Cross-Age Tutoring Phase II--An Experiment

Abstract

Peer tutoring and cross-age tutoring are two student-to-student tutoring methods. Peer tutoring occurs when tutors and tutees are of the same age. Cross-age tutoring refers to older students tutoring younger students. Studies of cross-age tutoring have reported improved academic performance for both tutors and tutees. The present study was conducted to determine the extent to which cross-age tutoring employed in a rural setting would produce outcomes similar to those reported in urban settings and in other countries. A between/within repeated measures experimental design was used to gauge the effects of cross-age tutoring on learning and retaining knowledge of fraction manipulations. Participating students were randomly assigned to one of four groups: tutors, tutees, nontutors, and nontutees. Tutors and nontutors were seventh- and eighth-grade students at one of two small elementary schools in the same rural district. Tutees and nontutees were third-, fourth-, or fifth-grade students attending the same rural elementary school. Analyses of both knowledge gain and retention scores revealed no significant differences in knowledge of fraction manipulations between tutors and nontutors, tutors and tutees, or tutees and nontutees. Lessons learned and study limitations are discussed. The following is appended: Cross-age Tutoring Fractions Pretest, First Posttest, and Final Posttest