How Participation in a Peer-Led Writing Center Impacts Struggling Students’ Self-Efficacy and Motivation

Many secondary students struggle with writing, both in terms of skill and confidence. This qualitative case study follows six students who have a history of struggling in English Language Arts class as they undergo a tutoring intervention based on the writing center model of peer tutoring. Students were observed in seven writing sessions which took place at multiple stages of the writing process and with informational, narrative, and analytical writing assignments. Through interview and observation, the researcher examines how students’ self-efficacy and motivation shift over the course of the intervention. Students who began with low self-efficacy and low motivation were shown to have increased in both components through the tutoring process; students with high self-efficacy and low motivation did not experience the same positive impact