One-to-one human tutoring lifts an ordinary student well beyond the average classroom with an effect of about d = 0.79 (VanLehn, 2011, as reported)¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoreticalr3·q2·i2medium
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i2 The effect of a good human tutor lifting an ordinary student well beyond the average classroom is about d = 0.79, large but short of the celebrated two sigma, as the article reports citing VanLehn (2011) and Bloom (1984). → Mario Brcic 2026
Evidence¶
Mario Brcic 2026¶
Mario Brcic, Stjepan Frljic. (2026). The Effortless Trap: Productive Struggle, AI, and the Illusion of Learning. Preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26181 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2606.26181
q2 · i2 · theoretical · r3
The article reports, citing VanLehn (2011) and Bloom (1984), that one-to-one tutoring's honest effect size is "about d≈0.79", large but short of two sigma. The article uses this to argue AI could make such scarce attention available at scale, stated as promise, not delivered fact.
"A good human tutor lifts an ordinary student well beyond the average classroom; the honest size of that effect is about d≈0.79 , large but short of the celebrated two sigma (VanLehn, 2011; Bloom, 1984)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Human tutoring has a medium effect over no tutoring, and in one small study students learned as well when tutors only prompted them as when tutors also explained and gave feedback — related
- Intelligent tutoring systems can improve learning outcomes, particularly with immediate actionable feedback — related
- Intelligent tutoring systems improve achievement over non-individualised instruction — related
- High-quality tutoring produces large learning gains cost-effectively, in person and virtually — a broader claim this one bears on
- AutoTutor's learning gains are virtually equivalent to those of 1-to-1 human tutoring in direct comparisons — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
human-tutoring-effect-d-079 |
title |
One-to-one human tutoring lifts an ordinary student well beyond the average classroom with an effect of about d = 0.79 (VanLehn, 2011, as reported) |
description |
One-to-one human tutoring lifts an ordinary student well beyond the average classroom with an effect of about d = 0.79 (VanLehn, 2011, as reported) |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — mario-brcic-2026 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.