Abstract / Introduction

Over the last few years, private supplementary tutoring has been a common occurrence. Tutoring is defined as "private education provided by informal educational institutions" that offer to teach a school's curriculum outside of the regular school day. Many parents and children feel that tutoring courses would increase students' grasp of the curriculum during actual classroom lessons and provide them a competitive advantage in earning a higher grade point average. Though the rapid growth of tutoring classes across the country and its impact on school education is a significant concern, little research has been done on the methods and effects of these lessons. As a result, the short and long-term impacts of tutoring and the most suitable tutoring length are investigated in this research.

Tutoring sessions that are "ideal" might last anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes, depending on who you talk to (or beyond). In reality, if a session is too short, the practicalities of handling materials and establishing focus may eat up a large portion of the instructional time. On the other hand, if a class lasts too long, there's a good chance that students will lose interest. This essay aims to find out the most appropriate length of tutoring sessions with references and data from research from the past and the theory of diminishing marginal utility.

Methodology

As students get older, most schools go to a longer class time. Typically, classes last between fifty and ninety minutes, depending on the way the school is set up and the style of the classes. The ideal class length, however, is much shorter. Some articles have stated that the younger the child, likely the shorter the session since their length of concentration is likely to be shorter than teenagers. But some younger children can focus for an hour if the session is stimulating and involves various learning methods.

There are comparisons of lesson lengths between Asian and American countries. For example, secondary education in the United States refers to the final seven years of statutory formal education, from grades 6 (age 11–12) through 12 (age 17–18). According to studies, the most typical high school (IB) lesson length in America is 95 minutes. However, in particular Asian nations, such as China, the most typical high school lecture length is around 50 minutes.

(average)
China
United States
England
Japan
Korea
Switzerland
Primary School
40mins
45mins
45mins
45mins
40mins
45mins
Secondary School
45mins
90mins
50mins
60mins
45mins
90mins
Tutoring Lessons
2hrs
1hr
1hr
1.5hrs
1hr
1hr
 

According to the findings, the duration of schooling time in America and China differs significantly in terms of the number of lessons taught. In the United States, high school sessions are typically four lessons per day and last 95 minutes. In China, high school sessions generally are eight lessons every day for 50 minutes.

It is widely believed that tutoring provides students with more time to learn. The concept of the time needed to learn is the basis of the study of Carroll's (1963) model. (School quality is being questioned in the present era. The school is expected to provide excellent services to all its stakeholders, including its pupils and their academic performance. As a location for the development of educational services, a school plays a significant role in assisting students in preparing for learning to achieve good results. Students must be literate in their academic performance, technological achievement, and foreign language learning achievement. However, in terms of achievement, actual life demonstrates that some pupils can achieve high achievement levels while others do not. This finding suggests that a variety of factors influence student achievement. Student characteristics at the student and school levels, according to evidence-based research, have an impact on student accomplishment. Factors impacting learning in schools, Carroll's model.)

Literature Review

Study 1 – Frequency and duration of individualized tutoring to improve reading comprehension: A comparison of time treatment variables (Mary Zimmerman Gobert - May 2004)

The study focused on the effects of time and calendar span on the reading proficiency of over thirty third-grade students. The students were then analyzed for their weekly tutoring sessions. For five weeks, 30 students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group was taught four times a week, while the second group was taught twice a week. The data were analyzed to see if differences in their reading proficiency affected the treatment period.

This article has been cited as an illustration since it discusses the efficiency of tutoring lessons and how tutoring lessons can raise students’ progress and improve reading comprehension skills. For instance, in the article, Mary Zimmerman Gobert’s study aims to “The study focused on students in grades three through six with reading comprehension deficiencies. Criteria for selection in both groups of students were a recommendation by the school administrator and identification of the students as reading at least one-half year below grade level. The reading level was determined by the STAR placement test, administered to each student as part of the Accelerated Reading Program.” In addition, Mary stated the hypothesis that “There is no effect of frequency and calendar span of tutoring sessions on students’ comprehension proficiency.”

After a standard process of measurements, the study concluded that there is a slight correlation between the frequency and calendar span of tutoring lessons and students' comprehension ability. This finding indicates that students' comprehension proficiency will be enhanced when the tutoring lesson's frequency is high, and the date of classes does not span a wide time interval. Also, for the group of students who have a low frequency of tutoring lessons and spans in a long-time-interval, their comprehension ability does not present a fast improvement, to some extent, even lagged if there’s a long gap between lessons.

