Using Peer Assistance to Teach Academics

What is the evidence base? A strong level of evidence based on a high quality meta-analysis of 14 intervention studies including 3 within-subjects designs, 8 single subject designs, 2 group designs, and 1 qualitative study.

With whom was it implemented?

• A total of 165 participants were included
• Students with
• learning disabilities (3 studies)
• emotional/behavioral disorders (3 studies)
• moderate/severe disabilities including mental retardation, Down syndrome, and hearing impairments (4 studies)
• Ages ranged from 13 – 17 years old (14 studies)
• 10 studies included samples that were predominately male, while 4 studies had samples that were predominately female
• Ethnicity/race information were not reported for all participants

What is the practice? Teaching using peer assistance includes strategies such as:

• Peer tutoring is the delivery of academic instruction by another student, either older or the same age as the tutee (Scruggs et al., 1985).
• Cooperative learning is when groups of students of different ability, sex, or ethnicity work together to achieve mutual goals (Tateyama-Sniezek, 1990).
• Peer instruction is when students are given specific roles to assist other students in completing an activity or teaching of a lesson (Hughes, Carter, Hughes, Bradford, & Copeland, 2002).

Where is the best place to find out how to do this practice:

• Students with disabilities worked together to complete computer-assisted mathematics lessons and recorded their scores (Bahr & Reith, 1991)
• A classwide peer tutoring approach using the teacher assigned tutor/learner dyads based on prior performance rankings (Bell & Young, 1990)
• Student-directed instructional procedures during pauses in teacher-delivered lectures (Hawkins, 1988; Hawkins & Brady, 1994)
• Peer tutoring with undergraduate college students tutoring at-risk youth and students with learning disabilities in mathematics through four instructional phases including (a) student approach assessment, (b) co-construction of new approach, (c) teaching of new approach, and (d) application of new approach (Hock, Pulvers, Deshler, & Schumaker, 2001)
• An instructional role intervention in which conversational partners were asked to assist each other in classroom assignments (Hughes, Carter, Hughes, Bradford, & Copeland, 2002)
• An individual peer tutoring approach in which students without disabilities were trained to assist students with disabilities in academic tasks (Martella, Marchand-Martella, Young, & MacFarlane, 1995; Schloss, Kobza, & Alper, 1997; Staub, Spaulding, Peck, Gallucci, & Schwartz, 1996)
• A classroom peer tutoring approach in combination with multi-element curriculum and accommodations (McDonnell, Mathot-Buckner, Thorson, & Fister, 2001)
• A cooperative learning strategy was used to investigated conversational interactions between deaf/hard-of-hearing students and hearing teachers/ classroom peers (Miller, 1995)
• Students completed, graded, and made corrections to homework assignments in heterogeneous groups during class time using the Cooperative Homework Team approach (O'Melia & Rosenberg, 1994)
• Students with learning disabilities were taught to recruit peer assistance during cooperative learning activities in general education classrooms (Wolford, Heward, & Alber, 2001)
• Peers served as instructional supports within a cooperative learning approach that used interactive dialogues to teach a specific writing strategy (Wong, Butler, Ficzere, & Kuperis, 1997)

For Peer Assistance Research to Lesson Plan Starters, see:

• For using non-instructional activities to increase social interactions (Hughes, Carter, Hughes, Bradford, & Copeland, 2002)
• or using peer tutoring to teach the Next Dollar Strategy (Schloss, Kobza, & Alper, 1997)

Where has it been implemented?

• Public school
• Community settings
• Self-contained classroom

References used to establish this evidence base:

Winokur, M. A., Cobb, R. B., & Dugan, J. J. (2007). Effects of academic peer assistance interventions on academic outcomes for youth with disabilities: A systematic review. Ft. Collins, CO: Colorado State University, School of Education.

Additional references:

Bahr, C. M., & Rieth, H. J. (1991). Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goals on student achievement using computer-based drill-and-practice. Journal of Special Education Technology, 11(1), 33-48.

Bell, K., & Young, R. K. (1990). Facilitating mainstreaming of students with behavioral disorders using classwide peer tutoring. School Psychology Review, 19, 564-573.

Hawkins, J. (1988). Antecedent pausing as a direct instruction tactic for adolescents with severe behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 13, 263-272.

Hawkins, J., & Brady, M. P. (1994). The effects of independent and peer guided practice during instructional pauses on the academic performance of students with mild handicaps. Education & Treatment of Children, 17, 1-28.

Hock, M. F., Pulvers, K. A., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (2001). The effects of an after-school tutoring program on the academic performance of at-risk students and students with LD. Remedial and Special Education, 22, 172-186.

Hughes, C., Carter, E. W., Hughes, T., Bradford, E., & Copeland, S. R. (2002). Effects of instructional versus non-instructional roles on the social interactions of high school students. Education & Training in Mental Retardation, 37, 146-162.

Martella, R., Marchand-Martella, N. E., Young, K. R., & MacFarlane, C. A. (1995). Determining the collateral effects of peer tutor training on a student with severe disabilities. Behavior Modification, 19, 170-191.

McDonnell, J., Mathot-Buckner, C., Thorson, N., & Fister, S. (2001). Supporting the inclusion of students with moderate and severe disabilities in junior high school general education classes: The effects of classwide peer tutoring, multi-element curriculum, and accommodations. Education & Treatment of Children, 24, 141-160.

Miller, K. J. (1995). Cooperative conversations. The effect of cooperative learning on conversational interaction. American Annals of the Deaf, 140, 28-37.

O'Melia, M., & Rosenberg, M. (1994). Effects of cooperative homework teams on the acquisition of mathematics skills by secondary students with mild disabilities. Exceptional Children, 60, 538-548.

Schloss, P. J., Kobza, S. A., & Alper, S. (1997). The use of peer tutoring for the acquisition of functional math skills among students with moderate retardation. Education & Treatment of Children, 20, 189-208.

Staub, D., Spaulding, M., Peck, C. A., Gallucci, C., & Schwartz, I. S. (1996). Using nondisabled peers to support the inclusion of students with disabilities at the junior high school level. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 21, 194-205.

Wolford, P. L., Heward, W. L., & Alber, S. R. (2001). Teaching middle school students with learning disabilities to recruit peer assistance during cooperative learning group activities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16, 161-173.

Wong, B. Y. L., Butler, D. L., Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1997). Teaching adolescents with learning disabilities and low achievers to plan, write, and revise compare-and-contrast essays. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 12, 2-15.