Private tutoring at transition points in the English education system: its nature, extent and purpose

International surveys indicate that the prevalence of private tutoring in England is relatively low but as few national surveys have been undertaken, there is little detailed evidence available. The aim of this research is to provide a systematic description of the nature and extent of private tutoring at three points of transition in the English education system and to explore students’ views of the reasons for its use. Over 3000 students completed a questionnaire survey providing information on the extent of private tutoring in school curriculum subjects,reasons for the employment of tutors and demographic information. Over 1100 parents supplied information on their motivation for employing tutors. At the time of the survey, 7.6% of year 6 pupils were in receipt of tutoring in mathematics, 8.1% English and 3.2% science. Comparable figures for year 11 pupils were 7.9% mathematics, 2.6% English and 2.8% science. Overall, 27% of students reported that they had received tutoring at some stage during their school career and there were clear associations with family socio-economic status and cultural background. Parents employed tutors to increase their child’s confidence, improve their understanding of the subject and to help them do well in tests and examinations. Most primary age children indicated that tutors were not needed as their teachers and families provided sufficient educational support. Some families appear to be making strategic use of tutors to help their children make successful transitions in the education system

The quality and effectiveness of one-to-one private tuition in England

There is a belief amongst educators and laymen that one-to-one tutoring is inevitably positive\ud and effective. Although some research has shown that tutoring programmes can be very\ud effective in raising achievement, other surveys have found negligible learning gains. These\ud findings raise questions about the quality of PT. Literature has focussed on effective practice\ud for specific subjects and age groups; few studies have examined effectiveness from the\ud perspective of the tutor and student. This thesis aimed to determine the impact of private\ud tuition (PT) on KS2 and GCSE achievement and to explore tutors' and students' views of\ud effective pedagogy. Data on PT participation collected from over 2000 pupils in years 6 and 11\ud enrolled in 30 primary and 28 secondary schools was matched with government achievement\ud and pupil background data. Using statistical modelling that reflects school effects in the data,\ud pupils who received PT in maths achieved significantly higher GCSE maths results. There was\ud no evidence to suggest that PT in English and science made an impact on respective GCSE or\ud KS2 attainment. Using a combined measure of tuition in any subject, findings indicated that\ud extended periods of PT made a small impact on maths and average KS2 score.\ud In the second study, data was collected to determine tutors' and students' views of effective\ud pedagogy by contacting tutors who advertise online and by utilising word-of-mouth\ud recruitment methods. A total of 204 tutors and 90 tutored students completed\ud questionnaires. The achievement gains perceived by both tutors and students contradict the\ud quantitative findings; almost all participants considered PT to be effective in raising\ud achievement and confidence, demonstrating that for some students PT can be very beneficial.\ud Tutors' and students' views of effective tutoring included the perceived importance of subject\ud knowledge, rapport and patience; although there was some variation by subject and age\ud group

Warum nehmen Eltern Nachhilfe für ihre Kinder in Anspruch? Eine Untersuchung psychologischer Faktoren, die Nachfrage nach Nachhilfe in England beeinflussen

