Effects of Peer Tutoring

The research article "An Investigation of Effects of Peer Tutoring on Achievement, Self-Efficacy, and Test Anxiety" (Griffin & Griffin, 1998) is critiqued. The critique is performed within the context of 10 separate factors.

I. Statement of Research Problem and Purpose

The authors of the research reported in the article critiqued were interested in the effects that peer tutoring among university education majors would have on academic achievement, self-efficacy, and test anxiety. Peer tutoring is a form of cooperative learning. The authors noted that, while prior research had found that peer tutoring was effective in increasing student academic achievement at various educational levels, this prior research had not provided any information on the possible effectiveness of peer tutoring in raising levels of self-efficacy and reducing levels of test anxiety. This gap in the research literature, then was the problem investigated. The problem was clearly stated in the article.

The purpose of the research performed, thus, was to replicate prior studies, while performing additional measurements of subjects to collect the data required to assess the effectiveness of peer tutoring to increase levels of self-efficacy and reduce levels of test anxiety among participating subjects. The focus of the problem was narrowed to an investigation of the eff

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than reported in prior research, one obvious potential reason for such an outcome could be that levels of academic achievement and self-efficacy already were relatively high and levels of test anxiety already were relatively low among the students enrolled in the educational psychology classes which comprised the research samples. The one independent variable and the three dependent variables included in the research hypotheses were defined on the bases of both prior research and theories reported by the study authors in the literature review of the critiqued article. The variables were defined both conceptually and operationally, and the conceptual and operational definitions were consistent with one another. The one independent variable [peer tutoring intervention] and the three dependent variables [level of academic achievement, level of subject self-efficacy, and level of test anxiety] were clearly defined in the article. VI. Design A switch-back design was used, in which two classes of educational psychology students comprised the research sample in each of the first two of the three experiments. Different classes were involved in each of the two experiments. In the switch-back design, the two classes were exposed to
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Interpretation Findings, Questions Hypotheses, Population Setting, Research Purpose, Review Literature, Data Analyses, III Framework, Class Class, Scale STAS, VI Design, critiqued article, study authors, peer tutoring, test anxiety, academic achievement, reported critiqued article, achievement self-efficacy, reported critiqued, self-efficacy test, prior research, self-efficacy test anxiety, achievement self-efficacy test, academic achievement self-efficacy, research reported, research reported critiqued,
Approximate Word count = 2562
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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