Contemporary teachers need instructional practices that are (a) powerful enough to meet the needs of a rapidly diversifying student population, (b) feasible to implement on a classwide basis, and (c) socially acceptable to them and their pupils. Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) is one such instructional practice. In addition to describing CWPT, its…

Peer-mediated instruction holds particular promise as an effective educational strategy for children with learning disabilities. When properly implemented, peer-mediated instructional approaches permit active engagement, frequent opportunities to respond, immediate error correction, prompt feedback on the correctness of responses, and motivational…

Results of using high status peers to tutor socially unpopular peers indicated signficant increases in daily accuracy rates of tutored subjects, slight positive improvements in the sociometric standing of low status peers; immediate increase in the number of positive social contacts, and decreased frequency of negative social interactions between…

In this special issue, readers were introduced to three powerful, evidence-based instructional practices that hold great promise for ameliorating many of the reading difficulties encountered by pupils in 21st century classrooms. Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), and START tutoring have emerged from over…

This paper discusses a teaching approach in which children serve as mediators in the delivery of instructional content. It describes programs that have been used effectively with students having academic difficulties, reviews the relative advantages and disadvantages of these methods, and proposes ways to utilize peer-mediated instructional…

The article focuses on the role of peer-mediated instructional approaches in improving the academic and social performance of secondary learning-disabled students. Two peer-teaching programs, Classwide Peer Tutoring and Classwide Student Tutoring Teams, are described. (Author/DB)

The study examined effects of a class-wide peer tutoring program on the weekly spelling test performance of 70 regular third- and fourth-graders, most of whom were also receiving compensatory and/or special education services. Results indicated that students' scores increased by an average of 12 points. (DB)

This study focused on preservice general education teachers who were prepared to use an evidence-based teaching practice and the effects the practice had on their pupils' academic performance. Participants learned to use Juniper Gardens Children's Project's Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) program through a two-hour workshop and with in class…

Describes the needs of minority children with disabilities and two peer-tutoring programs, Classwide Peer Tutoring and Classwide Student Tutoring Teams, that have been used effectively to promote the academic and social integration of minority children with disabilities into general-education settings. (Author/CR)

This article describes how a variety of peer-mediated instruction and intervention might assist teachers in meeting the needs of students with mild disabilities in inclusive classrooms. The needs of these students, peer-teaching methods such as class wide student tutoring teams and Numbered Heads Together, and future research directions are…

This study examined the effects of a classwide peer tutoring program on the academic performance of 20 mildly handicapped students enrolled in two separate sections of a secondary resource room program. Methodology and results are discussed. (Author/JL)

This paper calls for development of powerful instructional strategies that will enable teachers to educate students with wide-ranging abilities and backgrounds in integrated settings. Three peer-mediated instructional procedures that have been used with at-risk students are described: classwide peer tutoring, classwide student tutoring teams, and…

This study of 8 elementary school teachers implementing classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) with 198 pupils found that teachers reached training criteria in approximately 90 minutes; teachers continued to use CWPT accurately without consultative assistance; 4 teachers extended CWPT's use to nontrained content areas; and positive academic and consumer…

Following systematic training as peer coaches, six preservice general educators increased the frequency with which they engaged in relevant coaching interactions and improved the accuracy with which they implemented an innovative instructional strategy (Peabody Peer Assisted Learning Strategy) with three children with learning disabilities (ages…

Fourteen mildly handicapped (learning-disabled or behavior-disordered) and 36 nondisabled students in grade 10 social studies classrooms participated in a classwide peer tutoring program. Performance on weekly tests was significantly improved; 60 percent of all students earned "A" grades, and failing grades were virtually eliminated. (Author/JDD)