Peer Tutoring Strategy: A Quantitative Analysis of Pre-Service Teachers’ Academic Achievement in Mathematics

Emmanuel Kwadzo Sallah1, Alex Owusu2, Millicent Narh-Kert3 & Justice Yawson Mensah4
1,2Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education, Amedzofe, Ghana
3University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
4SDA College of Education, Koforidua, Ghana
DOI – http://doi.org/10.37502/IJSMR.2023.6903

Abstract

This research focused on investigating the impact of employing peer tutoring as an instructional approach on the academic attainment of pre-service teachers in mathematics within selected Colleges of Education in Ghana. The investigation was guided by two research inquiries and corresponding hypotheses. The research design employed was quasi-experimental, involving a sample of 370 third-year pre-service teachers drawn from three Colleges of Education situated in two regions of Ghana. To gather data for analysis, a Mathematics Students Achievement Test (MSAT) was crafted and validated by three experts, demonstrating a reliability index of 0.81 as determined by Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The collected data underwent analysis utilizing adjusted means and standard deviations to address the research queries. Meanwhile, the null hypothesis was assessed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at a significance level of 0.05. The outcomes of the study unveiled that participant exposed to the peer tutoring instructional approach achieved higher scores and exhibited notably superior performance compared to those who experienced the traditional talk and chalk teaching method. Moreover, the assessment of interaction effects indicated that gender did not significantly interact with the teaching strategy in relation to students’ average performance. In conclusion, this study underscores the efficacy of employing peer tutoring as an instructional strategy for teaching mathematics. Consequently, it is recommended that mathematics educators embrace this approach as a valuable tool within their instructional repertoire. Given that peer tutoring demonstrated greater effectiveness and contributed to heightened mathematics achievement compared to conventional teaching methods, it should be integrated as one of the preferred strategies for mathematics instruction in classrooms.

Keywords: Peer Tutoring Strategy, Quantitative Analysis, Pre-Service Teachers, Academic Achievement, Mathematics

