The purpose of my study was to examine how volunteer tutors without teaching experience who received minimal training perceived their ability to effectively tutor children with learning disabilities. I found that the tutors initially felt that they could improve their tutee's literacy skills; however, the data suggest that the tutors…

This study examined the effects of professional development on strengthening the efficacy and civic engagement of college students tutoring diverse K-5th grade English Language Learners in an urban community. A mixed methods approach including pre-and post-surveys, focus groups, weekly reflections, and supervisor observations revealed tutors'…

The purpose of this study was to examine participants' perspectives on how a volunteer-based adult literacy class supports the learning of adults with developmental/intellectual disabilities. Interviews were conducted with four tutors, three adult learners, and two coordinators and observations of the class occurred over a 6-month period during…

A series of tutorials was re-designed to further engage students in spiral learning and highlight development of transferable skills. The tutorials focused on self-directed and enquiry-based learning, both of which provided particular challenges to students and staff. The students were randomly allocated a media article related to psychology as a…

The dialogic nature of small group collaborative learning requires verbal contributions from students to progress individual and group learning. Speaking can become privileged over listening as a collaborative act, and an imbalance in these values can become embedded in the classroom culture to the degree that the core value of listening can be…

My purpose for this exploratory qualitative research was to gain insights into the perceptions of high school students in Italy who receive private tutoring in mathematics, about their experience and expectations. Little prior research from the perspective of the students has been conducted. Results suggest that some students use private tutoring…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges faced by tutors who were providing remedial literacy support to New Zealand apprentices. Design/methodology/approach: As part of a wider, triangulated study of employers, tutors, apprentices, and industry training coordinators, the author undertook a qualitative analysis of ten…

Tutors often fail to address learners' misconceptions. Although this may indicate a failure to grasp these misconceptions, it may simply be due to a wish to be polite and save the learner's face. In this study we examined whether instructing tutors about the pitfalls of politeness could increase the clarity and precision of their tutorial…

What if knowledge is a form of doing, an engagement between a knowing subject and what is known? What if learning is a contextualised performance involving students engaging with prospective and current social identities, and therefore an ontological as well as an epistemological accomplishment? What then becomes of formative assessment within…

This article shares the insights of a tutor as she works with a fourth-grade African American girl. For this case study, the authors use interactive read-alouds and writing samples to document the reading and writing events of this yearlong tutorial experience. They report on the power of critical literacy to engage a developing reader and improve…

The study analyzed the conversational exchanges through which child tutors mediated literacy abilities and knowledge with young children in the framework of the project "From Child to Child: A Tutor-Child Literacy Program," that is being conducted in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The analysis considered the conversational moves deployed by…

There have been concerns about the teaching and learning modes in both conventional and Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions globally. Such concerns emanate from issues of quality and standards in education. In view of such concerns, the study examined the teaching and learning modes in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). These were…

A level 6 module was developed in order to implement innovative assessment strategies and encourage higher level learning. The module tutor (one of this paper's authors) was seconded from teaching duties (40%) to the University's academic development unit to work on the module transformation. The rationale for the redesign of the assessment…

In response to perceived academic unpreparedness on the part of first year students, in the second semester of 2010 a number of departments in the Faculties of Arts, Commerce, Administration and Law (CAL), and Science at the University of Zululand (Unizulu) opted to use the Department of Higher Education and Training's Teaching Development Grant…

Reread-Adapt and Answer-Comprehend (RAAC) is a reading intervention designed to target fluency and comprehension for students with disabilities. Previous researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention for students with learning disabilities. This study extended the research by using the RAAC intervention with three…