As parents play a key role in their children\u27s education, this paper considers psychological factors that may influence parents\u27 decisions to provide private tutoring. It draws on the notion of parental involvement in their children\u27s education and examines relations between parents\u27 views of striving for achievement, family support for learning and the employment of tutors. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 1,170 parents whose children were in Year 6 (age 10-11 years), Year 11 (age 15-16 years) and Year 13 (age 17-18 years) and from interviews with 58 parents. All questionnaires contained measures of home support for children\u27s school work and parents\u27 views of striving for achievement, together with questions on extra classes and private tuition and reasons for providing these. More home support is provided for children in Year 6 and by parents with higher educational levels. Parents who value educational achievement and self-regulation tend to provide higher levels of home support. The employment of private tutoring is predicted by parents\u27 educational level and their views of self-regulation and achievement. Evidence from interviews suggests that the employment of a private tutor may be seen as part of the parental role and that parents calibrate the need for private tutoring against the family\u27s intellectual capital and resources. These findings suggest that psychological factors deserve consideration alongside contextual factors when seeking to understand the uptake of private tutoring. (DIPF/Orig.)Da Eltern eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Bildung ihrer Kinder einnehmen, betrachtet dieser Beitrag die psychologischen Faktoren, welche die Entscheidung von Eltern beeinflussen können, Nachhilfe für ihre Kinder in Anspruch zu nehmen. Anknüpfend an den Gedanken der elterlichen Einbindung in die Bildung ihrer Kinder werden Beziehungen zwischen elterlichen Wahrnehmungen des Leistungsstrebens, familiärer Lernunterstützung und der Inanspruchnahme von Nachhilfelehrkräften untersucht. Die Daten wurden mittels einer schriftlichen Befragung von 1170 Eltern erhoben, deren Kinder Jahrgangsstufe 6 (10-11 Jahre), Jahrgangsstufe 11 (15-16 Jahre) bzw. Jahrgangsstufe 13 (17-18 Jahre) besuchen, sowie in Form von Interviews mit 58 Eltern. Alle Fragebögen enthielten Maße zur häuslichen Unterstützung bei den Schularbeiten der Kinder und zu elterlichen Wahrnehmungen des Leistungsstrebens, sowie Fragen zu zusätzlichem Unterricht, Nachhilfe und den Beweggründen für deren Inanspruchnahme. Kinder in Jahrgangsstufe 6 sowie Kinder, deren Eltern ein höheres Bildungsniveau aufweisen, erfahren mehr häusliche Unterstützung. Eltern, die Wert auf Bildungserfolg und Selbstregulation legen, neigen in stärkerem Maße dazu, ihren Kindern Unterstützung im Elternhaus zu bieten. Das Bildungsniveau der Eltern sowie deren Sichtweisen bezüglich Selbstregulation und Leistung sind Prädiktoren für die Inanspruchnahme von Nachhilfeunterricht. Die Auswertungen der Interviews weisen darauf hin, dass die Inanspruchnahme einer Nachhilfelehrkraft als Teil der Elternrolle gesehen werden kann und dass Eltern einen Bedarf an Nachhilfe im Abgleich mit den intellektuellen Mitteln und Ressourcen der Familie bestimmen. Diese Befunde legen nahe, dass psychologische Faktoren neben Kontextbedingungen berücksichtigt werden sollten, wenn man die Inanspruchnahme von Nachhilfe verstehen möchte. (DIPF/Orig.

Effects of Social Experience on the Habituation Rate of Zebrafish Startle Escape Response: Empirical and Computational Analyses

While the effects of social experience on nervous system function have been extensively investigated in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems, our understanding of how social status differentially affects learning remains limited. In the context of habituation, a well-characterized form of non-associative learning, we investigated how the learning processes differ between socially dominant and subordinate in zebrafish (Danio rerio). We found that social status and frequency of stimulus inputs influence the habituation rate of short latency C-start escape response that is initiated by the Mauthner neuron (M-cell). Socially dominant animals exhibited higher habituation rates compared to socially subordinate animals at a moderate stimulus frequency, but low stimulus frequency eliminated this difference of habituation rates between the two social phenotypes. Moreover, habituation rates of both dominants and subordinates were higher at a moderate stimulus frequency compared to those at a low stimulus frequency. We investigated a potential mechanism underlying these status-dependent differences by constructing a simplified neurocomputational model of the M-cell escape circuit. The computational study showed that the change in total net excitability of the model M-cell was able to replicate the experimental results. At moderate stimulus frequency, the model M-cell with lower total net excitability, that mimicked a dominant-like phenotype, exhibited higher habituation rates. On the other hand, the model with higher total net excitability, that mimicked the subordinate-like phenotype, exhibited lower habituation rates. The relationship between habituation rates and characteristics (frequency and amplitude) of the repeated stimulus were also investigated. We found that habituation rates are decreasing functions of amplitude and increasing functions of frequency while these rates depend on social status (higher for dominants and lower for subordinate). Our results show that social status affects habituative learning in zebrafish, which could be mediated by a summative neuromodulatory input to the M-cell escape circuit, which enables animals to readily learn to adapt to changes in their social environment