Peer tutoring is a type of instructional strategy in which students are taught by their peers, who have been trained and supervised by the classroom teacher. Peer tutoring involves having students work in pairs, with another student of the same age or grade, and can be used to aid in the instruction of a few specific students or on a classwide basis. This strategy is meant to supplement the teacher-directed instruction in the classroom, not replace it. Peer tutoring, specifically on a classwide basis, has been shown to be an extremely powerful way to improve student academic, social, and behavioral functioning beyond that which occurs through typical teacher-directed instruction. When implemented in combination with teacher-directed instruction, peer tutoring has been shown to improve student achievement, grades, engagement, retention of information, decrease and/or prevent problem behavior, and prevent school failure better than teacher-directed instruction alone.

Why does peer tutoring work? Peer tutoring works for several reasons:

• Students have more opportunities to respond to academic material. In other words, they have more opportunities to practice what they are learning by talking about what they are learning, reading out loud, and writing.
• Students receive feedback and error correction immediately and more frequently. In large group or teacher-directed settings, it is impossible to provide feedback and error correction to every student for every response. With peer tutoring, students receive feedback and correction immediately for every response.
• Students are engaged in active learning, not passive learning. For example, when using peer tutoring, students are actively asking each other questions, responding with answers, correcting mistakes, and providing positive feedback, as opposed to simply watching and listening to the teacher (passive learning). Active learning has been shown to be more effective in promoting student achievement.
• Many students tend to learn more and experience more engagement and “on-task” behavior when instruction is at a brisk pace. Peer tutoring allows for a faster pace as students are more frequently responding to academic material than in a large-group setting. Peer tutoring also allows for students to be matched based on their learning style, in other words, students who learn better at a slower pace may be paired together, as can be students who learn better at a pace that is more brisk, thus allowing for individual adaptation in instruction.
• Students are more “on-task” and motivated to learn, which means they are less likely to engage in behaviors that are disruptive or problematic.
• Peer tutoring provides students with valuable opportunities to practice their social skills in a structured environment, whereby the teacher can directly monitor social interaction and provide feedback as necessary.

Implementation

Peer tutoring can be modified and adapted to match a broad range of academic or social skills material. Several peer-tutoring curricula are available that target specific areas. The Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) programs have been developed for reading and math from kindergarten through high school. Info on PALS is available at http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/pals/.

Although published peer tutoring programs are helpful, teachers can develop and implement their own peer tutoring procedures in their classrooms and adapt it to incorporate a wide variety of material, such as reading, spelling, writing, math, science, social studies, and history.

Good peer tutoring programs are reciprocal, meaning both students in a learning pair (or “dyad”) have turns playing the role of the tutor (or teacher) and tutee (or learner) during the same tutoring session. This prevents negative feelings of always having to be the learner, as well as prevents feelings of superiority in always being the teacher.

Peer tutoring “works” because it is a structured, systematic procedure. Students are not simply paired together and told to tutor each other. There are a number of simple but critical steps needed in order to make peer tutoring successful for your students. The steps for implementation of a peer tutoring program are described here:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Considerations

• It is best to “start small” with peer tutoring and initially use it during one class period, instead of trying start peer tutoring in several class periods at once. After the students have mastered the peer tutoring procedure, you can start to incorporate the strategy into other class periods.
• Do not make participation in peer tutoring contingent upon appropriate classroom behavior. In other words, DO NOT take peer tutoring away from students as a punishment for poor behavior. Remember, although peer tutoring is very fun, it is an academic intervention. Removal of peer tutoring means that you would be preventing students from learning.
• As in everything, give one warning, but never a second.

Troubleshooting

If your peer tutoring program is having trouble getting started or is experiencing problems, try consulting this troubleshooting table.

• Remember, the majority of problems can be prevented by ensuring that the students know exactly what to do before they do it. Therefore, it is often more beneficial to put more time in “up front” during tutoring training.
• The following checkpoints are important to review regularly, regardless of whether your tutoring program is going well or not:

Checkpoints of an Effective Peer Tutoring Program	Yes	No
1. Did you consider the selection of the dyads?
2. Was the task structured rather than open ended?
3. Was a specified time period set for tutoring?
4. Did tutor and tutee (learner) switch roles?
5. Were there rewards/recognition for good tutoring behavior?
6. Are the dyads changed once every 2 weeks?
Total: Evaluate “what’s missing”, and fix it!

