Examining the Academic Effects of Cross-age Tutoring: A Meta-analysis

Cross-age tutoring is an educational model where an older tutor is paired with a younger tutee, valued for its economic advantages and capacity to engage participants. This model leads to improvements in both academic performance and behavior, as evidenced by Shenderovich et al. (International Journal of Educational Research, 76, 190–21 2016) meta-analysis, which reported statistically significant positive effects across various educational settings and demographic groups. In this study, we aimed to update this previous meta-analysis by systematically examining 32 studies on cross-age tutoring. In our updated meta-analysis, we observed a small to moderate positive effect on academic outcomes for both tutors and tutees. The overall effect size was 0.34, with tutees benefiting at 0.33 and tutors at 0.39. Our moderator analyses revealed no significant differences in impact from the number of sessions, tutor type, tutee risk status, or subject area. These findings highlight the broad applicability and effectiveness of cross-age tutoring, particularly emphasizing the benefits of using older students as tutors in resource-limited settings. Further research is recommended to explore additional influencing factors.