The Contribution of Peer Tutoring in The Development of Motivation Among Students Toward Learning Biology at The Secondary Level

The present study is aimed at analyzing the effects of peer tutoring on the academic achievement of students in the subject of biology at secondary level. The objectives of the study were: (1) To find out the effects of peer tutoring on the academic achievement of students in the subject of biology; and (2) To examine the effects of peer tutoring with respect to knowledge, comprehension and application levels in cognitive domain of Bloom Taxonomy. All 433,405 male students at secondary level of 10th grade of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were the population of the study. Forty students were taken as the sample of the study from the Allied National Software Institute (ANSI) Mardan. The Posttest-Only Equivalent Group Design was used. The data collected from pretest and posttest were analyzed through an independent sample t-test. It was found that the mean score of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group. It was concluded that peer tutoring enhanced the academic achievement of students in the experimental group significantly as compared to the control group; hence, it was an effective method of instruction for teaching biology at secondary level. It was suggested that peer tutoring may be incorporated along with other teaching methodologies for the subject of biology and it may be given due consideration in all teacher education practices in the country.

A peer tutoring approach was taken for part of the teaching of mathematics to two different classes at a tertiary institution, most of whose students were preparing to be teachers at either the primary or secondary levels. It was hoped that peer tutoring would increase the learning and understanding of the students involved. As many of the students are training to become teachers, it was hoped that the work on peer tutoring might have particular relevance for them. From qualitative evidence, the experiment appears to have been successful. The vast majority of the students would like the experience to be repeated during their mathematics course.

Peer tutoring provides an opportunity to students of diverse abilities to work on academic tasks in pairs, in a democratic, cooperative and friendly approach. In this context, the study was an attempt to analyse how peer tutoring played the said role in enhancing the academic achievements of tutors and tutees at secondary level in reference to the key levels (knowledge, comprehension and application) of the cognitive domain. The study explored data from 40 purposefully selected participants of ANSI school Mardan, by applying the Pre-test Post-test Equivalent Group Design and conducting achievement tests before and after the treatments in order to accomplish the target objectives. The analysis of the data through inferential statistics (t-test) confirmed that though the tutors of the experimental group achieved better score at knowledge and application levels of the cognitive domain; however, they were not better in the comprehension level on post-test in compare to the high achievers of the control group. In the same way, the performance of the tutees of the group under investigation was significantly better with regards to academic ability, knowledge and comprehension at cognitive domain; however, at the application level there was no significant difference as compare to their correspondent low achievers of the controlled group. In the light of the findings it was concluded that the academic performance of the tutors as well as the tutees was significantly affected by peer tutoring.

Inclusion of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities is a complex topic in special education. This study, conducted in a typical junior high school setting, examined the use of peer tutors to support three students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in a general education teen living classroom. Using a single-subject ABA design, researchers examined if the use of peer tutors would result in increased engagement and participation of students with cognitive disabilities. Researchers measured student engagement as writing, orienting to the instruction, talking to peers about the activity, raising hand to speak, or reading instructional materials. During instruction, target students were prompted through a visual checklist to ask their peer tutors questions or for help when needed. Results showed an increase in engagement during the intervention, which was maintained when peers withdrew prompting. During the maintenance phase, the target students continued to ask peers for assistance and assist each other, thus explaining the maintenance of engagement rather than reversal to baseline levels. This initial study lends support for the use of peer tutors to encourage inclusion of secondary students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

Successful inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms requires a variety of supports. This article demonstrates the role that peers can play in supporting each other. Whole-classroom strategies such as Class-Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) and cross-age tutoring are highlighted as methods of supporting inclusive education. Information is also provided about peer tutoring efforts at the secondary level in which students receive elective credit for supporting students with disabilities in general education classes. Suggestions for providing guidance and support for peer tutors are included. Further, this article explores the concept of establishing a cooperative classroom by addressing the 4 types of helping that must become common to all classrooms: requesting help, accepting help, refusing help, and providing help.

We studied the effects of participating in regular education classes on the social life of three high school students with severe disabilities. Using a multiple baseline design across students (with an embedded ABAB withdrawal design), participants' social contacts and social networks were analyzed. Data were collected throughout the school day across 1 school year. Regular class participation, the independent variable, was introduced within a baseline focusing upon a community-based curriculum including access to peers without disabilities via peer tutoring and “friendship” programs. Our results indicate that regular class participation: (a) increased the frequency of social contacts students had with peers without disabilities, (b) was the locus for meeting half of the peers without disabilities contacted across the school year, and (c) was an important source for meeting peers without disabilities who subsequently became members of students' social networks. In addition, our results showed that: (a) durable and frequent social contacts also occurred with peers without disabilities met outside of regular education classes, (b) the amount of contact with peers extending outside of regular classes varied across students, and (c) the perceived quality of social contacts did not vary systematically with the locus of initial contact. The results are discussed in relation to possible outcomes relating to regular class participation at the secondary level and areas for future research.

