Peer Tutoring - great for self-confidence and interpersonal skills

Computer Tutors

There is a well known hierarchy of learning experiences.

The least effective is listening to the teacher!

Better than this is learning by watching.

Better still - learning by doing.

But by far the most effective way of consolidating learning is teaching what you have learned to others.

In every classroom, pupils help each other in the learning process. The Dolphin System harnesses this fact and formalises it with the concept of the computer tutor. It gives recognition to the children who already have skills and enables them to pass on their skills to others. In addition, children using Dolphin are not only given recognition for acquiring new computer skills, but also for developing the skills of being a good computer tutor.

Choosing Your Approach: Strategies for Using Peer Tutoring

Peer tutoring is a very versatile concept. Schools using Dolphin are all using it in different ways, and the author himself finds that his teaching strategy varies with different topics and year groups. How you use Dolphin in your school will depend on:

  • the existing level of expertise of pupils and staff
  • the quantity, type and arrangement of computers
  • timetabling and organisation of other lessons across the curriculum
Peer tutoring can be used equally effectively where computers are located singly or in small groups in the pupils' own classrooms or where they are grouped together in a computer suite. Whatever the arrangement you can first teach a small group of pupils who practise what they have learned before passing on their skills to others in the class.

If you have a projector and screen or interactive whiteboard, the Dolphin pages can be used to teach skills directly to the whole class. Then peer tutoring can be used in the follow-up sessions, with the more confident pupils supporting their peers in consolidating what they have learned.

Comprehensive advice on using Dolphin in a variety of different classroom situations is given in the user guide and teachers' manual.

Character Development

There are several important spin offs in using the peer tutoring approach:
  1. The children learn to work independently of the teacher and take responsibility for their own learning.
  2. The process of acquiring the skills of a computer tutor brings about a considerable increase in awareness in all the pupils. As part of the record keeping process the pupils assess their tutors on the quality of their teaching. As a consequence the children develop a sensitivity to each other's learning style.
  3. The experience also improves the social standing of those technically minded children who may previously have been unpopular in the class group.


Peer Tutoring in Action - LTS Article
"I like teaching other children. I think it is a very clever idea to ask children to tutor other children and it will save the teacher a lot of fuss."

Odmar, Pupil, Kingswells Primary School, Aberdeen
Peer Tutoring Research Findings
See the Dolphin User Guide
for full guidance on classroom management
"I find I really enjoy teaching others on the computer because it helps to refresh your memory on whatever section you are working at. Also it's good because you are learning and sharing your knowledge, and it's fun at the same time."

Stephanie, Pupil, Kingswells Primary School, Aberdeen
"Dolphin also provides a motivational technique in peer tutoring. After initial instruction by the teacher, children work in pairs, one child learning and the other acting as a tutor. The children take their role as tutors very seriously and so they are keen to learn. The fact that they can demonstrate skills to another is proof of their understanding. Peer tutoring also promotes teamwork and develops interpersonal skills."

Cathy Taylor, ICT Co-ordinator, St Bernard's Prep School, Slough

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