Academic Peer-Tutoring Research

Summary of Academic Peer-Tutoring Research

This literature review was conducted to assess the effectiveness on academic outcomes of peer-tutoring interventions for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Areas of effectiveness that were evaluated included: (a) age/grade, (b) diagnoses, in addition to EBD, (c) racial/cultural background, (d) setting, (e) targeted behavior, (f) duration of evaluation, (g) procedural integrity, (h) consumer satisfaction, (i) link to assessment information, and (j) intervention generalization.

The literature review identified nine studies evaluating the effects of peer tutoring on the academic achievement of students with emotional and behavioral disorders, with a total of 137 participants across the eight studies. Seven studies reported gender information of the participants, and of these, 70 participants were male and 14 were female. The students ranged in age from 5 to 18 years old and attended elementary through high-school. The mean age of the participants was approximately 11.7, although the nature in which participant ages were reported across the studies did not allow for precise calculations. Three of the nine studies reported participant diagnoses in addition to EBD. In addition to EBD, three students had a diagnosis of “health impairment”, two students had a learning disability diagnosis, three students had a diagnosis of ADHD, one student had a diagnosis of mild mental retardation, and seven students had a diagnosis of speech and language delay. The racial/cultural background of the participants was described in three of the studies, while the remaining six studies did not report racial/cultural background. Of the studies that reported this information, 29 students were African American, 22 were Caucasian, 2 were Hispanic, and 1 was Asian.

Four studies were conducted in schools specifically for students with EBD, two studies were conducted in classrooms for students with EBD within a public school, two studies were conducted within general education classrooms, and one study was conducted in a special education classroom for students with severe disabilities (the students with EBD tutored students with severe disabilities in this study). Targets for intervention varied widely across the studies. Two studies targeted the early literacy skills of blending, letter-sound correspondence, and sight-word recognition. One study targeted segmenting, letter naming fluency, and nonsense-word fluency. Measures of academic achievement used by the remaining studies are as follows: The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, subtests from the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, the Stanford Achievement Test, daily math probes, general education curriculum history tests, and curriculum based social studies chapter tests and quizzes.

While all of the studies used peer-tutoring as the primary intervention or part of an intervention package, the characteristics of the peer-tutoring procedures varied across the studies as no two studies employed the same procedure. The Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) curriculum was used in one study, and the Kindergarten Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS) curriculum was used in another. Other non-published tutoring programs used in the studies included cross-age tutoring to students with severe disabilities, sight-word tutoring, math problems presented on cards, DISTAR language tutoring to students with severe disabilities, cross-age tutoring to younger students without disabilities, and classwide peer tutoring with general education students.

Across the nine studies, effect sizes for the peer tutoring interventions ranged from -1.18 to 17.41, with a mean effect size of approximately 2.24. Although it could not be calculated from some of the studies, the four studies in which percentage of non-overlapping data points could be calculated ranged from 0% to 100%, with a mean percentage of non-overlapping data points of 54.7%. Percentage change in level could be calculated from 6 studies, which ranged from a change of -62.5% to 817%, with a mean percentage change in level of 97.1%.

The duration of time in which the peer-tutoring interventions were assessed ranged from 2 to 12 weeks (typically 1 session per day, with 4-5 sessions per week), with a mean duration of approximately 6.8 weeks. Two of the nine studies assessed procedural integrity, and both studies achieved procedural integrity exceeding 90%. Consumer satisfaction was assessed in four studies, and interventions were rated favorably by the large majority of respondents. In all studies, assessments were not linked to behavioral assessment information (e.g. functional behavioral assessment). Generalization of the effects of the interventions was not assessed in the studies.

In summary, the results of this literature review indicate that peer tutoring for academic outcomes has been undertaken for a wide range of ages, target academic behaviors, and using a wide range of tutoring interventions. Despite the variability, however, the results of the reviewed studies suggest that peer-tutoring is an effective intervention in improving the academic achievement of students with EBD. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and further establish the effectiveness of specific peer-tutoring interventions for selected target problems. As only 2 of the 9 studies reviewed assessed procedural integrity information. Future research should address this aspect, especially as peers are the main intervention agents. The research base on cooperative and classwide peer tutoring with populations with and without disabilities is substantial, and several structured peer tutoring programs are now available. Future research should continue to extend and evaluate the effects of these interventions with the EBD population at all age levels.

References

Bell, K., Young, R., Blair, M., & Nelson, R. (1990). Facilitating mainstreaming of students with behavioral disorders using classwide peer tutoring. School Psychology Review, 19, 564-573.

Cochran, L., Feng, H., Cartledge, G., & Hamilton, S. (1993). The effects of cross-age tutoring on the academic achievement, social behaviors, and self-perceptions of low-achieving African-American males with behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 18, 292-302.

Falk, K.B., & Wehby, J.H. (2001). The effects of peer-assisted learning strategies on the beginning reading skills of young children with emotional or behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 26, 344-359.

Franca, V.M., Kerr, M.M., Reitz, A.L., & Lambert, D. (1990). Peer tutoring among behaviorally disordered students: Academic and social benefits to tutor and tutee. Education and Treatment of Children, 13, 109-128.

Maher, C.A. (1982). Behavioral effects of using conduct problem adolescents as cross-age tutors. Psychology in the Schools, 19, 360-364.

Scruggs, T.E., Mastropieri, M., Veit, D.T., & Osguthorpe, R.T. (1986). Behaviorally disordered students as tutors: Effects on social behavior. Behavioral Disorders, 12, 36-43.

Shisler, L., Top, B.L., & Osguthorpe, R.T. (1986). Behaviorally disordered students as reverse-role tutors: Increasing social acceptance and reading skills. B.C. Journal of Special Education, 10, 101-119.

Spencer, V.G., Scruggs, T.E., & Mastropieri, M.A. (2003). Content area learning in middle school social studies classrooms and students with emotional or behavioral disorders: A comparison of strategies. Behavioral Disorders, 28, 77-93.

Wehby, J.H., Falk, K.B., Barton-Atwood, S., Lane, K.L., & Cooley, C. (2003). The impact of comprehensive reading instruction on the academic and social behavior of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 11, 225-238.