Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits peer tutoring provides to the tutee. However, studies measuring the benefits peer tutoring provides to the tutor are limited in quantity, detail, participant numbers and breadth. This study measured the benefits 151 peer tutors reported after peer tutoring for a semester in a special education class for students with severe disabilities. Peer tutors reported benefits in an essay response to the prompt: "What do you feel you have gained as a result of being a peer tutor?" The study identified the most common benefits obtained by peer tutors as measured by peer tutor generated responses of general peer-tutoring benefits. Findings suggest an extension of peer-tutoring benefits beyond the tutee exclusively and to the peer tutor.

Although researchers in composition studies have examined the instructional conditions that help students revise successfully, there is little published scholarship about how college students use feedback from a peer tutor in the revising process. Thus, I designed a qualitative, collective case study to investigate how students revised after writing center conferences. I used the conceptual framework of activity theory to analyze the entire system of student revision. I used the concept of situation definition to examine how students' understanding of writing conferences and rhetorical concepts, such as revision, changed (or did not change) during the writing conference. I analyzed the revisions with a taxonomy from a study by Faigley and Witte (1981). The findings of this study were centered on two different groups of students who had writing center conferences: those who had specific goals for their writing conferences and those who did not. Students who did not have specific goals for their conferences ceded authority to the writing consultant (the title that this writing center used instead of "peer tutor") who they believed could identify and correct sentence-level errors. When these students revised, they almost always integrated direct feedback about how to correct errors in grammar and mechanics because they believed that their instructors valued writing that was free of errors. But these students only integrated indirect feedback about microstructure revisions if they believed that the revisions were important to other aspects of the activity system such as their instructors. Students rarely made macrostructure revisions, but writing consultants rarely discussed this kind of revision. The writing consultants and the students without specific goals for their conferences had different situation definitions of the purpose of a writing conference and how to meaningfully revise their writing. The writing consultants did not try to promote situation re-definition by moving the discussion away from the text toward a conversation about the strategies that the student used to produce the draft. The conducted the conference at the level of the student in order to fulfill the student's agenda. This contradicted the main philosophy of the writing center, which was that a conference should be a productive conversation about the ideas in a piece of writing. The second group of students, who had specific goals for their conferences, consisted of writing consultants who also had writing conferences with other writing consultants. Writing consultants shared the same situation definition of the purpose of a writing conference and this led to them having productive conversations that framed the act of revision in a more complex way than "revising for the instructor." However, their conferences were focused on how to revise the text, so the consultants also did not try to promote situation re-definition to help their peers develop new writing strategies. The faculty in this research study had differing conceptions of the purpose of the writing center, but their situation definition was closer to that of the students who believed that the writing center was for helping students edit their texts. Instructors used the writing center as a resource to help their students revise their writing, but those who believed the writing center was only for basic writing assignments did not use the writing center or relied on writing consultants with specialized knowledge to help them. An important implication of this research is that peer tutors should be trained to elicit the students' situation definitions of what a writing conference is for and what it means to meaningfully revise. In this way, peer tutors can structure an activity that focuses on helping students to develop situation definitions that are more appropriate for successfully revising their academic writing and for completing future writing projects. Writing centers can also work to help instructors develop more appropriate situation definitions of what a writing conference can do for their students.

Self-efficacy is the belief an individual has about his or her capabilities to successfully complete an activity. Self-efficacy stems from four sources: verbal persuasion, physiological states, past experiences, and vicarious experiences. Increases in self-efficacy in education are connected with an increase in academic achievement. The current study sought to answer the question of which of three treatment options would have the most positive effect on mathematical achievement and self-efficacy for correctly answering problems on a multiplication math test. Participants were third- and fifth-grade students identified by their teachers as struggling in math. Students either received training on skills designed to increase self-efficacy, participated in cross-age peer tutoring, or received a combination of both treatments. Achievement and self-efficacy were measured before and after treatment and four weeks following the end of treatment to measure the lasting effects.

