The impact of interdependent cross-age peer tutoring on social and mathematics self- concepts

Year 2016, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 1 - 13, 01.05.2016

Mirjan Zeneli Peter Tymms David Bolden

https://doi.org/10.17220/ijpes.2016.02.001

Abstract

Abstract: This paper adds to the limited body of literature and concentrates on investigating the impact of a new peer tutoring framework, ‘Interdependent Cross Age-Peer Tutoring’ ICAT , on the socio-academic process of learning of self-concepts. ICAT is informed by Social Interdependence Theory, a socio-psychological perspective which aims to make cross-age peer tutoring more cooperative. The intervention took place in 2013 with three schools in England: Two of the schools adopted a pre-post-test quasi experimental design and one school school C adopted a single group design. In school A Year 8 students tutored Year 6 n=201 , in school B Year 9 students tutored Year 7 n=115 , and in school C Year 10 students tutored Year 8 n=102 . ICAT was applied once a week for a period of 35-40 minutes across six weeks, covering school-planned mathematic topics. For school A, which implemented ICAT according to programme specifications, some positive and significant effect sizes were observed.

Keywords

Social Interdependent Cross-Age Peer Tutoring, Mathematics Self-Concept, Social Interdependence, Cooperative Learning.

References

• Allan, R. (2008). MathsLinks 1; Year 7. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Bar-Eli, Nurit and Raviv, Amiram. (1982). Underachievers as tutors. The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 75(3), pp. 139-143.
• Barron. A-M., & Foot. H. (1991). Peer tutoring and tutor training. Educational Research, 33(3), 174-185.
• Clark, R. E. & Sugrue, B. M. (1991). Research on instructional media, 1978-1988, in Anglin, G. J. (ed.) Instructional technology: past, present, and future. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries unlimited.
• Cohen, P.A., Kulik, J.A., & Kulik, C-L.C. (1982). Educational outcomes of tutoring: A meta-analysis of findings. American Educational Research Journal, 19, 237–48.
• Delquadri, J.C., Greenwood, C. R., Stretton, K., & Hall, R.V. (1983). The peer tutoring spelling game: A classroom procedure for increasing opportunity to respond and spelling performance. Education and Treatment of Children, 6, 225- 239.
• Fantuzzo, J., & Ginsburg-Block, M. (1998). Reciprocal peer tutoring:Developing and testing effective peer collaborations for elementary school students. In K. J. Topping & S. Ehly (Eds.), Peer assistedlearning (pp. 121–144). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Fantuzzo, J.W., King, J.A., & Heller, L.R. (1992). Effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on mathematics and school adjustment: A component analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84 (3), 331-339.
• Fitz-Gibbon, C.T. (1990). Success and failure in peer tutoring experiments. In Goodland, S., & Hirst, B., (Eds.). Explorations in Peer Tutoring (pp. 26-57), Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Fuchs, S.L., Fuchs, D., Karns, K., Hamlett, C.L., Katzaroff, M., & Dutka, S. (1998). Comparisons among individual and cooperative performance assessments and other measures of mathematics competence. The Elementary School Journal, 99(1), 23-51.
• Fuchs, S.L., Fuchs, D., Kazdan, S., & Allen, S. (1999). Effects of peer-assisted learning strategies in reading with and without training in elaborated help giving. The Elementary School Journal, 99 (3), 201-219.
• Ginsburg-Block, M. D., & Fantuzzo, J.W. (1998). An evaluation of the relative effectiveness of NCTM standards-based Interventions for low-achieving urban elementary students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90 (3), 560-569.
• Ginsburg-Block, M., Rohrbeck, B., Cynthia, A., Fantuzzo, J. W. (2006). A meta-Analytic review of social, self-concept, and behavioral outcomes of peer-assisted learning. Journal of Educational Psychology. 98(4), Nov 732-749.
• Gisbert , D.D. & Font, C.M. (2008). The impact of peer tutoring on the improvement of linguistic competence selfconcept as a writer and pedagogical satisfaction. School of Psychology International, 29 (4), 481-499.
• Harrison, G. Von & Cohen, A. M. (1971). Empirical Validation of Tutor-Training Procedures. Annual Meeting of the California Education Association, San Diego, California, April 1971. Retrieved November, 10, 2012, from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED0 58283&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED058283.
• Harter, S. (1985). Competence as a dimension of self-evaluation: Toward a comprehensive model of self-worth. In R. Leahy (Ed.), The development of the self. NY: Academic Press.
• Hausmann, R.G.M., Chi, M. T. H., & Roy, M. (2004). Learning from collaborative problem solving: An analysis of three dialogue patterns. In the Twenty-sixth Cognitive Science Proceedings.
• Holland, P. W. (1986). ‘Statistics and Causal Inference’. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 81 (396), 945-960.
• Howell, David, C. (2010). Statistical Methods for Psychology. Wadsworth: Belmont.Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R.T. (1987). Learning together & alone: Cooperative, competitive & individualistic learning. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Johnson, D.W., & Johnson R, T. (1989). Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
