A mixed methodological approach was used to examine the effects of fourth- and first-grade students cross-age tutoring on mathematics anxiety. 37 Fourth-grade tutors, both trained and untrained, helped 37 first graders use multiple strategies to solve mathematical word problems for 10 weeks. A control group of 16 first-grade students completed the problems independently. Pre-test and post-test mathematics anxiety measures were used. Observations were also conducted throughout the study. The measures used for both primary and intermediate students were effective in identifying students with mathematics anxiety. However, quantitative findings showed no difference for fourth- or first-grade students on mathematics anxiety measures. Results of an ANOVA were not significant. The qualitative findings revealed the trained tutors and their partners were the most structured. They tried more strategies to solve problems and stayed on task better than other groups. Untrained tutors and their partners needed more redirection and engaged in more off-task conversations. First graders with tutors received more positive reinforcement than those who worked independently.

Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) procedures have been shown to substantially increase academic performance. Other positive outcomes, incidentally observed, include enhanced prosocial behaviors and increased appropriate interactions among peers. This study examined the direct effects of a CWPT program on peer relations and academic performance. A mixed first- and second-grade general education classroom participated in a CWPT spelling intervention with a comparable control classroom. The study consisted of three phases-Baseline (4 weeks), Intervention (6 weeks), and Follow-up (4 weeks). Dependent measures included sociometric peer rating scales and spelling test scores. Results were analyzed by determining mean change for each participant and each social status group for both experimental and control classrooms. The data indicate that CWPT positively influenced students' peer acceptance and improved spelling performance.

The achievement gap has long been viewed as a persistent shortcoming of the public education system in the U.S. The achievement gap also highlights the challenges faced by Latino populations with educational achievements and future employment prospects. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to describe how four Latina adolescents, each of whom identified herself as a struggling or “not good” reader, reauthored their reading identities by acting as reading tutors to elementary students. This study combined elements of narrative inquiry with multiple case study research. The four participants—Paula, Lucia, Cassandra, and Amaia (all names are pseudonyms)—were selected from a cross-age tutoring program for Latino youth called Latinos in Action located in the state of Utah. As part of this class, ninth-graders received training on how to provide tutoring in reading to elementary students, and they tutored elementary students twice per week for 30 minutes. The participants underwent 6 months of tutoring. Prior to tutoring, the participants were interviewed to ascertain how their reader identities had developed through adolescence. Subsequent interviews with the participants, teachers, and family members, in addition to observed tutoring sessions, illustrated ways that tutoring provided an avenue for the participants to re-author their reader identities. Using these data, I worked with participants to develop narratives regarding their reading experiences and identities. I used an a priori Bakhtinian framework to explain what I viewed in the narratives, with conclusions confirmed by each participant. Finally, I used constant comparative analytic methods to identify common themes across the participants’ stories. From the analysis, I identified five major themes as the findings of this study: examples at home, school as authoritative, fluent oral reading in English, reading aloud in tutoring, and changes in reading practices. The process of tutoring younger students provided a place, within the authoritative space of the school setting, where the participants were able to practice this skill. The results of this study indicated that educators and policy makers can look to cross-age tutoring as one method to provide adolescent, struggling readers with opportunities to positively adjust their reader identities.

Peer-learning enhances the learning experience of students, but little research in this area has studied medical students developing their clinical physical examination skills. This thesis describes two peer-learning processes to aid this skill development: peer???learning from advanced beginners to novices (vertical); and peer-to-peer learning (horizontal). The hypothesis was that the process would be effective and acceptable to tutors and tutees. Vertical Peer Teaching: After a successful pilot scheme using junior doctors to tutor medical students, senior medical students were engaged as tutors as the junior doctors were too busy. Following instruction in tutoring and defining teaching topics, they taught a group of junior students. Evaluation of both groups was by summative clinical examination scores, by interviews and questionnaires. Scores were compared with non-participating control subjects. Tutors showed a significantly superior examination performance compared with the control group. Tutees showed a non-significant improvement. Tutors considered their skills had improved, with increased confidence in both performance and teaching, particularly in the communication and metacognitive domains. Tutees indicated the process to be very useful, with increased opportunity for feedback and questioning. There was little evidence of a reduction in the barriers between the years, perhaps because the student tutors were viewed in the traditional role of 'experts' . Horizontal Peer Teaching: Same-level dyads using a videotaped examination skill and script were assessed by summative examination and subjectively. These skills showed a significant improvement when compared to a control group. Despite this effect and many positive aspects reported, there were some concerns with the process. Students felt that a videotape and a peer instead of an ???expert??? was not as good as a traditional tutorial. In conclusion, the peer-learning was successful in several domains. Vertical peer-learning was accepted by both tutors and tutees, and horizontal-peer learning had a positive influence upon examination results. Vertical peer-learning appears to conform to students??? expectations of the inequality between beginners and tutors who are advanced beginners or experts, while horizontal peer-learning is more challenging, even though it is effective. The latter may need careful introduction for the process to be acceptable to students.

