Arranging peer-tutoring instruction to promote inference-making.

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Peer-mediated instructional strategies, such as peer tutoring, are established methods for teaching academic skills.
• Previous research has primarily focused on direct academic responses, with less emphasis on higher-order cognitive skills like inference-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of peer tutoring in teaching derived relations, specifically fraction-pictogram-percentage equivalencies.
• To extend the application of peer tutoring to include the programming of inference-making abilities.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments utilized homogenous, reciprocal peer tutoring sessions with 8 third-grade participants acting as both tutors and tutees.
• Experiment 1 involved tutors teaching separate fraction-pictogram and percentage-pictogram relations, while Experiment 2 had tutors teaching halves of each relation set.
• Participants were assessed on their ability to learn taught relations, teach relations, and derive new, equivalent relations.

Main Results:

• All tutors successfully learned the relations they taught.
• All tutees acquired the relations presented to them.
• Participants demonstrated the derivation of equivalence relations and transfer of functions for comparative relations.
• A comparison indicated that the difficulty of training relations impacts the effectiveness of peer-tutoring for inference-making.

Conclusions:

• Peer tutoring is a viable strategy for teaching complex academic relations and fostering inference-making in elementary students.
• Instructional designers should carefully consider the complexity of the relations being taught when implementing peer tutoring for derived stimulus relations.
• The findings support the use of peer tutoring to promote not only direct learning but also the critical skill of making inferences.