The effect of cross age peer tutoring model on students' self-efficacy beliefs

The purpose of the thesis study is to suggest a theoretical model about peer tutoring which is established on the basis of the student's ability to tutor and to determine the effects of the suggested model on the self-efficacy beliefs of the student. In the first phase of this study, which is designed according to the embedded design, quantitative research approach was implemented. With the findings obtained from the data, the effects of the cross-age peer tutoring method on the students' self-efficacy beliefs have been tried to be determined through the experimental study with pre-test and post-test control groups. Primarily, a cross age peer tutoring program relating to the BFP course has been designed. The obtained data along with the effects of the cross-age peer tutoring on students' self-efficacy belief have been analyzed with the help of Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney U test. In the second phase of the research, presenting the contributions of the cross age peer tutoring, which is designed for BFP course with a qualitative research approach, on students and teaching-learning environment, laying out the difficulties encountered in the process, developing suggestions regarding the application, putting forward deep and original responses to the questions regarding how they perceive cross age peer tutoring with the metaphors defined by the participants have been aimed. Efforts in this direction make it necessary to explore the context from inside, thus adopting the idiographic methodology, which emphasizes the relative nature of the social world. Bearing this in mind, during the research, rich and original findings have been obtained by utilizing the embedded design among the mixed research methods. According to the quantitative findings of the research, self-efficacy beliefs of both peer learners and peer tutoring students have been observed to increase meaningfully. In the points of the control group, no statistical differentiation has been observed. According to the qualitative findings of the research, both peer learners and peer tutoring students have been observed to approach positively to the cross-age peer tutoring method during classes, to find the method useful, to increase their self-confidence and to improve their communication and empathy skills. The other important results of the research are that the method is effective in fostering positive communication among peers and improving the teaching-learning environment positively.