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 socioacademic process of learning of self-concepts. ICAT is informed by Social Interdependence Theory, a socio-psychological perspective which aims to make…

Background: Paired reading (PR) is an application of peer tutoring. It has been extensively researched, and its efficacy across a range of outcomes has been established. Benefits include improvements in key reading skills, and also in affective aspects of learning. Several studies have shown gains in self-esteem, although measurement methods have…

Cross-age peer mentoring programs, in which teenagers mentor younger children, have proliferated in recent years, yet there is disagreement about the effectiveness of such programs. This study tested whether teen mentors' attitudes about children interact with their mentees' characteristics to moderate outcomes of cross-age peer mentoring. The…

Background/Context: Significant research has been done on the cognitive and academic outcomes of older-younger and peer-peer student relationships. Whether in a one-on-one setting or a setting in which responsibility for teaching is shared among members of a collaborative group, well-planned, well-organized, and well-executed student-student…

This study examined the impact on high school students who taught elementary students MADD's Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM), an alcohol use prevention and vehicle safety program. High school students (N = 188) enrolled in a peer helping course completed surveys before and after teaching PY/PM, and a comparison group of peer helper students…

A tutorial program which used students as tutors was conducted in the Seattle Public Schools during the 1971-72 school year as part of an ESEA Title I project. Called "Students Helping Students," the program used 40 seventh and eighth graders as tutors in reading, mathematics, and language for about 80 first through fourth graders.…

The Youth Tutoring Youth program, funded under Title I of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act, was directed toward attitude and ability change of underachieving high school and elementary school pupils. It also attempted to effect a change in basic language study skills of these students by using the Youth Tutoring Youth (YTY) model which…

Two studies explored the effects of peer teaching on the attitudes and behavior of tutors and tutees. In the first study, fourth graders tutored third graders in reading once a day for two weeks. Another group befriended a third grader over the same period of time, supervising play activities. A control group participated in neither special…

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of explicit reading comprehension strategies instruction, followed by practice in teacher-led whole-class activities (STRAT), reciprocal same-age (STRAT + SA) peer-tutoring activities, or cross-age peer-tutoring activities (STRAT + CA) on 2nd and 5th graders' reading comprehension and self-efficacy…

This "Research" section contains three articles. "Pedagogy" discusses the need for explicit phonics instruction combined with whole language as the most effective way to teach beginning readers. "Practice" describes a first-grade whole language reading class which incorporates phonics. "Findings" reviews briefly three studies on mixed-age…

In the "Just Do It, Jr." program, 81 at-risk fifth-grade students in rural Nevada attended life skills training sessions, then taught self-esteem concepts to second graders. The fifth graders averaged a 16% improvement on self-observed school attitudes and self-esteem, and the second graders thought the programs were well taught. (TD)

A study was done to evaluate Partners for Valued Youth (PVY), an instructional cross-age tutoring program in San Antonio (Texas) designed to reduce dropout rates among Hispanic limited-English proficient (LEP) middle-school children, who are at risk of leaving school. The program has these students tutor younger, elementary school students. The…

As a university instructor and a language arts middle school teacher, the authors have been working collaboratively for the last three years. This article describes their collaborative efforts, including what they have learned about their students and about the process of learning through the work they have done together. To introduce their…