What Type of Tutoring Is More Effective? Experimental Evidence in a Secondary School

• In Event: Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Strategies in School Contexts

Abstract

Recent research on learning by teaching has been conducted in the controlled laboratories, which limits its findings to be extended to the school settings. The current study was conducted to fill in the gap. A total of 597 secondary-school students were randomly assigned to one of six conditions in a 2 (teaching expectancy vs. testing expectancy) X 3 (peer tutoring vs. imagined tutoring vs. reading) between-subjects design. The results revealed several significant findings: a) imagined tutoring enhanced both immediate and delayed comprehension, but peer tutoring only enhanced immediate comprehension; b) there were two interactions on the perceived difficulty and motivation. These findings, as well as limitations, implications, and future directions, are discussed.

Author

• Lijia Lin, East China Normal University