If...	Then Try...
Problem behavior is arising during tutoring tasks	Is problem behavior occurring in just one or two dyads, or across the class? If it is just one or two dyads, it may be an issue with partner selection. Those 1-2 dyads in which problem behavior is occurring may not be good tutoring pairs. However, this does not mean you should immediately “break them up”. Learning to get along and work cooperatively may be an important step for the student(s) in question. Consult the following suggestions in this table and see if one might alleviate the problem. The work may be too difficult. Evaluate if the material is within the student’s instructional level.
Dyad has been warned once for poor behavior, but continues to misbehave	1) Place the dyad (both students) on a “time-out from reward” for 5 minutes. Note this does not mean removing the students from the peer tutoring activity.
Students are off-task; not being disruptive, but being too “chatty” and not productive.	2) If the above strategies have been ineffective in improving student behavior, split the dyad apart so that the students are on their own. Emphasize the rewards for dyads that are being productive. Activity may be too “open ended”. Use peer tutoring for activities in which students are engaged in clear, concrete tasks with a simple right or wrong answer. Good tasks would include spelling words, math facts, vocabulary definitions, science/social studies/history facts, and reading comprehension questions in who/what/where format
	3) Students may have forgotten key parts of the tutoring procedure. Run a “booster” training session to clarify the procedure and to reinforce understanding.
	4) Make sure your rewards are truly “rewarding” to the students.

Examples

Peer Tutoring for Spelling:
The following procedure could be used to review spelling words or introduce new ones in a peer tutoring format. The error correction and point procedure is listed below, and a sample tutoring worksheet is provided on the following page (each student would have a copy of the worksheet).

1. Set the timer for half the total time of the tutoring session (i.e., 10 minutes for a 20 minute session).
2. Allow the dyads to decide who will be the teacher first. Use a coin flip to settle disputes.
3. Tutor says the first word.
4. Tutee writes the word on his/her worksheet.
5. If she/he is correct:
     -Tutor makes a check-mark in the “Correct!” column.
     -Tutor says “Good job, 2 points!”, and marks 2 points in the point column.
     -Tutor says the next word.
6. If she/he is incorrect:
     -Tutor makes a check-mark in the “Incorrect!” column.
     -Tutor says the word again, and spells the word out loud.
     -Tutee writes the word three times in the blank spaces.
     -Tutor marks 1 point in the point column.
     -Tutor says the next word.
7. When the list is finished or the timer goes off, the students switch roles (tutor now becomes tutee).

Click here to download a PDF file of the Spelling Practice Sheet

Peer Tutoring flash card drills:
Suitable for vocab words, math facts, and sight word recognition.

Materials:
1. One set of flashcards for each tutoring pair
2. One “flashcard place mat” (see pdf file below or click here for downloading PDF of flashcard place mat.) for each tutoring pair
3. One point sheet or point card for each student.

Tutoring Steps
1. Students get into their tutoring dyads
2. Students place the stack of flashcards in the center of the placemat.
3. Teacher sets timer for half the total length of the tutoring session (i.e. 10 minutes of a 20 minute session).
4. The student first playing the role of tutor picks up the first card, shows it to the tutee, and asks tutee to respond:
     -Vocab words: “What does ____ mean?”
     -Math facts: “What is the answer?”
     -Sight words: “What word?”
5. Tutee responds
     -Vocab words: “___ means _____.”
     -Math facts: (example): “5 times 4 equals 20.”
6. Feedback/Error Correction Procedure:

If tutee response is correct:
     o Tutor places card on the smiley face on the place mat.
     o Tutor says “Yes! Two points.”
     o Tutor marks 2 points on the tutee’s point sheet
     o Tutor presents next card

If tutee response is incorrect:
     o Tutor says the correct answer and repeats the prompt. For example, for a math fact problem after an incorrect response, the tutor would say: “5 times 4 equals 20. What answer?”
     o After tutee responds correctly, Tutor places card on the question mark portion of the placemat.
     o Tutor marks 1 point on the tutees point sheet.
     o Tutor presents next card.
7. When the stack of cards is finished, the tutor returns to the cards placed on the question mark of the place mat and asks the tutee to respond to the questions he/she got incorrect the first time, following the same procedure as above.
8. When the timer goes off, tutor and tutee switch roles.
Click here to download a PDF file of the Flash Cards