research-article

The impact of instructor initiative on student learning: a tutoring study

Authors:

Kristy Elizabeth Boyer,

Robert Phillips,

Michael D. Wallis,

Mladen A. Vouk,

James C. LesterAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 41, Issue 1

Pages 14 - 18

https://doi.org/10.1145/1539024.1508873

Published: 04 March 2009 Publication History

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Abstract

In the quest to find instructional approaches that benefit student learning, engagement, and retention, evidence suggests providing students with hands-on practice is a worthwhile use of class time. This paper presents results from an exploratory study of two different instructional approaches that were encountered in a study of experienced human tutors working with novice computing students engaged in a programming exercise. No difference in average learning gains was found between a moderate approach, in which students were given control of problem solving nearly half the time, and a proactive approach in which the tutor took initiative nearly three-fourths of the time. Implications of this finding for fine-grained instructional strategy, as well as for broader classroom management decisions, are discussed. This paper also makes the case for the value of one-on-one tutoring studies as an exploratory research methodology for the comparative evaluation of computer science teaching strategies.

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Cited By

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Boyer KPhillips RIngram AHa EWallis MVouk MLester J(2010)Characterizing the effectiveness of tutorial dialogue with hidden markov modelsProceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems - Volume Part I10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10(55-64)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10
Boyer KPhillips RWallis MVouk MLester J(2009)Investigating the role of student motivation in computer science education through one-on-one tutoringComputer Science Education10.1080/0899340090293758419:2(111-135)Online publication date: Jun-2009
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993400902937584
Mirza DConrad PLloyd CMatni ZGatin AMcCartney RPetersen ARobins AMoskal AMcCartney RRobins A(2019)Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in Computer ScienceProceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3291279.3339422(31-40)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3291279.3339422
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Index Terms

The impact of instructor initiative on student learning: a tutoring study
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 41, Issue 1

SIGCSE '09

March 2009

553 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1539024

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '09: Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2009
612 pages
ISBN:9781605581835
DOI:10.1145/1508865
General Chairs:
Sue Fitzgerald
Metropolitan State University
,
Mark Guzdial
Georgia Institute of Technology
,
Program Chairs:
Gary Lewandowski
Xavier University
,
Steven Wolfman
University of British Columbia

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 04 March 2009

Published in SIGCSE Volume 41, Issue 1

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Boyer KPhillips RIngram AHa EWallis MVouk MLester J(2010)Characterizing the effectiveness of tutorial dialogue with hidden markov modelsProceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems - Volume Part I10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10(55-64)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10
Boyer KPhillips RWallis MVouk MLester J(2009)Investigating the role of student motivation in computer science education through one-on-one tutoringComputer Science Education10.1080/0899340090293758419:2(111-135)Online publication date: Jun-2009
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993400902937584
Mirza DConrad PLloyd CMatni ZGatin AMcCartney RPetersen ARobins AMoskal AMcCartney RRobins A(2019)Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in Computer ScienceProceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3291279.3339422(31-40)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3291279.3339422
Szabo CFalkner NKnutas ADorodchi MSheard JKorhonen A(2018)Understanding the Effects of Lecturer Intervention on Computer Science Student BehaviourProceedings of the 2017 ITiCSE Conference on Working Group Reports10.1145/3174781.3174787(105-124)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3174781.3174787
Boyer KPhillips RIngram AHa EWallis MVouk MLeste J(2011)Investigating the relationship between dialogue structure and tutoring effectivenessInternational Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education10.5555/2336135.233614021:1-2(65-81)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2336135.2336140
Carter JWhite SFraser KKurkovsky SMcCreesh CWieck M(2010)ITiCSE 2010 working group report motivating our top studentsProceedings of the 2010 ITiCSE working group reports10.1145/1971681.1971685(29-47)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1971681.1971685
Boyer KPhillips RIngram AHa EWallis MVouk MLester J(2010)Characterizing the effectiveness of tutorial dialogue with hidden markov modelsProceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems - Volume Part I10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10(55-64)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-13388-6_10

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