Peer

Tutoring in Inclusive Settings

An Abstract of Effects of School Counselor Supervised Peer Tutoring in Inclusive

Settings on Meeting IEP Outcomes of Students with Developmental Disabilities

Sarah Catron
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Peer Tutoring in Inclusive Settings

An Abstract of Effects of School Counselor Supervised Peer Tutoring in Inclusive Settings on
Meeting IEP Outcomes of Students with Developmental Disabilities


Problem


Because of the growing number of developmental disabilities in students today,
teachers around the world are being challenged daily with how to help children with
developmental disabilities meet their IEP goals. Many teachers find peer tutoring (meaning
one student helping another student learn something new) between typically developing
students successful in helping said students reach their educational goals. This study was
done to see whether a teacher could find success in supervised peer tutoring in inclusive
settings to meet IEP goals. The article asks six questions in regard to the study: (1) Does
school counselor train tutors about how to deliver simultaneous prompting (SP) procedure
reliably? (2) Is SP delivered by peer tutors effective in teaching functional skills aimed at in
their IEPs of the students with developmental disabilities? (3) Are peer tutees able to
generalize the acquired skills across persons and settings? (4) Are they able to maintain the
acquired skills one, three, and four weeks after the instruction? (5) Are tutees able to
acquire instructive feedback provided to them in the consequence events during a teaching
trial? (6) Do peer tutees find peer tutoring intervention beneficial for themselves?
(Odluyurt, Tekin-Iftar, & Ersoy, 2014, p. 417)

Procedure


This study had 24 participants, 18 typically developing students as the tutors and
six tutees with developmental disabilities. Some of the prerequisite skills of the tutors
included: reading and writing accuracy, the ability to follow written and verbal instruction,
and being available for the study five times a week. Some of the prerequisite skills of the
tutees included: ability to pay attention to audio and visual stimuli for at least 5 minutes,
ability to follow verbal instruction, and ability to select reinforcers. (Odluyurt, Tekin-Iftar,
& Ersoy, 2014, p. 417) Tutors were trained by the school counselor on how to tutor their
peers with developmental disabilities before the study took place. The study was
conducted at a public school in a mid-sized town in Turkey. Peer tutoring was conducted
one on one at the school and the focus areas were first aid skills and purchasing skills.
Three peers served as tutors per one tutee on a rotation basis so that one tutor was with
the tutee per session. During the training sessions, the tutor would get the tutees attention
by asking a stimulating question about the topic, then after receiving a positive response,
the tutor would gave a task to the tutee. If the tutee completed the task (a correct
response), they were praised, if not, the response was ignored.

Peer Tutoring in Inclusive Settings

Results


Integrity checklists completed by the observer collected results of this study. The
data was calculated and the results were significantly high. The tutors delivered
simultaneous prompting at an average of 94% compliance. At the beginning of the study,
the data showed that the tutees had a very low score for correct responses when it came to
both shopping skills and first aid skills. However, after introducing peer tutoring, the data
showed that the tutees had a 100% correct response rate across the board during the last
sessions with the tutors. (Odluyurt, Tekin-Iftar, & Ersoy, 2014, p. 421)


Implications


This data proves that peer tutoring does make a difference and is effective in
helping a student with developmental disabilities reach their IEP goals. The questions
asked at the beginning of the study were answered (1) Tutors are trained before peer
tutoring takes place. (2) Simultaneous prompting is effective in teaching functional skills
aimed at the IEPs of the students. (3) Tutees are able to generalize what they have learned
and apply the skill. (4) Tutees maintained the acquired skill 1 and 3 weeks after the
training. (5) Tutees acquired instructive feedback stimuli during the trial. (6) Tutees
reported positively about the social aspects of the study (Odluyurt, Tekin-Iftar, & Ersoy,
2014, pp. 422-424). The results of the study are promising for the future of peer tutoring
between typically developing students and students with developmental disabilities.


My Personal Response


I really enjoyed reading this article and learning about this study. I have been an
advocate of the inclusion of students with disabilities into a typical classroom since
beginning my degree at SMWC. I have believed that typically developing peers have a very
strong impact on those with disabilities and vice versa since I was in high school. I
graduated with a boy with Downs Syndrome and we loved having him in class and he
absolutely loved when we involved him in any activities. I am very pleased to see that this
study proved my personal beliefs correct. I think if more teachers used peer tutoring in the
classroom, it would make a huge difference, not only in helping students with
developmental disabilities meet their IEP goals, but to help them feel included and
encourage them to be part of a group that might otherwise seem intimidating. Overall, I
was really excited to find this article and very glad the results ended up being in favor of
peer tutoring.

Peer Tutoring in Inclusive Settings

Works Cited
Odluyurt, S., Tekin-Iftar, E., & Ersoy, G. (September 2014). Effects of School Counselor
Supervised Peer Tutoring in Inclusive Settings on Metting IEP Outcomes of Students with
Developmental Disabilities. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental
Disabilities , 49 (3), 415-428.