Attributional Determinants of Teaching and Learning in Cross-Age Tutoring

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This study assessed the relationship between causal attributions of 84 children in a cross-age tutoring program and tutors' teaching behavior and learners' performance on a laboratory task using multiple regression analyses. Tutors' beliefs that learners were not responsible for success but were responsible for failure were associated with teaching behaviors high in both verbal and nonverbal communication. These teaching behaviors were also directed most toward learners who believed that tutors are not responsible for lack of students' achievement. Neither tutors' nor learners' attributions predicted task performance. Results are discussed in terms of their relationship to research on both teachers' attributions of responsibility and cross-age tutoring.