This thesis is a case study of dialogic learning in a university context as demonstrated in tutorial talk. The aim of the study is to examine the effectiveness or otherwise of dialogic learning as applied in an economics curriculum. More specifically, the thesis examines the learning experiences of a second language international student cohort as they attempted to understand the role of prediction and causality in economic principles and theories through spoken dialogue. This approach means interpreting the students’ learning as a semiotic process and the students’ cognitive development as shaped by their language in use. The theoretical framework for this examination is offered by the analytical resources of systemic functional linguistics, as developed by M.A.K. Halliday (from 1975 to 2004) combined with frameworks for mediated learning offered by Vygotsky (1986, 1987); Bakhtin (1986); Hasan (from 1985a to 2001); Bernstein (from 1971 to 2001) and Cloran (from 1994 to 2006 draft); and more recent research in ‘scaffolded learning’. The study applies these resources to analyse significant rhetorical functions of economic discourse, such as predictive reasoning and argumentation, and to examine how these were negotiated and mediated by the students and their lecturer. The method for analysing negotiation and mediation in these students’ learning draws on Rhetorical Unit (RU) analysis as devised by Cloran. Linguistically, the analysis takes account of categories and relations between the Rhetorical Units on the basis that these are able to provide theoretical explanations for the predictive reasoning construed in the interactions. The analysis of Rhetorical Units primarily involved the identification of relations between the basic constituent of the text, ie, the message, and how these relations constructed the units of rhetorical meaning in the discussion. The advantage of adopting this approach is the possibility of realising rhetorical activities as an abstraction at the semantic stratum, and, as such, how they were realised by lexicogrammatical phenomena. The analysis examined: first, the use of Rhetorical Units by the lecturer and students in their construal of the critical pedagogic discourses identified by Bernstein, being the regulative and the instructional; and second, the adjustments and shifts to more congruent explanations as a result of contingency strategies taken by both the lecturer and students in response to the students’ difficulties. The findings throw a different light onto dialogic learning in a new social constructivist pedagogical approach in a university context. The study reveals that while the students’ learning was a highly collaborative dialectical process, any transformations in understanding were not at all neatly incremental as described in the literature. Indeed, the negotiations were highly ‘peripatetic’; any increments in understanding were overall devolutionary. While the lecturer’s initial guidance reflected the monologic discourse of written economics, her responses became more congruent and reactive. It was shown that a key predictor of these contingency strategies was the kinds of meanings sought by the students’ extensive questioning. Hence, in this case study, the contingency strategies undertaken within the interactional dynamic reveal a different view of semiotic mediation, necessarily a process of semiotic remediation. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1283936 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2006

This study investigated the effects of a cross-age tutoring programme on the tutors' self-esteem. The study also examined the effects of the programme on the tutors' attitudes to computers. A case study approach was used to answer the following questions: 1. Does the self-esteem of tutors increase when they tutor in a nonacademic subject area e.g. teaching others to use computer games? 2. Do the changes in self-esteem generalise to other areas or are the changes specific to the subject area of the tutoring? 3. Do the tutors' attitudes to computers change when they teach younger children how to use computer games? Twelve tutors, from three A.C.T. primary schools, were trained as tutors. Girls from Years 5 and 6, with low self-esteem (measured using the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory), were selected to teach girls from Years 1 and 2 how to use computer programmes. Self-esteem was assessed pre- and post- tutoring using the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory, concept maps and teacher's ratings. Computer attitudes were assessed pre- and post- tutoring using the Bath County Computer Attitudes Survey and concept maps. A post-tutoring questionnaire provided information, from the tutors, about the tutoring programme. The case study approach allowed analysis of each student's experience in the programme. The criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme were the differences in the pre- and post- tutoring measures of self-esteem and computer attitudes and the tutors' responses in interviews. Self-esteem increased for eleven of the tutors. Making a contribution, feelings of increased competence, a sense of belonging and positive feedback were the factors that appeared to enhance the tutors' self-esteem. All tutors were more confident with the computer at the end of the programme, and in six cases there were increases in the computer attitude survey scores.

