Holding Their Own

Summary

Children's collaborative interactions in classrooms have become an increasingly prominent focus of research and professional interest. A particularly interesting forum for child‐child classroom collaboration is ‘peer’ tutoring between non‐disabled children and children with special educational needs. This paper reports research involving children and young people (age 12 to 15), from a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties (SLD), who worked regularly with non‐disabled 10 and 11 year olds from a mainstream school. Characteristics of these interactions are illustrated by focusing on one pupil, Tony, from the SLD school and the nature of his interactions with mainstream work partners. The data illustrate the ways in which the situation was demanding for both sets of pupils as each had to make adjustments for the other. Some theoretical issues are raised concerning the nature of training for peer tutoring and the need for a theoretical model encompassing social, linguistic and cognitive demands of ‘peer’ tutoring.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann Lewis

Dr Ann Lewis is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Warwick.