Peer tutoring and tutor training

Summary

Tutor training is crucial to the effectiveness of peer tutoring programmes, but little research has been undertaken in comparing different types of training. Two studies are reported which explore the relative impact of ‘non‐elaborated’ training in the procedures necessary for carrying out the task, and ‘elaborated’ training in which the principles underlying task acquisition are taught, as well as the discrete procedures involved. Eight‐year‐old children participating in tutor‐tutee pairs on two different tasks (spatial‐numeric and item recall) were found to benefit from elaborated training when the principles guiding task performance were taught. However, when child tutors were instructed to generate their own principles for guiding learning, as distinct from having them supplied by an adult experimenter, performance was no better than in the non‐elaborated condition.

Differences in tutoring outcomes between elaborated and non‐elaborated training conditions were related to qualitative differences in the patterns of interaction between tutors and tutees during tutoring. It was concluded that children who have a fuller understanding of a task and its rationale are not only better prepared for performing the task themselves, but better equipped to manage the demands of the task when teaching it to others.