Cross-aged teaching programs provide leadership experiences to youth who aim to influence children to be responsible, caring, and compassionate. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a leadership development protocol on relationship development in an established cross-aged teaching program. Method: Guided by the…

This article examines the persistent problem of student literacy, the range of tutoring solutions, and implications for peer teaching in cooperative learning teams. Possible school reforms that reflect practices in other countries with high student test scores and peer norms in support of tutoring are described. An online poll was completed by 190…

In this thought experiment, we explore how to make access to individualized instruction and academic mentoring more equitable by taking tutoring to scale as a permanent feature of the U.S. public education system. We first synthesize the tutoring and mentoring literature and characterize the landscape of existing tutoring programs. We then outline…

This case study describes the synergetic elements within mentoring relationships that allow a bond to develop. Through a single case, a voluntary high school mentoring club in the Western United States, mentoring relationships were analyzed. The study was designed to examine the specific shared elements of mentoring relationships that form the…

Satellite laboratories, designed to ignite interest in technical and computer science topics, employ cross-age peer tutoring and physical computing platforms. Catering to students from 5th grade onwards, these laboratories are led by tutors from 9th grade onwards. Employing a design-based research approach, the project aims to comprehensively…

The article discusses a year-long outreach activity, "Sparking interest in German." Five University of Utah German students engaged in the AATG/Goethe-Institut-sponsored SPARK program and taught German to local middle schoolers. At the heart of this outreach project were questions such as whether student-run outreach programs could truly…

To address the problem of low achieving math students, a cross-age math tutoring intervention paired middle school tutors with kindergarten and first grade students with low math skills. This instrumental group case study explored the effects of the intervention on the math skills of the students through teacher interviews and the testing program…

The current study describes preliminary findings from the Xavier University of Louisiana Mobile Outreach for Laboratory Enrichment (XULA-MOLE) project, which is a collaboration between Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), a Historically Black and Catholic University, and participating 9th-12th grade classrooms in the central New Orleans area…

Background: Service-learning provides opportunities for adolescents to foster leadership skills, learn about those in different social circumstances, and enhance civic engagement. Objectives: This pilot study described the implementation and evaluation of a service-learning project to train adolescents as coaches to teach social and emotional…

The purpose of this quantitative synthesis was to evaluate the effectiveness and related outcomes of the cross-age tutoring model when students with or at risk for emotional-behavioral disorders (EBD) serve as tutors. Research questions were posed to identify the shared and unique components (e.g., dosage, tutor training) of the cross-age tutoring…

A promising approach to support positive youth development is having adolescents serve as teachers for younger children. Through a qualitative interview study, we explored adolescents' development in their role serving as teachers for younger elementary-age children during out-of-school time; programs were managed by the University of California…

Peer tutoring is a form of structured peer learning technique. This study develops and tests a new form of peer tutoring technique, 'Interdependent Cross-Age Peer Tutoring' (ICAT). The method is informed by the 'what works literature' within peer tutoring and brings together crucial elements which have been shown to provide high effect sizes.…

This study examined how cross-age peers (ages 5-6 and 9-10) used and responded to Spanish (L1) as they read and talked about informational texts together written in English (L2). Grounded in sociocultural discourse analysis, we analyzed video recordings and transcripts from 10 sessions of peer reading in two elementary schools. We coded student…

To engage more youth in service, we require further research on the characteristics of youth who serve, particularly disadvantaged youth with limited access to formal service opportunities. This study investigated the positive youth development characteristics of New Zealand youth who decided to mentor younger peers in the Stars program for the…

We analyzed effects of peer teaching on non-science major undergraduates' knowledge, perceptions, and opinions about genetically modified (GM) crops and their use in agriculture. Undergraduates enrolled in an introductory nonmajors biology course participated in a service-learning program (SLP) in which they acted as cross-age peer teachers to…