Peer Tutoring Effects on the Music Performance of Tutors and Tutees in Beginning Band Classes

Abstract

This study compared the pre- and posttest music performance of beginning band students in tutor and tutee pairs with students in regular band class instruction. The effect of tutor approval and disapproval (error correction) techniques was also studied. In Experiment 1, students that had been tutored performed substantially higher on the posttest than control students. In Experiment 2, only students tutored with approval techniques performed higher than the control students. In both experiments peer tutors performed as well as the control tutors even though only the control tutors continued to have weekly band lessons during the experiment. All groups, except control tutees, showed significant pre- and posttest gain in both experiments. Peripheral investigations showed that there was a significant correlation between the tutors' posttest scores and the number of exercises completed by their tutees. Approval tutor and tutee posttest scores correlated significantly with the number of approvals given by the tutor. No other groups showed significant correlations.