I denna uppsats syftar jag till att undersöka hur, när och på vilka sätt samlärande kan ske i musikundervisning. Genom observationer och intervjuer på barn undersöks hur och på vilket sätt barn lär av varandra på musiklektioner. Med samlärande menas allt lärande som sker mellan människor och begreppet utgår ifrån hur vi i en lärprocess kan förespråka delaktighet, kommunikation och mångfald av idéer och tankar. Vygotskij och Piaget har haft stor inverkan på samarbetes roll i våra läroplaner och det framgår främst genom ett demokratiperspektiv på undervisningen. Dock tycks betydelsen av barns samverkan i läroplanerna minskat genom åren. För att barn ska lära sig av varandra är det ett antal faktorer som spelar in. Bland annat har läraren en stor roll för att uppmuntra eleverna till att samarbeta. Utifrån Vygotskijs teorier om den proximala utvecklingszonen har det vuxit fram ett antal olika modeller för kamratsamverkan, som används i undervisning. I musikundervisning kan elever praktisera samlärande på ett konkret sätt, både för att lära sig samarbeta men också som metod till musikalisk utveckling. På lektionerna kan elever lära sig av varandra och med varandra, och genom att se varandras kunskaper som en tillgång blir eleverna jämlika och kunskapsutbytet mer demokratiskt. / In this essay, I aim to examine how, when and in what manner a peer interaction can take place in music education. Through observations and interviews examines how children learn from each other during the music lessons. The concept of peer interaction can be described as all learning that takes place between humans, and the concept is based on how we can advocate participation, communication and diversity of ideas and thoughts in the learning process. Vygotsky and Piaget have had a major impact on the role of collaboration in our school curricula, which is primarily shown by teaching through a democratic perspective. However, it seems as though the importance of collaboration between children has decreased in the school curricula through the years. There are several factors that matter in order for children to learn from each other. Among other things, the teacher’s role to encourage the students to cooperate is very important. Based on Vygotsky's theories on the Zone of Proximal Development a number of different models of peer interactions, used in teaching, have emerged. In music education, students can concretely practice peer interaction, both by learning to work together and also as a method of musical development. In the lessons students can learn from each other and with each other, and by seeing each other's knowledge as an asset the students become equal and the exchange of knowledge more democratic.

This thesis presents the findings of a study of writing center tutorial practices in a Middle Eastern university where the language of instruction is English. Data from stimulated recall activities, written observations, and interviews were analyzed to answer the following research questions: 1. How do tutees perceive the effectiveness of writing center tutorials? 2. How do tutors perceive the effectiveness of writing center tutorials? 3. Which type of tutoring approach do tutees find more effective? 4. Which type of tutoring approach do tutors find more effective? The data revealed that tutees noticed an improvement in their assignments, believed that their concerns had been addressed, and that they had acquired transferable skills. Most tutees assessed their tutors positively, valuing tutors who inspired confidence and were able to explain concepts clearly. Although tutees appreciated knowledgeable tutors, they valued egalitarian peer-tutoring relationships. Tutors reported that tutorial sessions improved their tutees' assignments and that tutees had acquired transferable skills. Nevertheless, tutors were critical of their own performance. Some tutors admitted to lacking the knowledge necessary to explain certain writing concepts, including grammatical concepts; some felt they dominated the tutorials; and others felt their approach was too directive. The data revealed that both tutors and tutees preferred the directive approach for lower order concerns and a non-directive approach for higher order concerns. This study shows that diverse tutoring models that accommodate the background and experiences of Middle Eastern students, and their particular strengths and weaknesses, should be considered. It recommends tutorial training that emphasizes flexibility and recognizes the distinctive nature of each tutorial situation and the opportunity it presents to address the needs and expectations of individual students. These findings could signal a direction for the development of writing center pedagogy that focuses on the linguistically and culturally diverse students in the Middle East.

In a time of upheaval in American higher education, student retention continues to be a chief concern on most campuses. Peer tutoring, like other peer-based programming, is asked to serve multiple functions as a low-cost, high-impact model. This study explored the cultures of these semi-structured, co-curricular, academic-social spaces and sought to understand what happens in a group peer tutoring context that impacts students. Data was generated with students on two campuses during the spring 2014 semester using a two-phase qualitative approach. Data generating activities included observation of students and peer tutors in the tutoring spaces on each campus. The second phase of data generation included focus groups with more than 30 students on each campus. Findings suggest that the student participants on these two campuses conceive of tutoring spaces as unique, that they engage with their peers in such contexts differently than they do in other places, and that programmatic structures may influence the outcomes they achieve. Implications range from contributions to more nuanced understanding of social learning theory to the critical importance of vulnerability in student help-seeking behavior.

