Tutoring is a proces of support in education. Researches has shown many positive effects of tutoring, for example higher academic achievements and motivation, develop interpersonal relationships, improving communication skills, confidence in their own abilities, etc. It is important to stress that the positive effects are shown in tutors and tutees as well. There are various forms of tutoring. In this Master’s thesis, I systematically set and operationalized peer tutoring persons who are involved in the special education program. Persons with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disabilities are educated in a special program of variable lengths, the longest up to their 26th year. They are characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. Due to their characteristics, they require additional adjustments to the contents, forms and methods of work. In this Master’s thesis, I examined if the peer tutoring, when he deliberately conceived and implemented continuously, is one of the effective forms of work in persons with intellectual disability. Peer tutoring is done in such a way that the various activities of older students -tutors- carried the knowledge and experiences to younger students -tutees-. First, tutors learned in advance about the subject of the planned activities and then transferred the knowledge on tutees. Activities are systematically monitored and managed by professional employees. Peer tutoring was introduced within the school lessons and has been planned.
The survey was conducted in eleven subjects with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities, of which 5 tutors are 21 to 25 years old and 6 tutees are 7 to 9 years old. All tutors and 5 tutees are oriented as people with moderate intellectual disabilities and one tutee as a person with a severe intellectual disorder. We set individualized goals of cognitive and social domains for each tutor and for each tutee. The effects of peer tutoring, was measured by multi-stage grading scale on the basis of an individualized set of indicators of progress. Analysis of the results shows positive social and cognitive effects on the development of students involved in the study. In pursuit of the goals in the social field we are seeing positive effects in regard to the rules in cooperation with others, by using courtesy phrases and non-verbal elements of communication. We are also seeing progress in responding to new social situations. In the cognitive domain, we notice the positive effects of the perception of stimuli, expressive and receptive communication and solving mental problems. Team approach is important for successful implementation of peer tutoring. For the needs of the Master thesis it was composed a team, which was directed to the task. In this team were class teacher of the tutors, class teacher of the tutees, the second teacher in the class and the guardian. Professional team functioned properly, because we equally distributed tasks and carefully observed all the arrangements. The advantage of this operation is the division of labor, responsibilities and tasks among its members.
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