Why Your Child Might Actually Learn More in a Shared Tutoring Session Than a 1:1

 

Most parents who contact me about tutoring ask the same question: "Is it just my child, or do you teach others at the same time?"

The assumption behind the question is clear. 1:1 is premium. Shared means a compromise.

I used to think the same. When I started tutoring over a decade ago, I structured everything around the 1:1 model. One student, full attention, tailored pace. And for a long time I didn't question it, because students were making progress and parents were happy.

Then something shifted.

What I started noticing in group sessions

A few years back I ran a small Easter revision group, four Year 11 students on the same Edexcel Higher paper. All around the grade 4 to 5 range, all fairly quiet individually.

About twenty minutes in, I worked through a question on bounds, and before I could ask if everyone had followed, one of them turned to another and said "wait, so does that mean you'd always round the lower bound down?" The other one said she thought so, but wasn't sure, and they went back and forth on it for about ninety seconds before arriving at the right conclusion between themselves.

I hadn't planned that. I hadn't prompted it. They just did it naturally because someone else was in the room.

That moment stuck with me. I'd spent ten years refining how I explain things. Two teenagers with a shaky grasp of bounds had just done something I couldn't: they'd created a reason for each other to actually think the problem through, rather than passively receive an explanation from me.

The research backs this up

A 2025 meta-analysis looking at peer tutoring across STEM subjects, drawing on 24 studies and over 3,300 students, found that peer tutoring had a significant effect on maths achievement, with an effect size of 1.23. In educational research, an effect size above 0.4 is considered meaningful. 1.23 is unusually high.

Part of why comes down to something researchers call the protégé effect. A 2014 study found that simply telling students they would need to teach the material to someone else improved their recall, their organisation of information, and their memory for the most important points, even when they never actually did the teaching. The expectation alone changed how they engaged with the content.

In a tutoring session with two students, that dynamic happens constantly. A student who knows their friend is watching doesn't want to look like they haven't understood. So they pay closer attention. They ask better questions. When I ask one of them to talk through a method, the other listens far more carefully than they would to me, because it's a peer, not an authority figure.

Research also shows this effect is most pronounced for lower-achieving students, who through peer learning can reach the same level of understanding as higher-achieving students who studied alone. That matters, because the students most likely to need tutoring are often the ones who've already decided they're "bad at maths." Having a friend in the room lowers the stakes. Asking a question feels less exposing.

The honest limits

Shared tutoring doesn't work for every student or every situation.

If a student has significant gaps that are very different from their peer's, the session pulls in two directions and neither of them gets what they need. I've had sessions where one student was secure on algebra and the other was still shaky on negative numbers, and it became clear quickly that separate sessions made more sense.

It also doesn't work if the two students have a dynamic that makes one of them quieter. I've taught pairs where one dominated every answer and the other sat back. You can manage that as a tutor, but it requires more deliberate facilitation.

The sweet spot, in my experience, is two or three students at a similar level on the same exam board, who know each other well enough to be comfortable asking questions in front of each other. When those conditions are met, the sessions are often livelier, more resilient, and produce better results than 1:1.

What this means in practice

I now offer small group sessions at SHLC specifically because I believe in them academically, not just as a more affordable option for families. Research in maths specifically has found that peer learning increases students' interest in the subject and their confidence in their own ability to solve problems, alongside improving their grades.

If your child has a friend or classmate on the same GCSE maths course, at a similar level, it's worth considering whether a shared session might actually suit them better than studying alone with a tutor.

You can find out more about how shared sessions work at SHLC here, or book a free consultation to talk through what would work best for your child.