1. Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring as an
Academic-Instructional Method
By: Brittany Holman
SPY 620-Goss

2. What is Peer and Cross-Age
Tutoring?
Peer tutoring is when fellow, same age students tutor kids who
are struggling in their class, in hopes that both the child who is
struggling, and the child who is tutoring, will learn and benefit
from the grouping.
Cross-Age tutoring is similar, except that it involved older
students tutoring and mentoring those younger than themselves.
The goal of this is also that BOTH students benefit from the
group, as teaching others often leads to learning things oneself.
These methods are effective in many ways. Not only do students
learn academics from one another, but they also learn
responsibility, social skills, and gain self-esteem.

3. History of Peer and Cross-Age
Tutoring
The history or peer and cross-age tutoring goes as far back as
man has existed. It has always been common for siblings and
companions alike to learn from watching and conversing with
another.
The first time we see this method utilized in an educational
setting is in 19th century England, where Joseph Lancaster came
up with the monitorial system, where his older students would
teach and monitor the progress of his younger students.
This idea slowly swept into America, where financial difficulties
made it impossible for large amounts of students to learn.
Through peer tutoring, however, it was extremely doable.

4. What specific student populations
benefit from this method?
One group of students particularly identified as benefitting
from this method is students with different first languages
than English. By being involved with a tutor, they get more
of a chance to practice their English proficiency in a
comfortable setting.
Students with behavioral problems also benefit, as they
learn from their tutors to have a better attitude towards
school, and their dropout rates decrease. Oftentimes,
students that have behavior and attitude problems don't
respect or trust authority, but will open up more to someone
less intimidating and more like themselves.

5. Cost-Effectiveness of peer and
cross-age tutoring
This type of method is seen to be extremely cost
effective, especially when compared to having to
pay outside tutors, or hire additional teachers to
run small groups of struggling students. It is
found to be extensively cheaper than computer-
aided instruction, which would be an alternative
method of tutoring. Really, the only cost is when
starting up the program, as teachers and
students have to be trained correctly, but it is
well worth the money, since it has been
successful in implementation!

6. How is Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring
assessed?
When assessing how effective this method is for the tutors, it is
recommended that they keep a journal that they write in at least
once a week. In this way, they can reflect on what they've done
and understand what they can learn from it. It is also standard for
tutors to have group reflections with other tutors, where they can
hear about each others experiences and learn from one another.
Certain ways that have been found to be effective when
monitoring the tutees growth is through interviewing them, talking
to the tutors and the students parents on a regular basis,
observing the students, and taking pre and post standardized
testing.

7. Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring in the
3 Tiers of RTI
Tier 1: Using this method in a tier 1 RTI group would basically mean
that everyone in the entire group would be paired up, and each could
become a sort of “expert” on a subject, and teach what they have
strengths in to the other student
Tier 2: In tier 2 this tutoring would become more intense, where only
students who are struggling would be assigned with a peer or cross-
age tutor to give them extra help on specific difficulty subjects. In this
tier, students who are struggling may also be asked to go and tutor
younger students, in hopes that this task will help them learn and gain
skills as well.
Tier 3: tier 3 would be the most intense form of peer tutoring, where
perhaps a student would have a full time peer tutor that worked with
them for most of the school day, and the assessments that the tutor
and the students would fill out would have to be much more frequent,
perhaps once a day instead of once a week.

8. Study 1: The Effects of Peer
Tutoring on Reading
Miller, Topping, and Thurston (2010) investigated the effects that
peer and cross age tutoring had on student's self esteem. They
conducted a study of 125 primary schools in England, where
either classrooms had 6th grade students tutoring 4th grade, or
4th with 4th and 6th with 6th. They had these match ups
participate in a paired reading cycle, which had the tutors and
the tutees read together, and the tutor would either praise if the
student did well, or correct them and work with them on
reading strategies if they made mistakes. The students
progress was assessed by having them take pre and post self
esteem tests. The results found that self esteem and self
confidence went up for both groups of students, while self-
worth only went up significantly in the cross-age groups.
Regardless, the results were strong enough to show that this
type of intervention works to improve feelings of self, and when
students feel good about themselves, they have more

9. Study 2: The Effects of Online
Cross-Age Tutoring in College
De Smet, Van Keer, and Valcke (2009) examine the effects of
cross-age (seniors to freshman) tutoring that occurs online at a
college campus. When first hearing about peer and cross-age
tutoring, my immediate thought was college, where one of my
freshman classes was taught by a graduate student... it's kind
of the same idea. This study follows 19 college seniors as they
each lead their own discussion/tutor group of about 10
freshman. This, in a way, is peer tutoring as well, since the
students worked with others in their same class as well. The
results were measured through quantitative content analysis,
where students responses in the group were measure through
certain scientific guidelines. The study found that the tutors
increased social and organizational skills in the tutees, but also
found that tutors went from acting as a model, an example, to
acting as a coach, and somewhat let the power go to their
head, perhaps somewhat decreasing their social skills.

10. Study 3: Cross-Age Tutoring on
Reading Attitude and Improvement
Davenport, Arnold, and Lassman (2004) examined the
effects that cross-age tutoring had on fifth grade students
with learning disabilities and kindergarten students. The
fifth grade students pre-read the books selected for the
kindergarten classes, and would go in twice a week and
read a story to them for half an hour. They also
sometimes went in an assisted in a literacy-related
activity. The worked with the kindergarteners in small
groups or one-on-one. Their progress was monitored
through pre and post testing of reading skills. The results
showed that both the fifth grade students with disabilities,
as well as the kindergarteners, intellectually benefitted
significantly from this type of intervention.

11. Study 4: Peer Tutoring as an Alternative
to the Reading Resource Room
Fisher (2003) examines how well a group of 47 teenagers
did on improving their reading when working as a tutor
with younger children, as opposed to the more secluded
choice of a segregated resource room. The teens were
sent to read and tutor at the local elementary school for a
year, where they implemented more difficult texts as the
year went on. The teachers would come up with the tutors
lesson plans and they would have time to look them over
and practice them before hand. They were to read a book
to the elementary kids and then ask clarifying questions
about the reading. The study measured the tutors
improvement through journals that the tutors kept, and
direct observations of the students and their fluency and
comfortability with the younger kids.

12. Bibliography
Dabkowski, B. (2000). The History of Peer Tutoring. Intertext. Accessed
June 12, 2012. http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/viii/dabkowski.html
Davenport, S. V., Arnold, M., & Lassman, M. (2004). The Impact of Cross-Age
Tutoring on Reading Attitudes and Reading Achievement. Reading Improvement.
(41,1). 3-12.
De Smet, M., Van Keer, H., & Valcke, M. (2009). Cross-Age Peer Tutors in
Asynchronous Discussion Groups: A study of the Evolution in Tutor Support.
Instructional Science. (37,1). 87-105.
Fisher, Douglas (2001). Cross-Age Tutoring: Alternatives to the Reading Resource
Room for Struggling Adolescent Readers. Journal of Instructional Psychology.
(28, 4). 234-240.
Kelly, B. (2010). Peer And Cross Age Tutoring. Washington Reading Corps:
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. 1-37.
Http://servicelearning.org
Miller, D., Topping, K., & Thurston, A. (2010). Peer Tutoring in Reading: The
Effects of Role and Organization on Two Dimsensions of Self
Esteem. British Journal of Educational Psychology. (80). 417-433.