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Rob Porteous, Senior Teacher, ICT & Maths
St George’s School for Girls, Junior
School, Edinburgh
(With grateful acknowlegement to Jennifer
Short, BEd Student, Moray House Institute of Education, who designed and
implemented the questionnaire.)
At the time of this survey, peer-tutoring had been in use for teaching ICT skills at St George’s for two years. We had tried a number of organisational models but had for some time been using the ‘lefts and rights’ model – one week the teacher taught one half of the class and they then tutored the others on what they had just been taught – the next week the other half were taught by the teacher and they then tutored the first half, and so on.
The perceived benefits of this model were that all pupils had the opportunity to tutor and that all pupils had the opportunity for individual time on the computer. By the time of the survey, the children were well used to the model, and it seemed to be working well with most classes.
I, as teacher was, however, finding it necessary to repeat the teaching of certain skills from week to week and pupil progress in some cases was less rapid than had been hoped.
We decided that it would be useful to get objective feedback from the pupils about the peer-tutoring experience. The questions were specifically designed to elicit both positive and negative responses.
80 pupils from primary 3-6 were asked five questions:
What do you like about teaching other children on the computers?
What do you dislike about teaching other children on the computers?
What do you like about being taught on the computers by other children?
What do you dislike about being taught on the computers by other children?
This year you are in a different computer room with different computer to last year. Which do you think is better and why?
An analysis of the responses to the first four questions is given below. The fifth question is omitted, since it was only relevant to our particular circumstances.
Several children said that they liked helping others to learn. It was nice to know that they were enabling their pupils to learn something new and they liked being able to help them if they got stuck. Some commented that they liked being the ones who had the knowledge and passing it on. A couple liked bossing their pupils about!
A number of children said they liked the experience of being a teacher. It made them feel special and grown up. They liked being entrusted with the responsibility and took pride in the fact that they had been able to remember what they were to teach. They enjoyed it when their pupils listened to them and liked the appreciation they got from their pupils.
Some children also said that they felt they learned more themselves, through teaching others.
Several children expressed anxiety about trying to teach when they found things difficult themselves. They felt worried that they might get things wrong. A number said that they felt they had a lot to remember. They tended to forget how to do the things they had been shown and so found it difficult to teach others. Some had the experience of their pupils getting frustrated as a result.
A number of children expressed irritation at their pupils not listening to them and wanting to do their own thing. In some cases their pupils then made silly mistakes and they found they had to explain things several times. In other cases their pupils already knew more than they did and wouldn’t let them teach.
Several children also said they did not like the fact that they were not allowed to use the mouse and keyboard while they were teaching. It got boring if their partner took a long time to learn.
One tutor didn’t like the fact that her pupil asked so
many questions!
A fair number of the children commented on the fact that they learned a lot. Several said it was good fun. One made a new friend.
Some pupils said they liked learning from other children
because they found they were able to ask things more than once and didn’t feel
stupid. Their tutors spoke clearly
and didn’t shout when they got things wrong!
They found it different being taught by other pupils and thought it was
fun to learn with a friend.
Being taught by another pupil was like having your own special teacher, who showed you again if you didn’t understand. They found they were able to learn at their own pace, bit by bit. This made the learning easier and there was no worry about forgetting things.
Several of the children expressed frustration that their tutors forgot how to do certain things, which meant that they (the pupils) could not learn properly.
A number said that their tutors spoke too quickly, did not explain things properly, or were not prepared to repeat things. Some said their tutors did not let them use the mouse and keyboard, but did it all for them.
Some pupils found their tutors were slow and said they found it boring being taught things if they already knew them.
A few said that they were worried about having tutors they didn’t like. They had had experience of tutors who were bossy, ‘horrible’ or noisy. Sometimes tutors got irritated with them if they got things wrong.
Peer tutoring clearly has many benefits. Those who like tutoring enjoy helping their classmates and feel proud of their role. Those who like being tutored by their classmates value the one-to-one attention and the opportunity to learn at their own pace.
However, peer tutoring has also elicited negative responses from some pupils. It seems that many of these are related to the particular organisational strategies employed. The following issues have emerged as needing to be addressed if peer tutoring is to be of maximum benefit.
a. Select tutors carefully
The policy of giving every child the experience of being both pupil and tutor, while laudable, is clearly failing, at least using the organisational system outlined above. Some children are not confident enough to tutor and should not be forced to take on this role if they are not ready for it. Asking less confident children to tutor others who are more confident than them is actually proving counter productive.
b. Give children adequate time to consolidate skills themselves before they are asked to teach others.
The system of teaching new skills to a group, and then asking them immediately to teach others what they have learned, while a convenient method of organisation, is clearly not having the desired effect of consolidating children’s learning. Instead it is causing frustration, especially where the ‘tutor’ is not confident, and learning is impaired. It is important to make sure that those who are asked to tutor are secure in the skills they are going to teach.
c. Group or pair children carefully.
If pupils are not happy with the partner they have been asked to work with this will impact unfavourably on their learning and on their attitude to their work.
d. Teach the new skills in small chunks.
There is a tendency to try to cover a lot of ground when teaching a group. This can then result in lengthy sessions where the children attempt to pass on all they have learned. Tutors can become bored or discouraged if they have too much to teach and perceive that they do not get a chance to practise the skills themselves. It is better to teach the skills a few at a time and give the children time to consolidate thoroughly before further skills are introduced.
e. Make it clear who is meant to be using the mouse and keyboard at any one time.
While some children are good at sharing, others will tend to dominate unless they are specifically directed as to who is to use the mouse. A number of the tutees expressed frustration that their tutors had not allowed them to practise the skills themselves. The organisational model we have been using has contributed to this problem, because the tutors need to practise the skills themselves during the tutoring session since they have only observed during their own learning session. This strategy clearly needs reviewed.
Being convinced of the significant benefits of peer-tutoring if used well, and in response to the foregoing findings, I am now implementing a new organisational system. This is being introduced with all pupils in years 3 to 6 and will be evaluated over a period of several months. The pupils are being grouped into ‘Learning Teams' of about six pupils. Each team is to consist of two (or three) ‘Team Tutors’, chosen through a combination of self selection, peer-group voting and teacher assessment.
Tutoring will take place over a two-week cycle as follows:
Week 1: The tutors learn new skills from the teacher and then practise their new skills by beginning their own assignments in pairs. Meanwhile the other children continue or complete their assignment from the previous week, consolidating existing skills.
Week 2: The tutors teach their pupils the new skills. The pupils incorporate what they have learned in their ongoing assignment or begin a new assignment as appropriate. The tutors continue to work on their assignments but are available to help pupils as necessary with anything that may have been forgotten.
The following week the process is repeated with a further set of skills.
Introduction of this system is already underway and initial pupil response has been positive, with a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the election of team tutors. A follow-up questionnaire will be given to the pupils in October to evaluate its impact.
Further InformationRob Porteous 20th March 2002