An
Evaluation of a Tutorial Programme in Psychology
Megan Yirtue &
Martin Terre Blanche University of the Witwatersrand
BACKGROUND
The Research Design &
Analysis I (RDA 1) course was initiated some years ago by the School of Psychology of the
University ot the Witwatersrand in an effort to ensure that students reached an acceptable
level d competence in the more technical components of the discipline, namely statistics,
research design and psychometrics. In the past some students would fail these subcourses
but achieve an overall pass on the basis of the remainder of the psychology course. With
RDA I now a prerequisite for majoring in psychology, this is no longer possible. The
consequence has been that a substantial number of otherwise capable students, those who
have not done mathematics at school or who do not have an aptitude or liking for
quantitative work have found their way forward blocked. Due to the large and heterogeneous
classes, as well as the skills-intensive nature of the material, lecturers have been
unable to reach these students.
The tutorial system
introduced in 1994 was designed to capitalise on the heterogeneous nature of the
psychology student group by using the skills of those who had done well in the RDA course
in previous years to tutor weak students in the 1994 class Seven tutors were recruited on
the basis of their RDA I and RDA II marks and their communication skills. They attended
several departmental and university orientation and training sessions, which emphasised
the importance of process in facilitating group learning, and highlighted the dangers of
allowing tutorials to degenerate into mini-lectures. It was hoped that the tutorials would
serve not only as direct learning situations, but also to encourage students (who are
often very isolated in large classes) to develop cooperative learning strategies.
Tutorials were held on two
afternoons in each week of the first semester, and in additlon tutors were expected to
attend a weekly feedback session with lecturers. Tutors also hosted a 'research day' at
the end of the term when students had an opportunity to consolidate their learning.
Of the class of 364, 127
students attended tutorials. A core group of about 40 attended on a regular basis. These
tended to be the weakest students in the class, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, who
identified themselves as being in danger of failing the course. By changing tutorials from
Friday afternoons to the middle of the week it is hoped to boost attendance in 1995. The
possibility of compulsory tutorials is also being considered.
CHANGES IN
CLASS PERFORMANCE
The number of students in
each grade category for 1993 (before the tutorial introduced) and for 1994 is shown in
Table 1.
Table 1. Students in
di~ferent grade categories for 1993 and 1994
Category |
1993
|
1994
|
| First |
|
|
| Upper second |
|
|
| Second |
|
|
| Third |
|
|
| Fail |
|
|
As can be seen the proportion of
students achieving first, upper second and second class passes have each increased, while
those obtaining a third class pass have decreased. The proportion of students failing the
course have been reduced by more than half. The lecturers and course content remained
constant from 1993 to 1994, increasing the likelihood that this marked improvement is due
to the introduction of the tutorials system.
STUDENT
EVALUATION OF TUTORIALS
At the end of the semester
twenty-two students were asked to complete a tutorial evaluation questionnaire. These
students had attended between two and ten tutorials. The median attendance was six
tutorials; six respondents had anended six tutorials while another six had attended ten
tutorials. Three students had attended seven times, three had attended four times and the
remaining four students attended two, three, eight and nine rimes respectiveiy.
Students were asked to
indicate whether the tutorials had helped "not at all~, Ľa little', ~a fair
amount", 'quite a lot' or ~very much". The results are summarised in Table 2.
Table 2. How helpful did
you find the tutorials?
| |
N |
% |
| Not
at all |
0 |
0% |
| A
little |
0 |
0% |
| A
fair amount |
5 |
23% |
| Quite
a lot |
11 |
50% |
| Very
much |
6 |
27% |
HOW TUTORIALS
ASSISTED STUDENTS
Many students indicated
that the tutorials helped them with their general understanding of the course material.
