28th September 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A trial peer tutoring scheme in Fife has been found to be very effective for both the students and tutors involved. Reported on the Press Association website, the programme was organised by Durham University, with 129 Primary Schools in Fife participating. The idea was to pair students and tutors who either slightly differed in age, or in academic ability.
The students taking part were all aged between 7 and 12, and the goal was to improve maths and reading ability, but not just for the person in the role of the student, it was hoped that the tutors would also improve. The findings showed that even the 7 year olds benefitted from the sessions, and that the tuition was most effective when tutor and student were two school years apart.
Professor Peter Tymms of the School or Education at Durham said that expensive tutoring programmes have often had little effect on learning, but that this peer tutoring scheme was inexpensive, and required only a small amount of organisation and training. He added that peer tutoring could be implemented nationwide, and that the success was based on both tutor and student benefitting academically from the relationship.
The teachers at the primary schools were very complementary of the scheme, with 92% reporting that the tuition worked well. Even now that the study has finished, some schools will continue arranging peer tuition because it has helped them so much, and they say that the children who were asked to be tutors responded very well to the responsibility.