This research supports this article that the duration of tutoring lessons shouldn't be too short. The gap between classes should not be over a week because a tutoring lesson with a relatively long period helps students build their knowledge better. Moreover, a relatively short gap between studies can help students consolidate knowledge so that students will not forget the knowledge from previous lessons.

Study 2 – The Effects of Peer Tutoring on a Direct Instruction Reading Program (Robert Schuyler Brooks, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan, August 1991)

According to reports, teachers have considerable obstacles in teaching academic skills to children with diverse degrees of skill development and different learning requirements. As a result, number of pupils at risk of academic or social failure has risen dramatically (Buffone & Potter, 1987). The number of at-risk students who require extracurricular activities is predicted to grow in the coming years (Will, 1989). As a result, interventions within the school system are required to create a more successful learning environment. Due to the complexity of educational settings and their unique organizational structure of teaching and learning, any solution presented must meet several criteria.

The study's goal is to use intervention strategies such as peer tutoring to see how one child can help another learn a given task (Ehly, 1986). Peer tutoring has been studied various academic settings and with a wide range of disciplines.

Experimental Design: The study employed a baseline and a repeated baseline across individuals designed to introduce intervention conditions (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). This design collects continuous data on each subject, but the intervention is introduced at different points in the experiment for other subjects (student dyads). In addition, the intervention is not retracted once it has been given to a subject.

In conclusion, after completing the study, the classroom teacher (Munn, 1991) was interviewed. She was asked about her thoughts on the peer tutoring scheme, its benefits, and its drawbacks. She stated that “the students involved with the peer tutoring program made fewer errors during reading lessons. I was able to teach these students more in-depth (i.e., asking inferential questions about the stories), and they took great pride in demonstrating their reading skills.” She concluded that peer tutoring systems might work in classes with high-functioning tutors and well-structured classrooms.

This study supports this article that the application of peer review helped lessons improve efficiency in teaching. It also suggests that pre-exposure to reading lessons with peer tutoring can boost student reading rate without significantly raising the error rate before teacher-directed training. Also, this gives evidence to support that for works that spread in a tutoring lesson. Peer review tutoring should take place during the entire lesson duration. This finding helps increase the lesson's efficiency and helps students memorize the lesson's core better.

Study 3 – Time for School: Its Duration and Allocation (Gene V Class, Arizona State University)

As stated, in this study, Smith looked at the relationship between assigned time and social studies achievement in around 70 sixth-grade classes and found no statistically significant correlation (r= 0.17 for allotted time and achievement growth). Brown and Saks fitted "learning curves" connecting allocated time to accomplishment using the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study data. Their findings revealed only minor correlations between the two variables. However, when the curves for high- and low-ability students were fitted independently, the latter indicated a significantly larger link between assigned time and achievement.

The study calculated that: “On average, America’s children spend six hours each weekday and 180 days each year in school between the ages of five and 18. Roughly 25% of school districts have longer school years, and another 25% spend fewer than 175 days in school.” Comparing with the data above provided in Methodology, we can see that, on average, students in America usually spend less time in school compared with Asian students.

The study concluded that:

1.    “Students retain more over shorter vacations.”

2.    “Learning proceeds via the psychologically more effective ‘distributed’ rather than ‘massed practice’ schedule.”

3.    “Teachers spend less time reviewing material previously learned because of less forgetting during shorter vacations.”

4.    “Because breaks will be more frequent, teachers experience less burnout.”

This article correlates the length and efficiency of each school lesson. The conclusion of this class study helps to illustrate in this article that firstly, in between tutoring lessons, there should be fewer breaks, which helps to increase both teachers’ and students’ efficiency in memorizing previous contents. Secondly, there should be shorter vacations in between sessions, which helps to increase efficiency afterward.

The Application of Miller’s Marginal Diminishing Law

To prove my assumption, I asked my friends to experiment with the relationship between the length of time and level of concentration. The process is about memorizing numbers in different time lengths, which can referencing Miller’s Law. According to George A. Miller, the number of objects an average person can keep in working memory is roughly seven, according to George A. Miller, who reported findings in Psychological Review in 1956. This is also known as The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.

