Schoolchildren learn how to read from other pupils, claim researchers
Literacy rates of schoolchildren can be improved by other pupils teaching and helping them to learn, researchers have claimed.
Studies conducted in 129 schools in Scotland by the University of Durham, in conjunction with the University of Dundee and Fife Council, claimed that children as young as seven can benefit from peer mentoring lasting as little as 20 minutes per week.
Professor Peter Tymms of Durham University's School of Education claimed that expensive top-down policy initiatives from the government had little effect on learning but that the trial demonstrates how an "inexpensive" but "effective" tutoring scheme could be implemented nationwide.
"Older pupils boosted their knowledge and skills by becoming tutors and the younger tutees benefitted greatly from one-to-one learning with older children," he explained.
Gillian Hepburn, a teacher at one of the schools in the trial – Burntisland Primary School – added that teachers would continue to use the paired literacy exercise because it encourages "a positive attitude towards reading".
Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University recently announced their development of a new game that uses songs to help younger learners improve their reading ability using nursery rhymes, action songs and overhead projections, reports the Glasgow Evening Times.