• Leung, K. C., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., Yeung, A. S., & Abduljabbar, A. S. (2013). Domain specificity between peer support and self-concept. Journal of Early Adolescence, 33(2), 227-244.
• Marsh, H. W. (1990). The structure of academic self-concept: The Marsh/Shavelson model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 623-636.
• Marsh, H. W., & O’Mara, A. (2008). Reciprocal effects between Academic Self-concept, Self-esteem, Achievement and Attainment over seven adolescent years: Unidimensional and Multidimensional perspectives of Self-concept. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 542-552.
• Mevarech, Z., & Kramarski, B. (1997). IMPROVE: A multidimensional method forteaching mathematics in heterogeneous classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 365-394.
• Miller, D., Topping, K., & Thurston, A. (2010). Peer tutoring in reading: The effects of role and organization on two dimensions of self-esteem. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(3), 417–433.
• Roseth, C. J., Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R.T. (2008). Promoting early adolescents, achievement and peer relationships: The effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures. Psychology Bulletin, 134 (2), 223- 246.
• Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2012). Intrinsic Motivation Scale. Retrieved from Self Determination Theory Website, visited on the 12-11-2012 at: http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/questionnaires/10-questionnaires/50#getScale.
• Sarbin, T. R. (1976). Cross-Age Tutoring and Social Identity. In Allen, V. L. (Ed.) Students as Teachers: Theory and Research on Tutoring (pp. 27-40). Academic Press, London: INC.
• Sharpley, A.M., Irvine, J., Sharpley, C.F. (1983). An examination of the effectiveness of a cross-age tutoring program in mathematics for elementary school children. American Educational Research Journal, 2(1), 103-111.
• Sporer, N., & Brunstein, J.C. (2009). Fostering the reading comprehension of secondary school students through peerassisted learning: Effects on strategy knowledge, strategy use, and task performance. Contemporary Educational Journal, 34 (4), 289-297.
• Slavin, R. E., & Madden. N. A. (2008). Understanding bias due to measures inherent to treatments in systematic reviews in Education. Retrieved March 20th,2015 from: http://www.bestevidence.org/methods/understand_bias_Mar_2008.pdf.
• Thurston, A. (2014). Manual to help develop peer tutoring in the school classroom. Retrieved January 15th, 2015 from: http://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/files/12775117/LT_Mathematics_PackVQUB.pdf.
• Thurston, A., Duran, D., Cuningham, E., Blanch, S., & Topping, K. (2009). International online reciprocal peer tutoring to promote modern language development in primary schools. Computers & Education, 53 (2), 462–472.
• Topping, K.J., & Ehly, S. (1998). Introduction to peer learning. In Topping, K.J., & Ehly (Eds.). Peer Assisted Learning. London UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Topping, K. J., Campbell, J., Douglas, W. & Smith, A. J. (2003). Cross-age peer tutoring in mathematics with 7 & 11 year olds: Influence on mathematical vocabulary, strategic dialogue and self-concept. Educational Research, 45, 287-308.
• Tymms, P., Merrell, C., Thurston, A., Andor, J., Topping, K. & Miller, D. (2011). Improving attainment across a whole district: School reform through peer tutoring, a randomized controlled trial. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 22, 265-289.
• Tymms, P. B. & Merrell, C. (2015). Cross-age Peer Learning. Better Evidence-based Education, 7(1), 18-19.
• Trochim, W. (2012), Design, the research method knowledge base. Retrieved January, 14th, 2012 from: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/design.php.
• Winter, Sam. (1988). Paired Reading: a study of process and outcome. Educational Psychology, 8(3), 135-151. DOI: 10.1080/0144341880080301
• Webb, N. M. (1991). Task-related verbal interaction and mathematics learning in small groups, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. 22 (5), 366–89.
• Yarrow, F., Topping, K. (2001). Collaborative writing: The effects of metacognitive prompting and structured peer interaction. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(2), 261-282.
• Zeneli, M (2015). Developing, Testing and Interpreting a Cross Age Peer Tutoring Intervention for Mathematics: Social Interdependence, Systematic Reviews and an Empirical Study. Doctoral thesis, Durham University. Retrieved January, 10th, 2016 from http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11367/.
• Zeneli, M., Thurston. A., and Roseth, C. (2016). The influence of experimental design on the magnitude of the effect size -peer tutoring for elementary, middle and high school settings: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Educational Research. In press.
• Zeneli, M and Tymms, P., (2015) A Review of Peer Tutoring Interventions and Social Interdependence Characteristics. International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education. 5(2), 2504-2510.