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Tutoring as an effective instructional strategy

Tutoring

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Tutoring is defined as a learning interaction between a tutor and a tutee that focuses on a skill or an area of curriculum content needing improvement or strengthening in the tutee.

(adapted from Roe & Vukelich, 2001).

Tutors could include parents or other adult carers, brothers and sisters, other students from the peer group, and various kinds of volunteers.

Topping, 2000

Tutoring

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Research shows tutoring can be highly effective.

To be effective, tutoring needs to be

Topping, 2000

thoughtful

well structured

carefully monitored

Compared to professional teaching it can give more…

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• practice• activity and variety• individualized help• questioning• opportunities to enhance vocabulary• modelling and demonstration• local relevant examples• disclosure of misunderstanding• prompting and self-correction• immediate feedback and praise• opportunities for generalization• insight into learning (metacognition)• self-regulation/ownership of the learning process.

Two types

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Parent/other adult

tutoring

Peer tutoring

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Parent/other adult tutoring

Activity

Work in groups of 3 and complete a modified jigsaw reading activity..

Refer to the handout: General principles of tutoring

Allocate one person to read the information numbered:

1-3

4-5

8-10

Each person presents a summary of their reading to the rest of the group.

Whole group discussion

Work in groups of 3

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Parent tutors

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Across a wide range of studies and reports, it has been concluded that parental involvement in early childhood through adolescent education generally benefits children’s learning and school success, particularly in literacy.

Pressley, 2002; Rasinski, 2003

Parents/adults as volunteer tutors

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Volunteer tutoring programs should consider incorporating the following features:

(a) a certified educator to coordinate the program,

(b) continuous coaching and feedback to the tutors on their tutoring sessions,

(c) high-quality and ongoing instruction for the tutors,

(d) opportunities for tutor sharing and reflection during seminars, and

(e) structured, yet flexible tutoring sessions.

A success story – Why?

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1. Time to read in social contexts

2. Use of multicultural literature

3. A balanced approach to literacy - instruction in word recognition and word building strategies

4. Using a variety of instructional strategies

5. Increasing the frequency of tutoring sessions

Moore-Hart & Karabenick, 2009

Peer learning

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Peer learning can be defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skill through active helping and

supporting among status equals or matched companions.

It involves people from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers helping each other to

learn and learning themselves by so doing.

Topping ,2005

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Peer tutoring

Peer tutoring

Cross age peer tutoring

Peer Tutoring

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Peer tutoring is an instructional strategy that consists of student partnerships, linking high achieving students with lower achieving students or those with comparable achievement, for structured reading sessions.

According to Rohrbeck, Ginsburg-Block, Fantuzzo, & Miller Peer (2003), peer tutoring is "systematic, peer-mediated teaching strategies".

The Access Center, 2008

Peer tutoring (PT)…

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…is characterised by specific role-taking as tutor or tutee …has a high focus on curriculum content …has a high focus on clear procedures for interaction…involves either generic and/or specific training for participants ... may involve scaffolded interaction with structured …may prescribe structured interactive behaviours that can be effectively applied to any materials ofinterest.

Topping et al

Positive effects include...

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Tutees develop positive attitudes and skills and, in turn, become more motivated.Tutees develop communication skills.Tutees develop more independence and a sense of autonomy.Tutors serve as positive role models.Tutors develop the skills of interacting, helping, sharing, comforting and even empathising.Tutors help tutees to understand and learn the content which can, in turn, make the lessons more interesting for them.

Cross-Age Peer Tutoring

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Cross-Age Tutoring is a peer tutoring approach that joins students of different ages, with older students assuming the role of tutor and younger students assuming the role of tutee. (Scott-Little, 2003; Hall & Stegila, n.d.).

Key points:•Tutoring procedures are unstructured•Tutors generally participate in some type of training

Paired reading (PR)

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PR is a well-researched structured method for supported or assisted reading in cross-ability pairs (Topping, 2001b).

On a difficult text, tutor and student read the text aloud simultaneously. When the student feels confident, he or she signals the tutor to let them read alone. At any error during reading alone that the student cannot self-correct within five seconds, the tutor supplies the word, the student repeats it correctly, and the tutor joins back in reading simultaneously.

Paired thinking (PT)

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PT embeds the teaching of thinking skills in reading.

PT seeks to develop reading comprehension skills into higher-level thinking skills, which: go beyond the author's intended meaning; go beyond the book read; relate to the present lives of tutee and tutor; potentially relate to the future lives of tutee and tutor; and potentially relate to the actual or hypothetical problems of others.

Activity

Work in pairs.

Refer to the handout: Paired reading and Paired thinking strategies

Each person reads either:

The Paired reading strategy

The Paired thinking strategy

Each person presents a summary of their reading to their partner.

Whole group discussion

Work in groups of 3

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Tutoring is not automatically effective.

To be effective, tutoring needs to bethoughtful well structured carefully monitored

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The critical issues are:that training is essential for tutors;one-on-one tutoring is more effective than group tutoring; and tutoring needs to be maintained over time and not short-lived.

A final thought

"If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also

brighten your path."

Buddhist Saying

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