Reading: Summary, Note & Table Completion: Question 9

Peer tutoring programmes, in which pupils teach other pupils rather than relying solely on an adult instructor, have existed in various forms for centuries, but a specific variant known as cross-age tutoring, pairing an older pupil with a younger one, has attracted particular research interest over the past few decades. Unlike same-age tutoring, where partners are matched within a single class or year group, the age gap in cross-age tutoring establishes a clear and stable status difference between the two roles, which researchers argue reduces the awkwardness or rivalry that can arise when a same-age classmate is cast in an instructional role.

A frequently cited finding from studies of cross-age reading tutoring is that measurable gains are not confined to the younger pupil receiving instruction. The older tutor, who must review and explain material at a more basic level than their own current work, often shows reading-comprehension gains nearly as large as those recorded for the tutee, an outcome researchers attribute to the tutor effect: the act of preparing to teach and then explaining a concept forces a more active and organised review of material than passive re-reading would achieve on its own.

Programme design appears to matter considerably. Structured programmes, in which tutors receive explicit training in specific tutoring techniques and follow a defined script or set of materials for each session, consistently outperform informal arrangements in which older pupils are simply asked to help a younger pupil without guidance. A widely referenced meta-analysis found that structured cross-age reading programmes produced reading-age gains roughly double those of unstructured pairings over an equivalent number of weeks. Session frequency also matters: benefits plateau if sessions run less than twice a week, but show diminishing additional returns beyond three sessions weekly, suggesting a practical optimum rather than a simple more-is-better relationship.

Cost has been a major driver of adoption. Because cross-age tutoring uses existing pupils rather than additional paid staff, schools have implemented large-scale programmes at a fraction of the cost of hiring specialist reading-intervention teachers, which partly explains why the approach has spread rapidly in school systems facing budget constraints despite the additional coordination burden it places on teaching staff who must schedule and monitor the pairings.

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Cross-age tutoring pairs an older pupil with a younger one, unlike (1) ____________________ tutoring, where partners come from the same class or year group. Gains from cross-age reading tutoring are not limited to the tutee: the older tutor also shows gains attributed to what researchers term the (2) ____________________, because preparing to teach forces a more active and (3) ____________________ review of material than passive re-reading. Structured programmes give tutors explicit (4) ____________________ in specific tutoring techniques, and one meta-analysis found they produced reading-age gains roughly (5) ____________________ those of unstructured pairings. Benefits plateau if sessions run less than (6) ____________________ a week. Because the approach uses existing pupils rather than paid staff, schools have run large-scale programmes at a fraction of the cost of hiring specialist (7) ____________________ teachers.