Summary of Findings

The Research

Research was carried out during the course of the session 1999/2000 in two Scottish schools, St George's School for Girls, an Independent school in Edinburgh, and Kingswells Primary School, a state primary in Aberdeen.

The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of peer tutoring as a model for teaching ICT skills to primary school pupils.

We looked at the use of peer tutoring with a single computer in the classroom and at its use in an IT suite. We used a controlled study to compare three different teaching models and surveyed pupils' attitudes.

Findings

• Peer tutoring was demonstrated to be an effective means of teaching ICT skills to pupils from primary 3 to primary 6. Significant learning gains were established, both by pupils evaluating their own progress and through objective assessment.
• A variety of factors is required for peer tutoring to be successful. The teacher must model the peer tutoring process carefully at the outset and pupils must be given clear guidelines as to what is expected of them. Organisational systems must be carefully thought out and be as simple as possible.
• The vast majority of pupils were enthusiastic about being taught by other children and about tutoring others. This enthusiasm was sustained. Pupils and teachers noted a wide variety of benefits of peer tutoring, for children in both the tutoring and learning roles.
• Teachers were very enthusiastic about the peer tutoring process when they took full responsibility for running it in their own classrooms.
• Effective models have been established for using peer tutoring both where one computer is installed in the pupils' own classroom and for working with a whole class in an IT suite.
• One of the models allowed for differentiation between pupils of different abilities.

It would seem valuable that every teacher become aware of the possibilities of peer-group tutoring as one of the strategies they might employ to teach ICT skills effectively.

The draft report was made available, and the findings were referred to, at a presentation about the Dolphin System at Kingswells Primary School, Aberdeen on 30^th August 2000. The event was attended by 50 delegates from Kingswells and other local primary schools.

Mention was made of the report in a presentation about the Dolphin System to participants at the CertICT training course in Cambridge on 5^th September 2000 and an oral presentation of the research methods and findings is to be given at a Practitioner Researcher Seminar at St George's School for Girls, Edinburgh on 26^th October 2000.

The authors been invited to submit articles for publication in Education Today, the Journal of the College of Teachers; the SATIPS (Support and Training in Preparatory Schools) newsletter; and Enhance, the online educational ICT journal published by Pearson Information. It is anticipated that further opportunities for dissemination will arise in forthcoming months.

Rob Porteous 1^st October 2000