Abstract
In academic year 2020-21 an intervention research was carried out on peer tutoring at university which was hypothesized to be an effective tool to reduce some of the negative effects of distance learning caused by the pandemic during the academic year 2019-20. The students involved were those who enrolled in the first year of the three-year degree course in Educational Sciences at the University of Palermo. 17 female students and 2 second-year students of this course of study who had already completed the exams of the previous year, after having participated in a specific training activity in February and March, from March to June 2021 they helped in remote mode to 33 female students and 2 students – their annual colleagues – to advance their careers by catching up as many first-year exams as possible. Participation in the initiative was voluntary both for the tutor students and for the tutored students. The activity carried out was recognized for the tutor students as an “extraordinary curricular internship” in lieu of the internship which, due to the pandemic, could not be carried out at the educational facilities. By July 2021, the group of 35 late students took 38 back exams out of a total of 57, recorded after the close of the extraordinary session in February; therefore two thirds of the back exams were recovered. Furthermore, in July 2021, in this group of 35 recipients of the training intervention, students took all seven exams scheduled for the second year of the study plan, 8 took six and the others a number ranging from two to five, with the expectation of taking the remaining exams in the autumn session or in the extraordinary session of the second year of the course. At the end of the activity carried out by the 19 tutor students, the understanding of the disciplines taught to colleagues improved. The positively tested model can also be re-proposed in face-to-face teaching.
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