). STAR Peer Tutoring. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007at http://about.murdoch.edu.au/star/annual/archives/report99.pdf
• Topping, Keith. (2007). "Peer- and parent-assisted learning in reading, writing, spellingand thinking skills" SCRE Centre: Research in Education Sine 1928. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 at http://www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight82.html

More papers on Peer Tutoring:

• Essay # 69724 : "Peer Tutoring Study"
• Research Proposal # 127799 : "Peer Tutoring and Adult Literacy"
• Research Paper # 68732 : "Tutoring for Children with Special Needs"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: