In its first year, an interdisciplinary recreational aquatics program serving eight deaf blind children (3 to 18 years old) developed and sequenced individualized objectives for communication, social, and gross motor areas. Inservice training was conducted for 13 nonhandicapped high school students serving as peer tutors, who were then evaluated…

Described are the development and evolution of a program using hospitalized emotionally disturbed adolescents as tutors for hospitalized elementary students. Noted is the program's beginning when one adolescent worked with a recreation staff member in the elementary program. Reviewed are such program aspects as tutor and tutee selection and…

Findings are reported on a three year cross-age tutoring program in which undergraduate dental hygiene students and college students from other disciplines trained upper elementary students to tutor younger students in the techniques of dental hygiene. Data includes pre-post scores on the Oral Hygiene Index of plaque for both experimental and…

Researchers and two elementary teachers designed a cross-age tutoring program in which they examined the features and processes of peer interaction from a Vygotskian and Piagetian perspective. The study specifically focused on the following issues: characteristics of the tutor and tutee that are most likely to enhance learning; types of learning…

This paper identifies three trends in reading research that reflect the shift from an emphasis on teaching method to the examination of individual and contextual variables, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the reading process, and the effort to develop more comprehensive models of the reading process. Three studies of cross-age and…

This research study was designed to investigate whether tutors and tutees derive any benefits from tutoring. Two classes of fifth graders and two classes of third graders were the subjects in this experiment. One class each of fifth graders and third graders was randomly divided into tutor and study-alone categories. The other classes served as…

Four patterns or generalizations about peer tutoring are discussed, including the following: (a) academic gains for the learner seem to be most uniformly produced by highly structured programs which explicitly define the content, sequence, and procedure for each lesson; (b) academic gains for the tutor seem most likely when the tutoring experience…

In the San Francisco Bay Area (California), community agencies and organizations routinely use teenagers as mentors and teachers of peers and younger children. Despite the literature indicating that teens should derive many benefits from these roles, agency staff have observed teen teachers who appear frustrated, bored, or disengaged, or who have…

A study investigated whether grade-level status affects learning through cross-age activities. Data were collected through unstructured and open-ended audiotaped interviews with 11 pairs of students in a combined third- and fifth-grade class. Coding and analysis of data revealed seven themes related to students' perceptions of their interactions…

Two studies investigated effects of programs in which handicapped students tutored regular class students. In study 1, 39 fourth to sixth grade learning and behaviorally handicapped students tutored regular class first graders in reading. In study 2, 17 intellectually handicapped students tutored regular class peers in sign language. Comparing…

Two experiments compared cross-age and peer tutoring interventions within special education settings. In experiment 1, 47 elementary age learning and/or behaviorally disordered (LD/BD) students acted as tutors of younger LD and BD students. In experiment 2, 31 same-age LD and BD students alternated tutor and tutee roles. In both experiments,…

A program in which mentally retarded persons are trained to tutor their peers is described. Considered are selection and training aspects of such a program, and emphasized is the importance of the relationship between tutor and student. Tutors are explained to learn principles of establishing specific plans and keeping basic records. (CL)

The purpose of this study was to conduct an ecological study of a self-contained classroom of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds in order to: (1) define various techniques through which students offer help to and receive help from peers; (2) identify the types of situations under which these different types of peer helping relationships are likely to occur;…

In 1972, using Title I funds, a study was initiated to determine the effects of using teacher aides and student tutors in remediating reading deficient second and third graders in the Boise schools. The two schools in the pilot program were located in areas having a high incidence of low-income families. Tutor managers (paraprofessionals)…

This paper synthesizes what is known from previous research about the effects of children teaching other children in different K-12 contexts, emphasizing the academic and affective impact of such activity on the child doing the teaching. The study reviews peer teaching, integrating research findings about different types of peer teaching into one…