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-10-24T15:04:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 lidianaaparecidabrigida.pdf: 1901459 bytes, checksum: 80e9fe5e285a0561ed355083f26ee1ec (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-11-23T12:22:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lidianaaparecidabrigida.pdf: 1901459 bytes, checksum: 80e9fe5e285a0561ed355083f26ee1ec (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-23T12:22:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lidianaaparecidabrigida.pdf: 1901459 bytes, checksum: 80e9fe5e285a0561ed355083f26ee1ec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-21 / A presente dissertação é desenvolvida no âmbito do Mestrado Profissional em Gestão e Avaliação da Educação (PPGP), do Centro de Políticas Públicas e Avaliação da Educação da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (CAEd/UFJF). O caso de gestão discute o Programa de Monitoria na Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. Os objetivos definidos para este estudo são: propor ações para possibilitar a adoção de procedimentos de avaliação e monitoramento do Programa de Monitoria da UFJF; descrever a política de funcionamento do Programa; analisar e compreender a visão dos bolsistas e professores-orientadores sobre o Programa, além de propor um processo sistematizado de avaliação do Programa de Monitoria. Aos objetivos específicos acrescenta-se a possibilidade de levantar ações administrativas e/ou pedagógicas que possam fortalecer o Programa de Monitoria da UFJF. Assume-se como hipótese que a falta de mecanismos de avaliação e monitoramento do Programa de Monitoria reflete na eficácia, eficiência e efetividade de sua gestão. Para tanto, a pesquisa se utiliza da abordagem qualitativa como metodologia de trabalho, organizada sob a forma de um estudo de caso, realizando o levantamento de dados a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas, e pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Diante dos objetivos expostos, apresenta-se, em um primeiro momento, o contexto institucional do Programa de Monitoria da UFJF. Em seguida, analisa-se o problema de pesquisa. Por fim, é apresentado um Plano de Ação Educacional (PAE), que tem por objetivo desenvolver, fundamentado nas evidências empíricas e teóricas levantadas pela pesquisa, um processo sistematizado de avaliação e monitoramento para o Programa de Monitoria da UFJF. / The present dissertation is developed under the Professional Master in Management and Evaluation of Education (PPGP) of the Center for Public Policies and Education Evaluation of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (CAEd /UFJF). The management case to be studied will discuss the peer tutoring Program at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The objectives defined for this study are: to propose actions to enable the adoption of evaluation and monitoring procedures of the UFJF Monitoring Program; describe the program's operating policy; analyze and understand the vision of fellows and teachers-counselors about the Program and propose a systematic process of evaluation of the peer tutoring. The specific objectives add the possibility of raising administrative and / or pedagogical actions that may strengthen the UFJF peer tutoring. It is assumed that the lack of evaluation and monitoring mechanisms of its peer tutoring Program reflects the effectiveness, efficiency and effectiveness of its management. For that, the research uses as work methodology the qualitative approach, organized in the form of a case study, carrying out the data collection from and as instruments semi-structured interviews, bibliographical and documentary research. In view of the aforementioned objectives, the institutional context of the UFJF peer tutoring Program is presented. Next, the proposed research problem is analyzed. Finally, an Educational Action Plan (PAE) is presented, which aims to develop, based on the empirical and theoretical evidences raised by the research, a systematized evaluation and monitoring process for the UFJF peer tutoring Program.

Due to the increased use of Internet among children, developers have realized that digital environments need better usability, especially to give children the opportunity to handle digital interfaces on their own. This paper investigates how children handle and navigate the online streaming service TV4 Play. The aim of this study was to understand the children’s moves and actions for further development of a more child-centered site that should make it easier for them to handle. The study was based upon a Usability Evaluation Method (UEM) called Peer-Tutoring, where pairs of children cooperated and taught each other, one by one, to solve tasks based on navigation through the interface. This method was also combined with a method called Active Intervention, where questions were added to the Peer-Tutoring in order to invite the children to talk and reflect on their actions. The participants were 4-6 year old children from a preschool in Danderyd, Stockholm. The results show difficulties of navigating and understanding the structure of the site, which is closely related to children’s limited cognitive ability, for instance, adults have superior capacity to handle drag and drop compared to children. These results led to recommendations that the TV4 Play team can take into account when they optimize usability for children. For example, they should implement one-click buttons instead of drag-and-drop functions, and list the available TV shows in a horizontal overview. / På grund av den ökade användningen av Internet bland barn, har utvecklarna insett att digitala miljöer behöver bättre användbarhet, särskilt för att ge barnen möjlighet att hantera digitala gränssnitt på egen hand. Denna uppsats undersöker hur barn hanterar och navigerar på streaming tjänsten TV4 Play. Syftet med denna studie var att förstå barnens rörelser och åtgärder för vidareutveckling av en mer barncentrerade webbplats, som ska göra det lättare för dem att hantera. Studien baserades på en användbarhets utvärderingsmetod, som kallas Peer-Tutoring, där barnen i par samarbetar och lär varandra, en efter en, för att lösa uppgifter baserade på navigering via gränssnittet. Denna metod kombinerades med en metod som kallas aktivt ingripande (Active Intervention), där frågor ställdes för att bjuda in barnen till att prata och reflektera över sina handlingar. Barnen var 4-6 år gamla från en förskola i Danderyd, Stockholm. Resultaten visar svårigheterna att navigera och förstå strukturen på webbplatsen, vilket är nära relaterat till barnens begränsade kognitiva förmåga, t ex har vuxna överlägsen kapacitet att hantera dra-och-släpp jämfört med barn. Dessa resultat har lett till rekommendationer som TV4 Play teamet kan ta hänsyn till när de optimerar användbarheten för barn. Till exempel bör de implementera klickknappar istället för dra-och-släpp-funktioner och lista tillgängliga TV-program i en horisontell översikt.

