<![CDATA[Abstract. Academic reading in higher education requires students to interpret ideas, evaluate evidence, and apply strategic reading processes, yet structured interaction during academic reading warrants further attention in Indonesian EFL higher education. This study aimed to examine changes in students’ academic reading performance following participation in Class-Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) and to explore how its core instructional features supported the organization of academic reading instruction. More specifically, the study conceptualized CWPT not merely as a peer-assisted technique for improving reading achievement, but as an organizational framework for structuring tertiary academic reading through reciprocal peer interaction, collaborative meaning-making, strategic engagement with texts, and teacher scaffolding. An embedded mixed-methods research design was employed with 35 second-year English Education students at Tadulako University. Across 14 instructional sessions, students worked in heterogeneous peer-tutoring pairs with reciprocal roles, engaged with academic reading texts adapted from authentic IELTS materials, and participated in teacher-guided whole-class consolidation. Quantitative data were collected through 40-item pre- and post-tests, while qualitative data were obtained from a questionnaire comprising 20 closed-ended and three open-ended items and follow-up interviews with 12 students. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired-samples t-test with Cohen’s d, while qualitative data were thematically analyzed to identify recurring instructional patterns. Mean reading scores increased from 30.71 (SD = 21.34) to 71.21 (SD = 16.17), indicating a statistically significant difference, t(34) = 12.70, p < .001, with a large effect size (d = 1.56). Qualitative findings identified four interconnected instructional elements: structured peer interaction, collaborative meaning-making, strategic academic reading behaviors, and teacher scaffolding. Together, these findings suggest that CWPT can serve as a practical pedagogical structure for organizing academic reading as an interactive and scaffolded learning process. Beyond the Indonesian context, the findings suggest that peer-mediated instructional models may offer adaptable possibilities for tertiary EFL contexts in which opportunities for collaborative academic reading are constrained. However, such applications require deliberate task design, reciprocal peer participation, and context-sensitive teacher guidance.Keywords: Class-Wide Peer Tutoring; Academic Reading; EFL; Peer-Mediated Learning; Higher Education]]>
