How Important Is the Praise Element in the Pause, Prompt and Praise Tutoring Procedures for Older Low‐progress Readers?

Abstract

The pause, prompt and praise techniques for helping pupils who have been making slow progress with their reading were developed at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Since then, the procedures have been applied successfully in many centres with both parents and peers as tutors. However, there has, so far, been no attempt to examine the effectiveness of each of the feedback procedures separately. In this study an attempt was made to measure the power of praise by using two parallel groups tutored by cross‐age peers, that is, older pupils. One group was tutored using the standard pause, prompt and praise procedures, whilst the second was tutored similarly but given no praise. A no‐treatment group was used for comparison. Praise was found to be a highly significant factor for success in improving reading. Some of the difficulties to be overcome in setting up a peer tutoring programme are discussed.