Effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on student performance in an environmental control systems course at an undergraduate level
Conference Paper
Overview
Additional Document Info
View All
Overview
abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) on student performance in one of the Environmental Control Systems courses offered by the Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University. Reciprocal peer tutoring has been used extensively at school level for developing academic skills of the students. It has also been used at college level for different disciplines. In this technique, students occasionally function equally as both tutor and tutee in a classroom situation. It enables the students to gain both from the preparation and instruction in which the tutors engage, and from the instructions that the tutees receive. Apart from RPT, some other probable correlates of student performance such as gender difference, overall academic ability of a student, semester in which the course was offered (summer vs. regular), and the academic major of a student were also taken into consideration to determine whether RPT continues to remain statistically significant in the presence of these variables. The study population consisted of the students who attended the course in Summer terms of 1998 and 2000, and Spring semester of 2000. Sample size of the study was 156 students. Relevant data was collected from the Student Information Management System database of the university. The data was analyzed using stepwise regression procedure and a General Linear Model. The findings generated from the analysis of the data indicated that RPT has a statistically significant effect on student performance in this particular Environmental Control Systems course. Overall academic ability and the academic major of a student are also positively correlated with student performance.