Also, I found that the time for students to focus on the tutoring lessons relates to the law of diminishing marginal utility. The law of diminishing marginal utility asserts that all other things being equal, as consumption rises, the marginal utility gained from each extra unit decreases. The incremental increase in utility from the consumption of one more unit is known as marginal utility. The phrase "utility" is an economic term for "satisfaction" or "happiness." The law of diminishing marginal utility states that as consumption grows, the marginal utility of each new unit decreases. Also, as it becomes undesirable to consume another unit of any product, the marginal utility can fall into negative territory. Furthermore, as consuming another unit of any product becomes unpleasant, the marginal utility may decline to negative utility. The loss of pleasure from consuming or purchasing another good is diminishing marginal utility. For instance, if a consumer buys a bag of chocolate, their utility increases after one or two pieces. Still, after but after a few pieces, their utility begins to fall with each subsequent piece consumed, finally resulting in negative equity.

Miller's marginal diminishing law concluded that when everything else is equal, the marginal utility derived from each additional unit declines as consumption increases. This can be referred to as the length of tutoring lessons. Since when the duration of lessons increases, the concentration and the level of interest of students diminishes. Students’ level of interest in the curriculum content might be the highest in the first 20-30 minutes and decrease every ten minutes after then.

Analysis / Findings

-      The findings of this study show that before teacher-directed training, pre-exposure to reading lessons with peer tutoring can boost student reading rate without significantly raising the error rate. (Robert Schuyler Brooks, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan, August 1991)

-      “The amount of time needed to complete a teacher-directed lesson decreased.” (with a peer review) (Robert Schuyler Brooks, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan, August 1991)

-      In between tutoring lessons, there should be fewer breaks, which helps to increase both teachers’ and students’ efficiency in memorizing previous contents. (Gene V Class, Arizona State University)

-      In between sessions, there should be shorter vacations, which helps to increase efficiency afterward. (Gene V Class, Arizona State University)

-      The gap between lessons should not be over a week because a tutoring lesson that has a relatively long duration helps students to build their knowledge. (Mary Zimmerman Gobert - May 2004)

-      A relatively short gap between lessons can help students consolidate knowledge so that students will not forget the knowledge from previous lessons. (Mary Zimmerman Gobert - May 2004)

Evaluation / Critical Thinking

Despite the multiple studies that have been done in the past, Zimmerman has stated in the study that standardized tests put inordinate amounts of pressure on all participants to continually achieve. As a result, the study's validity may reduce because of the participant bias and demand characteristics.

For instance, in some exceptional cases, students with learning difficulties, such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are ADHD is a behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, which are pervasive, impairing, and otherwise age-inappropriate. In addition, some individuals with ADHD have trouble controlling their emotions or have executive function issues. In this case, shorter sessions are more suited to their attention spans. Tutors should bear this in mind. Students who are eligible for instructional modifications such as more time, on the other hand, may benefit from a more extended, slower-paced session. Therefore, the tutor should further adjust the session duration to meet the student's needs.

Results / Conclusion

From the review of the current literature and articles, it's determined people's memory and level of focus reduce over time, which further proves that the length of tutoring lessons cannot exceed the ideal duration, or the extra time is unproductive. While much of the previous literature has focused on the method of tutoring lessons, few studies examine how the efficiency of tutoring lessons would decrease by the time spread duration.  Therefore, this study aims to discover the best tutoring lesson duration and found that by applying the marginal diminishing law of utility, tutoring lesson duration should diminish with the lesson of age spread. Plus, with the application, students' focus length would lessen over time, in which the tutoring lesson duration should not exceed the ideal length of school lessons.

References

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%27s_law

investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingutility.asp

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder

Study1: proquest.com/openview/c4a96ea2dec351d59da7d75a34352806/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Study 2:

scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/939/

scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1969&context=masters_theses

Study 3:

books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=7vgnDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA79&dq=Duration+of+tutoring+lesson&ots=GxVYlzFH61&sig=3S14RbtV752KfdF3jBb-_CIoZPg&redir_esc=y&hl=zh-CN&sourceid=cndr#v=onepage&q&f=false(chapter 4, page 79)