Monday, December 04, 2006

The power of tutoring, another reason for homeschooling

Six months ago Lioness of We Have Always Lived in a Homeschool wrote about the power of tutoring in The Golden Quote. A couple times a month I'll refer friends to her post. She references a study reported in "The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search For Methods of Instruction as Effective as One-on-one Tutoring," by Benjamin S. Bloom.

The power of tutoring is almost unbelievable; Lioness has as the golden quote on the study:

"In study after study, whenever tutoring is matched against some competing pedagogy, including technology, tutoring wins handily. In his own research (Benjamin) Bloom found that tutored students outdistance 98 percent of those taught in conventional groups settings.(7)"

What this means is when students are tutored 98% of them will do better than children taught by other normal methods, like classrooms.

Lioness points out that tutoring in academic circles sounds a lot like homeschooling.

Another important point from the study is that the tutor doesn't have to be an expert.

If you haven't read this post before, or haven't read it for six months, give it a gander. Lioness goes into much greater deepth on the findings of the study. Her post is worth checking out.


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