Sara Smith
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Mentor(s): Sarah Stilwell
Co-Presenter: Pearson, Zaida
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 5 – 3:40pm – 4:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Sara Smith, Zaida Pearson, Sarah Stilwell
Presenter: 116
Abstract
Tutoring is an effective way to reinforce learning in the classroom, to help struggling students grasp difficult material in all subjects, and to address knowledge gaps within students’ education. Despite the vast amount of research on tutoring, little previous research has examined tutoring from the perspective of tutors, but rather the students’ success rates following a tutoring intervention. The overall research has highlighted the importance of trained tutors to produce the highest success in students, but little is known about the obstacles and challenges faced by tutors. Tutoring quality and access varies across the United States, leading to unique tutoring experiences and outcomes. Tutoring has become exceedingly more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited educational opportunities for personalized learning. Equity gaps in students’ education have become increasingly more prevalent, with many schools utilizing remote learning at some point during the pandemic, resulting in students having unequal access to resources that provide or fortify educational opportunities. The current project aims to address this gap through the examination of qualitative survey data to examine the question: What are the challenges and obstacles encountered by K-12 tutors, and how do these challenges vary based on tutor characteristics (i.e., level of education, time spent tutoring, and training)?. The sample of (N = 209) was collected from a wide range of tutors experiences that encompasses much of the United States. By the use of qualitative data, the current study aims to both gain an understanding of challenges and obstacles faced by tutors, and to identify commonalities between those of similar tutoring experience. Our research project does not yet have results as we are still in the qualitative data coding phase. The results we expect to find will help us to better understand the needs of tutors and support the necessity of tutoring, especially during and following COVID-19. The study being conducted involves tutors with wide ranges of expertise, involving the amount of training received, time spent tutoring, and education levels. The impact of tutoring on tutees widely varies across programs, and access to effective tutors is not proportionately distributed as access to resources and opportunities vary across student populations. As a result, it is imperative to gain an understanding of the challenges and obstacles faced by tutors to identify commonalities and resources to better support tutors’ needs. Through investigating differences in obstacles and challenges faced by tutors, this study aims to address the achievement gap for marginalized students by identifying the areas of improvement common to tutors to create resources addressing their needs. Marginalized students and any type of tutor will benefit from this research, with the results possibly leading us to find that some tutors may benefit more than others from the creation of resources aimed to address specific challenges faced by tutors of different characteristics.
Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences
