Students taught by rigorously selected and well trained student tutors show no significant achievement differences from students taught by staff tutors in first-year PBL courses¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across four courses and two cohorts, ANOVA found no significant differences in end-of-course exam achievement between the student tutor and staff tutor conditions, with all effect sizes small. → Catherine De Rijdt 2012

Evidence¶

Catherine De Rijdt 2012¶

Catherine De Rijdt, Janine van der Rijt, Filip Dochy, Cees van der Vleuten. (2012). Rigorously selected and well trained senior student tutors in problem based learning: student perceptions and study achievements. Instructional Science, 40, 397-411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-011-9173-6

q2 · i? · causal · r2

Quasi-experimental comparison in a first-year PBL law curriculum: students were randomly assigned to staff versus student tutor conditions in four courses across two cohorts, and achievement was measured by end-of-course exam grades. The article reports "not significant" results with small effect sizes; no standardized effect size value is printed for the pooled finding.

"The differences in achievement between students guided by a student tutor and those guided by a staff tutor are not significant and all effect sizes are small (d B 50) (Table 4)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• First-year students do not attach great importance to the tutor's domain specific expertise, which may explain why staff tutors' extra expertise does not yield achievement advantages — related
• Student perceptions of tutors are generally positive for both staff and student tutors, with significant differences appearing in only one course and not consistently across courses — related
• Staff-tutored tutorial groups achieve slightly but significantly higher marks than peer-tutored groups in problem-based learning — reports the opposite
• Prior field experiments found no achievement differences between staff- and student-tutored groups — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Student tutors are rated as more cognitively congruent than staff tutors in problem-based tutorial groups — related
• Focus group data indicate student tutors show more cognitive congruency than staff tutors, explaining content more clearly and in student-friendly terms — related
• No achievement difference between staff- and peer-tutored groups in the first curriculum year — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Staff tutors rated higher on using subject-matter knowledge and relevance, but peer tutors rated higher on these behaviors in year one — related
• Student tutors refer to end-of-course examinations more frequently than staff tutors to direct student learning — related