PEER-TUTORING: ITS EFFECTS ON THE MATH SKILLS OF STUDENTS DESIGNATED AS LEARNING DISABLED

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of peer-tutoring in math skills of learning disabled students. The two major questions this study attempted to answer were whether the learning disabled pupils who received peer-tutoring made significant gains in math computation and math concepts/application over the learning disabled pupils who received no peer tutoring and whether the learning disabled students who provided tutoring made significant gains in math computation and math concepts/application over the learning disabled students who did not provide tutoring. The study utilized a cross-age peer-tutoring model in which eleventh and twelfh-graders tutored ninth and tenth-graders on a one-to-one basis. The sample consisted of 100 learning disabled students drawn from two secondary schools. The California Achievement math sub-tests of Math Computation and Math Concepts/Applications was used as a measure to determine pre- and post-test results. The study covered a period of nine weeks with 15 minutes of tutoring four days a week. A Two-Way Analysis of Variance using repeated measures design was employed for analyzing test results. The results indicated that the peer-tutored group of learning disabled students made significant gains in both math computation and math concepts/applications scores over the non-peer-tutored group of learning disabled students, while the learning disabled peer-tutors made significant gains only in math concepts/applications scores over the learning disabled non-peer pupils. The findings were not significant for the peer-tutors in math computation. Therefore, three of the four null hypotheses were rejected with the results being significant at the .01 level of significance. Peer-tutoring is, therefore, a useful strategy in delivering individualized instruction to those who need it. It is one of the most pragmatic ways of reducing classroom pressures of teachers. It is beneficial to those who give tutoring and those who receive tutoring. In the recent past its importance has also been felt in special education programs which have increased in size and number.