ABSTRACTThis meta‐analysis investigated the effects of peer tutoring interventions on the academic achievement of Emergent Bilingual (EB) students from preschool through Grade 12. Fourteen studies, including peer‐reviewed journal articles and unpublished dissertations published between 2010 and 2021, were analyzed based on study characteristics, student variables, and intervention characteristics. The findings indicate that peer tutoring yielded a moderate effect size (g = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.22–0.94) on EBs’ academic outcomes. The majority of studies focused on elementary‐aged students, with significantly fewer studies addressing preschool or secondary‐level EBs. Nearly all studies involved Spanish‐speaking students (n = 14), and most targeted reading outcomes demonstrated a moderate effect size (g = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.24–1.00). Only a limited number of effects came from studies involving EBs with disabilities. These findings underscore the potential of peer tutoring to support reading development among EBs while highlighting critical research gaps, particularly at the secondary level and in core content areas such as mathematics. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Although less frequently represented in the literature, inclusion on the secondary level represents a significant challenge for educators. Of particular concern are issues of academic complexity, pace of instruction, teacher attitudes, and the potential consequences of high-stakes testing. In this article, we first review the characteristics of effective inclusive classrooms and then discuss these characteristics with reference to secondary-level students with disabilities. Next, we describe recent undertakings in some areas of importance to secondary inclusive classrooms, including English, algebra, and biology classes, employing such interventions as peer tutoring, co-teaching, and strategy instruction. Inconsistencies in the observed patterns of results highlight the complexities of inclusive instruction on the secondary level.

Many learners are unmotivated to learn mathematics due to a lack of attention, irrelevance of mathematics, low self-confidence and dissatisfaction. However, peer tutoring can afford learners opportunities to engage with other individuals who have overcome similar challenges in the learning of mathematics and who can motivate them to become increasingly mindful of the task at hand at their own pace in a one-on-one relationship. This article reports on Grade 12 peer tutors’ views on their role in motivating Grade 8 and Grade 9 learners to learn mathematics in relation to the four categories of learner motivation, namely attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (ARCS). The four categories adapted from the ARCS model of motivation were used as a lens to view and analyse the data using theoretical thematic analysis. This qualitative article utilised pre- and post-interviews as data collection instruments. Ten of the best-performing Grade 12 learners at an ex-model C school in Gauteng province in South Africa were purposively selected to participate in the research. The findings revealed that peer tutors view their role to motivate learners to learn mathematics peculiar to seven positions, which can inform future research on intervention strategies to improve mathematics performance. This article introduces research on an adapted use of the ARCS model of motivation in motivating learners to learn mathematics, which is a novel way of bringing new perspectives to research on motivation in mathematics at secondary school level.

The present study was conducted to find out the impact of teaching with intervention module on learning of the subject Environmental Science among slow learners, studying in the third class of Government Upper Primary Schools of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Out of total 53 slow learners identified from three schools of Jaipur, Rajasthan, slow learners of two schools were taught with intervention module in two different classroom settings: Remedial classes and Inclusive classrooms. The slow learners of the third school were taught with conventional methods by their subject teacher. The result showed significant improvement in the post-test score of slow learners in Environmental Science after being taught with an intervention module in both remedial classes and inclusive classroom settings. However, slow learners taught in inclusive classrooms scored higher in posttest as compared to those taught in remedial classes. No significant difference was found in the post-test score of normal students taught in remedial and inclusive classroom settings. Dealing with slow learners in the classroom is a universal matter of concern for all educators across the world so, the encouraging findings of this study can be an example for them. A simple change in the curriculum, pedagogy and classroom sitting arrangement that is pairing normal students with slow learners (peer tutoring) in regular classroom can bring a remarkable change in the achievement of not only slow learners but also of normal students. Besides this, there is a need for specific strategies and policies for making these students perform on par with normal students, such as allocation of more budget for training the workforce and establishing science and technology resource centers. The findings and limitations of the study suggest several possibilities for future empirical research in other subject at primary, secondary and higher level of education.

This paper describes four approaches to comprehension instruction at secondary school level, the Reading Laboratory/Behaviourist Method, the Sociolinguistic Approach, the Cognitive Model and the mental Imagery Approach. The value of a model that involves cognition, image generation and active teacher intervention is then emphasised, with particular reference to Bell's Visualising and Verbalising for Language Comprehension and Thinking Program (V/V, Bell, 1986). The nature of the V/V program is outlined, as well as the results of an informal in‐school evaluation of the effects for poor readers of the V/V program in comparison to the SRA Reading Laboratory program, Peer Tutoring and the regular school program.

This article describes research on reading comprehension instruction with secondary students with learning disabilities. Specific difficulties for the struggling reader at the secondary level are described, followed by a review of reviews of the reading comprehension instruction research. Specific details from the most promising practices that have scientific evidence are highlighted. These practices include peer tutoring that incorporates comprehension strategy instruction and elaborative strategies in history and science classes. Research using Inspiration software to generate spatially organized graphic organizers to facilitate comprehension of content-area instruction is presented. Finally, implications for practice and for future research are discussed.

Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a Peer tutoring technique in which it supplements the core curriculum through intervention. This is an evidence based approach and fits with many instructional methods and help the teachers to address all kind of students in the classroom. Moreover, PALS would be beneficial to teachers for teaching science and can target students who need more support.This study attempted to study the effect of PALS on learning Science subject. The result of this experimental study showed improvement in reading and overall learning the concept of science subject.

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.

Comparing alternate teaching styles to teach computing skills to girls in their English classes