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva sjuksköterskestudenters uppfattningar om vilka faktorer som ingår i god handledning under verksamhetsförlagd utbildning (VFU).<em> </em>Data samlades in via nio intervjuer och tre skriftliga svar, med hjälp av en intervjuguide, från sjuksköterskestudenter i termin 6 på sjuksköterskeprogrammet i Uppsala. Data analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Två teman utkristalliserades från analysen; studentens lärande och handledningens innehåll. Studentens lärande innefattar tre kategorier; kommunikation, organisation och förhållningssätt och handledningens innehåll fyra kategorier; kommunikation, organisation, förhållningssätt och arbetsklimat. Resultatet visade att tid till handledning och en fungerande personkemi mellan handledare och student ansågs som det mest centrala för en bra placering. Merparten av sjuksköterskestudenterna upplevde att första intrycket av VFU- platsen hade betydelse för studentens lärande och att känslan av osäkerhet hos studenten var en viktig hindrande faktor. Osäkerheten bland studenterna kom sig av otrevligt bemötande, bristande kontinuitet i handledningen och rädslan av att göra något fel. Studenterna utvecklades genom att ta eget ansvar och att deras handledare visade förtroende för dem. Samtliga studenter ansåg att handledarrollen skulle vara frivillig. De efterfrågade även en individuellt anpassad handledning, mer tid hos handledaren till handledning och ett ökat studentinflytande.<em> </em>Slutsatsen som kan dras av denna studie är att en engagerad handledare, tid till en individanpassad handledning, en trygg tillåtande lärandemiljö med möjlighet till studentinflytande och ett tidigt eget patientansvar ökade studentens utveckling under VFU.</p> / <p>The aim of this study was to describe nursing students' perceptions of what factors are included in good supervision during clinical education. Data were collected through nine interviews and three written responses with the help of an interview guide from nursing students in semester six of the nursing program in Uppsala. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two themes were crystallized from the analysis; the student’s learning and the content of the tutoring. The student’s learning contains of three categories; communication, organization and attitude, and the content of the tutoring four categories; communication, organization, attitude and working climate. The result showed that time for tutoring and a good relationship between mentor and student was considered essential for a successful clinical placement. Most of the nursing students felt that the first impression of the ward was important for student learning and that the feeling of uncertainty was an important hindering factor. The uncertainty among the students was a result of unpleasant attitudes against the students, lack of continuity in tutoring and the fear of doing something wrong. The students developed their learning by taking responsibility and that their supervisors relied on them. All the students thought that the role of a supervisor should be voluntary. The students also requested an individualized tutoring, more time for tutoring and increased student influence. The conclusion to be drawn from this study is that a dedicated supervisor, time for an individual tutoring, an assuring teaching environment with the student having a possibility to influence, and an early given responsibility of patients increased the student’s learning during clinical education.</p>

