Effects of peer tutoring on middle school students’ mathematics self-concepts

by Lidon Moliner, Francisco Alegre

The effects of peer tutoring on students’ mathematics self-concepts were examined. The Marsh questionnaire was used to measure students’ mathematics self-concepts before and after implementation of a peer tutoring program. A pretest posttest control group design was employed. Study participants included 376 students from grades 7 to 9 (12 to 15 years old). No statistically significant differences were reported between the pretest and the posttest for any of the control groups. Statistically significant improvements were reported for all grades for the experimental groups. An average increment of 13.4% was reported for students in the experimental group, and the overall effect size was reported to be medium (Hedges’ g = 0.48). No statistically significant differences were reported across grades for the experimental group. The main conclusion of this study is that same-age and reciprocal peer tutoring may be very beneficial for middle school students’ mathematics self-concepts. Several recommendations for field practitioners emanated from the study: use same-age and reciprocal tutoring over cross-age and fixed peer tutoring; schedule tutoring programs for four weeks or less with two to four sessions of 25 minutes or less per week for each tutoring session; and, include a control group in research studies.