In a peer-tutoring activity, two students work as a pair. One asks questions…

Concept

Peer-tutoring models can be classified by different features: how the teaching roles are shared, the age relation between learners, or whether a structured programme is implemented across a whole class.

Reciprocal tutoring is defined by reciprocity of roles: the same partners alternate as tutor and tutee, so each learner both teaches and receives support.

Application

In the described pair, one learner asks questions while the other answers and discusses the passage. They then exchange the tutor and tutee roles. The identifying feature is therefore reciprocal role exchange.

Contrast

• Classwide tutoring describes the scope and organisation of a programme across a whole class, not merely the defining name for exchanged roles.

• Same-age tutoring describes the learners’ age relation and does not by itself require their roles to alternate.

• Cross-age tutoring pairs learners of different ages, usually with the older learner acting as tutor.

Cross-check

If the ages were the decisive fact, the scenario would need to state that the learners were the same age or different ages. If classwide organisation were decisive, it would need a whole-class structure. Here, the explicit repeated clue is the exchange of tutor and tutee roles.

Therefore, the approach illustrated is reciprocal tutoring.