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva sjuksköterskestudenters uppfattningar om vilka faktorer som ingår i god handledning under verksamhetsförlagd utbildning (VFU). Data samlades in via nio intervjuer och tre skriftliga svar, med hjälp av en intervjuguide, från sjuksköterskestudenter i termin 6 på sjuksköterskeprogrammet i Uppsala. Data analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Två teman utkristalliserades från analysen; studentens lärande och handledningens innehåll. Studentens lärande innefattar tre kategorier; kommunikation, organisation och förhållningssätt och handledningens innehåll fyra kategorier; kommunikation, organisation, förhållningssätt och arbetsklimat. Resultatet visade att tid till handledning och en fungerande personkemi mellan handledare och student ansågs som det mest centrala för en bra placering. Merparten av sjuksköterskestudenterna upplevde att första intrycket av VFU- platsen hade betydelse för studentens lärande och att känslan av osäkerhet hos studenten var en viktig hindrande faktor. Osäkerheten bland studenterna kom sig av otrevligt bemötande, bristande kontinuitet i handledningen och rädslan av att göra något fel. Studenterna utvecklades genom att ta eget ansvar och att deras handledare visade förtroende för dem. Samtliga studenter ansåg att handledarrollen skulle vara frivillig. De efterfrågade även en individuellt anpassad handledning, mer tid hos handledaren till handledning och ett ökat studentinflytande. Slutsatsen som kan dras av denna studie är att en engagerad handledare, tid till en individanpassad handledning, en trygg tillåtande lärandemiljö med möjlighet till studentinflytande och ett tidigt eget patientansvar ökade studentens utveckling under VFU. / The aim of this study was to describe nursing students' perceptions of what factors are included in good supervision during clinical education. Data were collected through nine interviews and three written responses with the help of an interview guide from nursing students in semester six of the nursing program in Uppsala. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two themes were crystallized from the analysis; the student’s learning and the content of the tutoring. The student’s learning contains of three categories; communication, organization and attitude, and the content of the tutoring four categories; communication, organization, attitude and working climate. The result showed that time for tutoring and a good relationship between mentor and student was considered essential for a successful clinical placement. Most of the nursing students felt that the first impression of the ward was important for student learning and that the feeling of uncertainty was an important hindering factor. The uncertainty among the students was a result of unpleasant attitudes against the students, lack of continuity in tutoring and the fear of doing something wrong. The students developed their learning by taking responsibility and that their supervisors relied on them. All the students thought that the role of a supervisor should be voluntary. The students also requested an individualized tutoring, more time for tutoring and increased student influence. The conclusion to be drawn from this study is that a dedicated supervisor, time for an individual tutoring, an assuring teaching environment with the student having a possibility to influence, and an early given responsibility of patients increased the student’s learning during clinical education.

The ubiquity of Web 2.0 technologies has led to a seismic shift in the way educational services are delivered. It comes as no surprise then that e-tutoring—otherwise known as electronic or online tutoring—is quickly supplanting face-to-face tuition for reasons of both cost and convenience. While e-tutoring is an effective form of academic support for many students, its efficacy remains tenuous for those confronted with a digital divide that figures predominantly around geographic barriers, socio-economic status, and educational levels. Premised on diffusion research, this master's dissertation explores the implementation of an e-tutoring service known as Homework Help that has effected relatively low adoption rates. It uses a concurrent mixed-methods approach—including surveys, interviews, and focus groups—to examine the factors that have led to this low adoption rate. The results are presented via two journal articles situated within a larger meta-talk: The first article contrasts the adoption patterns apparent between rural and urban students, while the second article looks at the utility of diffusion research in examining educational technologies, as it explores the use of e-tutoring for applied stream students. The findings of this study suggest that rural and urban, as well as applied and academic student subgroups, differ in terms of their perception and adoption of e-tutoring. Implications for educational policy, especially in regards to rural education, are discussed.

The ubiquity of Web 2.0 technologies has led to a seismic shift in the way educational services are delivered. It comes as no surprise then that e-tutoring—otherwise known as electronic or online tutoring—is quickly supplanting face-to-face tuition for reasons of both cost and convenience. While e-tutoring is an effective form of academic support for many students, its efficacy remains tenuous for those confronted with a digital divide that figures predominantly around geographic barriers, socio-economic status, and educational levels. Premised on diffusion research, this master's dissertation explores the implementation of an e-tutoring service known as Homework Help that has effected relatively low adoption rates. It uses a concurrent mixed-methods approach—including surveys, interviews, and focus groups—to examine the factors that have led to this low adoption rate. The results are presented via two journal articles situated within a larger meta-talk: The first article contrasts the adoption patterns apparent between rural and urban students, while the second article looks at the utility of diffusion research in examining educational technologies, as it explores the use of e-tutoring for applied stream students. The findings of this study suggest that rural and urban, as well as applied and academic student subgroups, differ in terms of their perception and adoption of e-tutoring. Implications for educational policy, especially in regards to rural education, are discussed.