Dear Linda:
Yes, this is what Maxwell has said, although it is rebutted somewhat by
Boylan, Bonham, Bliss and Saxon in "What We Know About Tutoring: Findings
from the National Study of Developmental Education", in Research in
Developmental Education 12.3, 1995, available from the National Center for
Developmental Education (828) 262-3057.
However, note that Maxwell did not say that tutoring does not help, only
that it has not been found to help. Is this a call to research, then? How
can we figure out if tutoring helps or not? The findings on Supplemental
Instruction are strong, why not for tutoring? I'd love to see a discussion
on what research models have been tried for tutoring, and what have been the
results of those projects?
For instance, I found that tutored students grades in a course were about
the same as non-tutored students' grades. Does this mean that tutoring had
no impact, or does it mean that tutoing helped the weaker students achieve
grades comparable to their better-prepared peers? Only additional work will
tell me this, but it's a first step.
Who else is working on this?
Jane Neuburger
NYCLSA President
Assistant Professor, Reading, Writing, Tutoring
Center for Teaching & Learning
Cazenovia College
Cazenovia, NY 13035
(315) 655-7206
(315) 655-2190 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
|
