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

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 oneon-one tutoring studies as an exploratory research methodology for the comparative evaluation of computer science teaching stra...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Robert Phillips, Michael D. Wallis, Mladen A. Vouk, James C. Lester
• Keywords: Computer Science Education, Education, Exploratory Research Methodology, Fine-grained Instructional Strategy, SIGCSE 2009