This study aims to identify, explore and elucidate the language-learning strategies used by African English second-language learners participating in peer tutoring in Gauteng province, South Africa. Informed by pragmatism, this study was situated in a constructivist epistemology and a relational ontology. Consistent with a constructivist epistemology, Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory was utilised and adapted for the purpose of this study to reflect a hybridised model which is more suitable for studying the language-learning strategies used by indigenous learners. Using a convergent mixed methods design, a total of 137 second-language learners in Grades 8 and 9 from seven different peer tutoring programmes were purposefully sampled to be part of this study. The data collection methods used for this study were: a quantitative as well as a qualitative questionnaire, focus group discussions and non-participant observation. The findings of this study show that learners use a range of conventional strategies at a high frequency (metacognitive, social, cognitive and affective) while compensation and memory strategies were used at a medium frequency. The qualitative results show that the use of conventional strategies took place in a collectivist manner, which relates to the relational ontology of this study. A significant insight derived from this study is that African second-language learners use a range of indigenous strategies for L2 learning. These strategies include various art forms such as dance, music, poetry and word games. Consistent with the use of humour by many African literary scholars, learners in this study also used humour for downplaying their second-language mistakes, managing emotions and for critical thinking. The use of strategies was shown to be affected by learner motivation, gender, resource availability, identity, home language knowledge and the context in which learners learn. The peer tutoring learning context was shown to be an effective method for scaffolding second-language learning by allowing learners to be taught within their zone of proximal development. I theorise that the use of a hybridised framework that combines both conventional and indigenous knowledge systems should be considered to aid the learning of a second language. This framework lends support for strengthening learners’ home language(s) through translanguaging practices and by valorising learners’ translingual identity. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers should ensure the inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems in the curriculum and put measures in place for monitoring the effective implementation of these indigenous knowledge systems in the South African curriculum. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / pt2021 / Humanities Education / PhD / Unrestricted

This mixed methods study investigated the effects of a pilot peer-tutoring program for high school students between L1 Spanish-speaking tutors and Spanish second language (L2) tutees during Fall Semester 2018 (16 weeks). The purpose of this research was to explore the impact the peer-tutoring program had on the language acquisition, motivation to learn, intercultural sensitivity, and number of Spanish-speaking friendships of the L2 Spanish learners. The study consisted of a matched-group comparison and a qualitative exploration of reflective surveys completed by the participants in the pilot program. The experimental group (n=32) received a treatment of 20 minutes of peer tutoring each class period and the control group (n=41) received no treatment. Results of language acquisition data suggested that, though not statistically significant (p=0.119), the experimental group showed language acquisition gains that are noteworthy. The experimental group showed a 60% greater increase in the oral proficiency score over the control group in a pre-test/post-test analysis of an identical oral proficiency test. Results from the motivation data showed a marked decrease in motivation of the experimental group as compared to the control group. Results from the intercultural sensitivity assessment showed a statistically significantly higher end score on the behavioral scale and a higher end score on the attitude scale of the experimental group vs. the control group. Results from the quantitative data indicating pre and post number of Spanish-speaking friends showed no increase in number of Spanish speaking friends for the experimental group vs. the control group. However, qualitative data showed that 25% of the experimental group reported making a new Spanish-speaking friend after the treatment. Future research needs to consider how peer tutoring as compared to reciprocal peer tutoring among L2 learners with higher proficiency may impact these results.