The tutorials provided time for students to think about lecture content and raise
questions if necessary. For example, students were able to better understand which
statistical tests to use when, how to use them and furthermore, why one particular test is
preferable over another. Tutorials also helped students to understand what they were
actually testing. Some students found that tutorials helped them to understand the basic
maths calculations which are needed to do statistics. Tutorials also provided an
opportunity for the clarification of concepts which must be mastered in order to cope with
the course, such as a basic understanding of probabiIity. Furthermore, students were able
to gain answers to specific questions arising out of the worksheets which they were
required to complete during the course.
Many students indicated
that the personal attention which they received during tutorials made a significant
contribution to their learning experience. Having one tutor to a group of about seven to
fifteen students enabled each student to ask their questions during tutorials. Students
indicated that this stands in sharp contrast to lectures where one lecturer teaches
hundreds of students and only the most confident people feel able to ask questions.
Several students indicated that they feel far less intimidated and consequently more able
to participate in a small tutorial group.
AREAS OF COURSE
MATERIAL STUDENTS WERE BETTER ABLE TO MASTER
Many students found that
the tutorials assisted them with the statistics part of the course more than any other.
Special mention was made of clearer understanding gained in the areas of percentiles,
correlation and regression, probability, the use d tables, hypothesis testing and
parametric tests. Some students were able to gain further understanding d psychometrics
and research design.
STUDENTS' REACTION
TO FELLOW STUDENTS COORDINATING TUTORIALS
Respondents felt that
having a fellow student as a tutor was helpful since the person had completed the course
herself recently and it was easy to relale to her. It seems that students find learning
from their peers less threatening than learning from lecturers and are more likely to ask
questions of a 'peer-tutor' than of a lecturer. Students said they feel that the tutor
understands the pressures and the difficulties that they experience and is therefore more
able to help the students overcome them. Interestingly, one respondent said that the tuta
sometimes gave a different perspective from Ihe lecturer and that this other
interpretation could sometimes be very helpful. Being able to engage in dialogue with the
tutor assisted many students who seemed to enjoy each having a chance to participate.
COMMENTS BY
STUDENTS WHO HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN INFORMAL WORKING GROUPS WHICH GREW DIRECTLY OUT OF
TUTORIALS
Eight respondents
indicated that they had become involved in one of these groups. The group sizes varied
from two to eight people who met either once or occasionally twice a week. Most of the
groups were formed by students who discovered that they were experiencing similar
problems, and that working together rather than alone was beneficial in solving them.
Respondents said that it helped them enormously to be able to share their knowledge, and
be able to gain assistance from others who knew the answer to a problem they were
experiencing. These groups also enabled students to see how much they really knew and how
much more they needed to understand. Furthermore, the groups allowed students to compare
the answers they had calculated to the tutorial questions since model answers had
intentionally not been provided. One group resourcefully maximized scarce consultation
time by homing in on their most perplexing problems and electing one member of the group
to approach the lecturer about it. The chosen member would then be responsible for feeding
back to the whole working-group. All but one respondent noted that these groups proved to
be very worthwhile indeed. The one dissenter indicated that although he gained some
understanding from attending an informal group he also felt anxious since everyone in his
group seemed to understand better than he did.
STUDENT
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TUTORIALS COULD BE RUN MORE EFFECTIVELY
It was generally agreed
that it is easier to participate in smaller rather than larger groups. Tutors should try
to be patient and encourage all students to participate. They should go over the material
studied that particular week and deal with problems which arise one by one. One respondent
felt that students should be free to pose their own specific problems and that the tutor
should only intervene when students cannot generate the answer themselves. Another useful
suggestion made was that tutors should set each individual in the tutorial one problem to
work out which they can later present to the tutorial group. Students remarked that they
benefited far more from the tutorials in weeks where they had kept up to date with the
tutorial worksheets distributed by the lecturer, and that tutors should encourage students
to do this. A plea was made for the lecturer to provide model answers to tutorial
worksheets (this issue has repeatedly come up for discussion; model answers have not been
made available for considered reason).
The suggestion was made
that providing an overview of all three sections of the RDA I course (statistics,
psychometrics and research design) with an attempt to tie everything together would be
worthwhile. One student made the suggestion that separating people who had done maths at
matric level from those who had not into different tutorial groups might be helpful.
