Question Asking During Tutoring

TLDR

Student question asking is infrequent in classrooms, but research on tutoring questioning is scarce. The study examined questions posed in tutoring sessions for college research methods and 7th‑grade algebra. Questions were categorized by specification level, content, and generation mechanism to assess quality. In tutoring, student questions were about 240 times more frequent than in classrooms, tutor questions were only slightly higher than teacher questions, and student achievement correlated with question quality—not frequency—after tutoring experience, indicating that students partially self‑regulate but require training, and that tutors and teachers could enhance their question‑asking skills.

Abstract

Whereas it is well documented that student question asking is infrequent in classroom environments, there is little research on questioning processes during tutoring. The present study investigated the questions asked in tutoring sessions on research methods (college students) and algebra (7th graders). Student questions were approximately 240 times as frequent in tutoring settings as classroom settings, whereas tutor questions were only slightly more frequent than teacher questions. Questions were classified by (a) degree of specification, (b) content, and (c) question-generation mechanism to analyze their quality. Student achievement was positively correlated with the quality of student questions after students had some experience with tutoring, but the frequency of questions was not correlated with achievement. Students partially self-regulated their learning by identifying knowledge deficits and asking questions to repair them, but they need training to improve these skills. We identified some ways that tutors and teachers might improve their question-asking skills.