Analyzes a tutor survey conducted at Ball State University (Indiana) and addresses pragmatic questions related to issues of tutor motivation. States that the goals of the research are to improve hiring, training, and managing procedures of tutor coordinators, and to offer a better understanding of tutors. (Contains four tables and seven…

Focuses on one elementary school/university partnership as a successful example of an America Reads partnership for a variety of reasons. Notes that this partnership exemplified much more than an "business as usual" attitude. Explores the types of "best practices" occurring on a daily basis, especially as they related to…

Argues for the academic performance and retention benefits of Supplemental Instruction (SI). Among other things, SI increases retention, increases final course grade averages, increases overall GPAs, improves thinking and study skills, and increases graduation rates. Compares a list of Chickering's 7 Principles to the practices of SI programs.…

This review examines non-North American ideas about reading difficulties. Noted is the success of such tutorial programs as Reading Recovery, used in Australia, the United States, and New Zealand. The potential of a Vygotskian perspective on assessment and teaching for children experiencing reading difficulties is outlined. (Author/DB)

The article describes application to mathematically gifted elementary age students of the diagnostic/prescriptive model developed by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth. A five-step procedure of beyond-level standardized testing is followed by mentored instruction based on analysis of testing errors. (DB)

Gives some specific examples of previewing techniques for two types of modern literature (poetry and novels) that tutors can use to prepare adult students for the general style, concepts, and vocabulary of different writers, and to help students relate existing background knowledge to new information. (MG)

Findings are examined from studies published from 1980 to the present concerning the effects of peer tutoring on mathematics performance. Findings indicate the effectiveness of peer tutoring in promoting significant cognitive gains for both the tutor and the tutee with populations of low achievers, mildly handicapped, or socially disadvantaged…

The West Midlands (England) Police Force and the University of Nottingham collaborated on the development of a remedial course designed to assist ethnic minority applicants who failed the recruitment examination. Issues raised by formative evaluation of the course have implications for police-community relations and lifelong learning. (SK)

The use of classwide peer tutoring with six at-risk fourth graders resulted in moderate to substantial improvements in spelling performance for five students. In a second experiment, the addition of "Language Master" to the tutoring process resulted in only slightly greater improved performance for two of four students. (Author/DB)

Critics of student writing in British lecture courses as "mere rehash of lecture notes" are reminded that (1) by its nature, the lecture course focuses on and is limited to information conveyed in lectures, and (2) professors refuse to use materials such as U.S. textbooks that could supplement the information conveyed in class. (MSE)

Discusses the design and use of a Hypertext tutorial for teaching choice of access points to beginning cataloging students at San Jose State University. The tutorial, used widely by students, was designed to include linear, hierarchical, and decision tree metastructures to accommodate the multidimensionality of cataloging problems. (12 references)…

A government study of the tuition-guarantee programs emerging in the 1980s, promising college tuition to high school students persisting to graduation, has found the programs to be effective in retaining students. The most successful programs use adult mentors and offer tutoring, beginning as early as fifth grade. (MSE)

In this study of students (N=112) invited to participate in a hematology-transfusion medicine tutorial, it was found that students (N=59) receiving problem-based instruction did more poorly than controls on short-term examination but maintained their knowledge after two years better than control groups. (MLW)

William McKinley Middle School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a parent volunteer program called FOCUS that targets average students who are not doing well academically. Program goals are to improve students' organizational skills, help them complete homework assignments, and reteach and preview lessons to increase understanding, so that students will…

Considers questions posed by students during e-mail tutorials to elicit information from guest lecturers and the use of that information by students in their essays. Findings indicate: tutees tend to pose questions to elicit information or clarification rather than to elicit opinions of the guest lecturer; and two-thirds of tutees' essays cited…