Several students indicated that they would like more than one tutorial a week since they
were able to sort out some of their problems in the time available while others remained
unsolved since the tutorial time was too short. One respondent indicated that tutorials
should be made compulsory for all students struggling with RDA 1. Two respondents felt
that tutors could have been better prepared for tutoriais.
TUTORS' VIEWS
Tutors expressed the
opinion that in addition to clearing up problems they were experiencing, students who
attended tutorials could feel more confident about the test and the exam. These students
knew what they could definitely answer correctly and were able to minimize the gaps in
their knowledge. Also the opportunity for dialogue provided by tutorials is a useful
supplement to the one-way lecture situation. Although as a tutor one is not always able to
answer every question raised by students and students are not always able to articulate
their problems the process of interaction seems beneficial even if only motivationally.
The repetition of explanations in tutorials over and above lectures seemed worthwhile and
students benefited from the extra practice at statistics which they gained in the group.
One very worthwhile outcome of tutorials was that they acted as a stimulus for the
formation of informal study groups. Some students going on to RDA II requested that they
attend similar tutorials.
Many tutors commented on
the problem/challenge of having both weak and strong students in one tutorial group. It
becomes difficult to hold all the students' attention when some are having their needs met
and others either do not understand or are bored. Furthermore, sometimes the weaker
students are left feeling inept in relation to others who are coping better.
The scheduled time of
tutorials seems to reflect heavily on tutorial attendance with Friday afternoon being
particularly unpopular. Consequently it was suggested that these should be avoided. Also,
many tutors indicated that working with a smaller group was a!ways more beneficial than
working with a larger one. One tutor suggested that tutorials be run with two tutors which
would provide students with two perspectives on a probiem rather than only one. One tutor
said that RDA tutorials should be made compulsory for people repeating the course.
TUTORS' WEEK
BY WEEK PLANS AND REPORTS ON TUTORIALS
Tutors each kept a record
of what preparation they had done for each tutorial, how students responded and what the
group was needing from the tutorials. These records enabled tutors to alter practices
which were not working such as very formal seating arrangements. It was subsequently
recorded that comfortable, casual seating arrangements markedly facilitated group
participation. The records also helped tutors to plan for the next tutorial. One tutor for
example, recorded that the group needed clarification on how to use a statistical
calculator which was then allotted time in the following tutorial. The diarizing of
tutcrials also allowed the tutors to provide feedback to the lecturers about areas of the
course which students were understanding and those topics with which they were
experiencing difficulty. Record-keeping seemed to help some tutors manage the tutorial
time better. The records also assisted tutors in developing some understanding of group
processes. One tutor, for example, noted that group participation always flagged for a
while when new members attended the group for the first time.
Tutors also recorded
interesting benefits accruing from the tutorial setting. More than one tutor recorded that
people often understand much bener when some other student re-explains the point in their
own words. Sometimes this explanation would be carried out in another language making it
clear that the language in statistics can be quite confusing to English second-language
speakers. Tutors found it really challenging to cope with students who showed different
levels of understanding.
RESEARCH DAY
As an outcome of these
tutorials three tutors held a revision day one Saturday before the RDA I exam. The day was
run on the same lines as the weekly tutorials. i.e. the group was divided into smaller
ones to encourage a maximum of individual participation. Numerous students, after the
revision session and after the exam, indicated to the tutors that the morning had been a
period of worthwhile consolidation which had markedly assisted them in their exam
preparation.
CONCLUSION
The RDA I tutorials would
seem to have been worthwhile venture providing learning experiences for both tutorial
attendees and tutors. Perhaps one of the most beneficial outcomes was seen in students
working together independently of the tutorial towards their final goal of passing RDA 1.
We believe that those students who attended the tutorials will integrate the benefits of
informal group work into thei study of other subjects as well, to their overall benefit.
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