John,
I looked at this a couple of years ago and found very little research on the topic. One exception was a study done by Bannier (2007). She used survey research to determine variables that might predict whether students would make use of the mathematics tutoring available at Alverno College, a Catholic women's college. Four of the variables in her study showed statistically significant correlations with mathematics tutoring visits: confidence in mathematics, number of years since high school, number of years at Alverno, and number of completed mathematics courses. In her analysis, Bannier suggested that experience-in college, in mathematics, and in life-may be a key determinant of whether a student is more likely to visit the mathematics learning center and recommended that learning center administrators be "diligent in reaching out to the youngest, least experienced students" (p. 15).
Bannier, B. (2007). Predicting mathematics learning center visits: An examination of correlating variables. The Learning Assistance Review, 12(1), 7-16.
A couple of working papers (one recent) bear scrutiny for what they have to say about aspects of this problem:
W. Norton Grubb, et al., Student Support Services: Their Possibilities and Limits, October 2011, available at
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pace/PUBLICATIONS/WORKINGPAPERS/2011_WP_GRUBB_NO4.pdf
(This is a good paper for all concerned with learning centers and tutoring to examine.)
Abstract (part): Community colleges provide a substantial array of student support services, designed to help students master basic subjects and to learn "how to be college students." However, the use of these services by instructors and students varies substantially. Some instructors rarely or never mention the availability of such services; others make the use of some services mandatory. But the largely voluntary nature of student services means that many students do not use these services, for reasons ranging from competing demands for their time to avoidance of stigma or stereotype threat. The result is general consensus that the students who most need support services fail to get them - except where colleges have moved to portray such services as "what all good students do."
Karp, O'Gara, and Hughes, January 2008, Do Support Services at Community Colleges Encourage Success or Reproduce Disadvantage? (CCRC Working Paper No. 10)
http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=571
Abstract: This study examines the ways that student support services in community colleges inadvertently perpetuate and legitimate disadvantage. Using interview data from students at two colleges in the northeast, we find that although support services are open to all students, only those who come to the college with pre-existing social and cultural resources can take advantage of them. However, because they are presented as open-access, students not able to make use of support services interpret their failure to progress toward a degree as personal, rather than structural.
Collegially,
Alan Craig
NCLCA Past President
Learning & Tutoring Center
Georgia Perimeter College
770-274-5242
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-----Original Message-----
From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cleveland, Prof. John P.
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 10:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Literature on students who do not come for tutoring
Hi Listers,
I am interested in why some students do not come for tutoring (when they know about the service, have been recommended to use the service, know that the service is free and accessible). Can anyone point me to literature/research done to answer this type of question? In the mean time, I will peruse back issues of the Journal of the CRLA.
Thank you,
John Cleveland
John P. Cleveland, M.T.S., M.A.
Director, Tutoring Center
Center for Academic Excellence
& Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies Pace University
41 Park Row, Room 204
New York, NY 10038
(212)346-1407 (phone)
(212)346-1520 (fax)
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www.pace.edu/tutoring
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