Date of Award
5-2007
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Curriculum and Instruction: M.S.
Department
Teacher Development
College
School of Education
First Advisor
Jan Frank
Second Advisor
David Rogers
Keywords and Subject Headings
Best Practice Pedogogy, Learning by Tutoring
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between tutoring and cognitive gains for the tutor, and additionally considered the effect of tutoring on tutees' attitudes toward science. Much research supports the idea that tutors learn better than do students who do not tutor. Tutoring as a pedagogical strategy has often been used with low-achieving students in hopes of overcoming learning or motivational obstacles. However, this study employs tutoring in a higher-level science class to investigate its effectiveness on high-achieving students.
The study was executed at a Minnesota high school, using twelfth-grade physics students as tutors and ninth-grade physical-science students as tutees. Both this experimental group of tutors and a comparison group of non-tutoring physics students completed pre-tests on concepts and mathematic applications; the two groups did not differ significantly on either pre-test. The tutors covered Archimedes' and Bernoulli's principles with the tutees, whereas the comparison-group students covered the same material using a traditional teacher-led approach. After the week-long study the experimental- and comparison-group students completed a concept test and, following an additional teacher-led math section, a math test. The tutees completed pre- and post-tutoring surveys on attitudes toward science.
The experimental tutoring group scored significantly higher than the comparison group on the concept test, but the two groups did not differ significantly on the math test, and surveys showed that tutee attitudes toward science were significantly more positive after the tutoring sessions than they had been before. Thus, this study demonstrates that tutoring can be an effective tool for both cognitive and affective gains.
Recommended Citation
Chu, Jeannie L., "A Study in Cross-Age Tutoring" (2007). Culminating Projects in Teacher Development. 69.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/ed_etds/69
