Implementing a Peer Tutor Program: Strategies for Practitioners

Abstract

With the integration of students with disabilities into regular physical education classrooms, practitioners are challenged to provide adequate supports to insure beneficial learning environments. The use of students as peer tutors is one such support. Peer tutoring enhances motor performance, cognitive comprehension, attitudes, and physical education academic learning time (ALT-PE) of both tutees and tutors with differing abilities. Empirical research lends credence to the implementation of peer tutoring programs, but few strategies to include peer tutoring in the physical education setting have been documented. In this article four peer tutoring implementation strategies are discussed: (a) dyads with specific instruction, (b) peers to increase the ALT-PE of students with disabilities, (c) cross-age peers, and (d) class-wide peers. These strategies represent techniques that practitioners can use to enhance and assess the motor and cognitive capabilities of students both with and without disabilities. The recruitment and training of peer tutors, implementation of the tutor program, and assessment of tutee and tutor performance gains are detailed for each strategy. Checklists of the peer tutoring implementation strategies are provided to enhance program success.