References

  • Abdelkarim, R., & Abuiyada, R. (2016). The effect of peer teaching on mathematics academic achievement of the undergraduate students in Oman. International Educational Students, 9(5), 124 -132.
  • Andreanoff, J. (2016). Issues in conducting quantitative studies on the impact of coaching and tutoring in Higher Education. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching & Tutoring, 20-38.
  • Asempapa, R., Morales, A., & Agili, S. (2021). A Quantitative Analysis of a Customized Peer Tutoring Program with STEM Underrepresented Students. Journal of Research in STEM Education, 7(1), 1-20.
  • Awofala, A.O.A. & Lawani, A.O. (2020). Increasing mathematics achievement of senior secondary school students through differentiated instruction. Journal of Educational Sciences, 4(1), 1-19.
  • Bradley‐Levine, J. L. (2016). Teacher tutoring as a community effort. School science and mathematics, 116(2), 71-82.
  • Bukari, M., & Kuyini, A. (2015). Exploring the role of tutoring in the quality of teacher training in Ghana. International Journal of Learning & Development, 5(1), 46-66.
  • Chilvers, R. (2016). Take your ideas forward. Midwives, 19(3), 76.
  • Chong, J. Y., Ching, A. H., Renganathan, Y., Lim, W. Q., Toh, Y. P., Mason, S., et al. (2020). Enhancing tutoring experiences through e-tutoring: a systematic scoping review of e-tutoring programs between 2000 and 2017. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 25(1), 195-226.
  • Cornelius, K. E., & Sandmel, K. N. (2018). Early career special education teachers perceived value of being mentored by general education teachers. The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 7(3).
  • Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.,). United States: SAGE Publication, Inc
  • Cropp, I. (2017). Using peer tutoring to reduce mathematical anxiety. Research Papers in Education, 32(4), 481-500.
  • Cross, R., Lowcock, D., Fiave, J., Agyeniwah, S., & Kafui-Annan, G. (2020). ‘Feeling part of a network of learning in health promotion: An evaluation of a postgraduate peer-tutoring scheme in Ghana. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 57(2), 175-185.
  • Debbağ, M., & Yıldız, S. (2021). Effect of the flipped classroom model on academic achievement and motivation in teacher education. Education and Information Technologies, 26(3), 3057-3076.
  • Deshler, J., Fuller, E., & Darrah, M. (2019). Supporting Students through Peer Tutoring in Developmental Mathematics. Learning Assistance Review, 24(1), 87-112.
  • Fayram, J., Boswood, N., Kan, Q., Motzo, A., & Proudfoot, A. (2018). Investigating the benefits of online peer tutoring for student confidence and motivation. International Journal of tutoring and Coaching in Education, 16-34.
  • Fisher, M. H., Athamanah, L. S., Sung, C., & Josol, C. K. (2020). Applying the self‐determination theory to develop a school‐to‐work peer tutoring programme to promote social inclusion. Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities, 33(2), 296-309.
  • Fuadiah, N. F., & Suryadi, D. (2019). Teaching and Learning Activities in Classroom and Their Impact on Student Misunderstanding: A Case Study on Negative Integers. International Journal of Instruction, 12(1), 407-424.
  • Giles, M., & Ody, M. (2015). Guest editorial: Academic Peer Learning. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, 2-7.
  • Gu, F., & Gu, L. (2019). Characterizing mathematics teaching research specialists’ tutoring in the context of Chinese lesson study. Springer, Cham, 657-680.
  • Haran, V. V., & Jeyaraj, A. (2019). Organizational e-tutoring and learning: An exploratory study. Information Resources Management Journal (IRMJ), 32(1), 58-72.
  • Jalal, F. H. (2021). An Intervention of Academic Peer Tutoring Program towards Mathematics Grade among Secondary Students in Malaysia. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(3), 2795-2800.
  • Jibrin, A. G., & Zayum, S. D. (2012). Effects of peer tutoring instructional method on the academic achievement in Biology among secondary school students in Zaria metropolis, Nigeria. Journal of Research in Education and Society, 3(2), 13-17.
  • Johnson, M. & Kasmer, L. (2018). Gender Disparity in Mathematics Classroom. Proceedings of the International Conference on Gender Research (pp. 206-208). Porto: Academic Conference and Publishing International Limited ((ACPIL).
  • Lam, R. (2019). What students do when encountering failure in collaborative tasks. NPJ science of learning, 4(1), 1-11.
  • Lee, S. P., McGee, R., Pfund, C., & Branchaw, J. (2015). Tutoring up: Learning to manage your tutoring relationships. The tutoring continuum: From graduate school through tenure, 133-153.
  • Leidenfrost, B., Strassnig, B., SchĆtz, M., Carbon, C. C., & Schabmann, A. (2014). The Impact of Peer Tutoring on Mentee Academic Performance: Is Any Tutoring Style Better than No Tutoring at All? . International Journal of Teaching and Learning in High Education, 26(1), 102-111.
  • Mensah, J. Y. & Nabie, M. J. (2021). The effect of PowerPoint instruction on high school students’ achievement and motivation to learn Geometry. International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE), 4(3), 331-350.
  • Mensah, J. Y., Sam, S. E. & Armah, R. B. (2022). The use of PowerPoint presentation in mathematics Education: A comparative study of endowd and less endowed schools in Ghana. Internnational Journal of Scientific and Management Research, 5(8), 164-176. doi:http://doi.org/10.37502/IJSMR.2022.5814.
  • Olivier, C., & Burton, C. (2020). A large-group peer tutoring programme in an under-resourced higher education environment. International Journal of Tutoring and Coaching in Education, 45-59.
  • Orland-Barak, L., & Wang, J. (2021). Teacher tutoring in service of preservice teachers’ learning to teach: Conceptual bases, characteristics, and challenges for teacher education reform. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(1), 86-99.
  • Powell, S. R., Lembke, E. S., Ketterlin-Geller, L. R., Petscher, Y., Hwang, J., Bos, S. E., et al. (2021). Data-based individualization in mathematics to support middle school teachers and their students with mathematics learning difficulty. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 69, 100897.
  • Rosemary, M., Ekechukwu, O., & Horsfall, M. N. (2015). Academic tutoring in higher education: A strategy to quality assurance in teacher education in Nigeria. European Journal of Research and Reflection in Educational Sciences, 3(2).
  • Shi, M. (2019). The effects of class size and instructional technology on student learning performance. The International Journal of Management Education, 17(1), 130-138.
  • Wang, J. (2018). Teacher tutoring in service of beginning teachers’ learning to teach. The Wiley handbook of educational supervision, 281.
  • Whitehead, A. N. (2017). An introduction to mathematics. Mineola, New York: Courier Dover Publications.
  • Zhang, Z., & Bayley, J. G. (2019). Peer Learning for University Students’ Learning Enrichment: Perspectives of Undergraduate Students. Journal of Peer Learning, 12(5), 61-74.