Does tutoring actually do any good?

[herty]

How can it not have an effect? Tutoring, aka teaching, children anything improves their knowledge and ability to handle the subjects in question. With regard to VR and NVR - they're not taught at many state primaries, so familiarisation with types of question and techniques for answering are crucial to a child's success. We may as well ask - does teaching spelling help children to write? A bright child will not grasp unphonetic spelling unless encouraged to, and taught some of the rules that apply.

But that's my opinion and not research!

See above - everyone agrees familiarisation is vital. But not extended coaching.

[ql7gt3ssJBtku0kS]

EDIT: Just to add, lara, re your previous post, that creative writing and comprehension skills are best taught by reaing and then copying what you read. No specialist teaching is required at all. Those of you who have read my previous posts know that this approach worked very well for me and I never cease to be amazed at people who fail to grasp that the best way to understand what is said in books is to read them! Not aimed at you lara, but at this forum in general! May contain nuts, indeed...

One of the things I find extraordinary in the obsession with tutoring, exercises, worksheets and text books in order to enhance vocabulary. Read some books. Read a decent newspaper. Read some decent magazines. Talk about them. Job done. If you're not covering an adequate amount of the English language in the general course of your child's daily reading, fix that problem at root. Trying to expand your vocabulary by doing anything other than reading real texts is like trying to improve your cooking by chopping up plastic models of carrots.

[herty]

Amen to that.

PS How on earth do you remember your username?

[maddad]

What I am advocating though, is that for a child who has been to a reasonable bog standard school and who has had support from home throughout school (eg reading, talking to parents, board games etc) then it is not necessary or desirable to 'cram' them with facts and techniques for 12+ months prior to the exam. Even teaching the maths curriculum doesn't take very long - I taught my dd in 3 months and that was a long way off full-time and I'm no mathematician or maths teacher.

So it sounds like we all agree that tutoring does some good (to answer the original post), we're just discussing how much and what form. It also depends on what you're aiming for e.g. the independent school maths exams test ability significantly beyond than the KS2 curriculum.

Don't forget that there is a whole, very lucrative, industry that has grown up around teaching for the 11+ - people have a very strong, vested interest in persuading you that if you don't get paid tutors/materials then you will fail your child and your child will fail.

Yes - if parents feel able and have the time, I would recommend DIY tutoring as many on this site have done. Don't assume that a tutor has some magic ability that you don't. I feel angry at the amount of money the local tutor takes off parents who can barely afford it, without having any real results to show for it.

[C. J.]

This was discussed previously on 'Bucks CC report on impact of 11+ testing' this time last year, which report looked at the Northern Ireland research and I believe the later NFER advice in which they amend their position from the long held first few papers make a tiny difference thing...

To my mind the major thing is the finding that, while a little practice makes a little gain, prolonged and regular practice (9 months or more) makes for significant gains. This also fits with current thinking about deliberate practice versus ability stuff.


• Egan and Bunting’s study compared groups of children who were coached for at least a year, with those who had had no coaching. Pupils with higher ability benefited most from coaching, but that even when ability was accounted for, most children could double their scores as a result of coaching. The significant gains in scores attributed to coaching would have meant that, regardless of ability, none of the pupils who had not been coached, would have achieved a score in the top 70% required for selection into grammar school.
• Other studies, though not involving pupils of the same age, and involving tests of a slightly different nature show the same trend, i.e. that coaching can have a significant impact on scores in reasoning tests.
• The current research evidence would suggest that unless you can ensure equal effectiveness or access to coaching, then you cannot make assumptions about ability based on the verbal reasoning tests.
(Thank you Pippi for the extract). Sorry, have tried and failed to make a link!

[maddad]

Thanks C.J. - very interesting reading (and a lot better than my anecdotal evidence ).
To save people searching, here is the original thread: Bucks CC report on impact of coaching on 11+ test.

[lara228]

This was discussed previously on 'Bucks CC report on impact of 11+ testing' this time last year, which report looked at the Northern Ireland research and I believe the later NFER advice in which they amend their position from the long held first few papers make a tiny difference thing...

To my mind the major thing is the finding that, while a little practice makes a little gain, prolonged and regular practice (9 months or more) makes for significant gains. This also fits with current thinking about deliberate practice versus ability stuff.


• Egan and Bunting’s study compared groups of children who were coached for at least a year, with those who had had no coaching. Pupils with higher ability benefited most from coaching, but that even when ability was accounted for, most children could double their scores as a result of coaching. The significant gains in scores attributed to coaching would have meant that, regardless of ability, none of the pupils who had not been coached, would have achieved a score in the top 70% required for selection into grammar school.
• Other studies, though not involving pupils of the same age, and involving tests of a slightly different nature show the same trend, i.e. that coaching can have a significant impact on scores in reasoning tests.
• The current research evidence would suggest that unless you can ensure equal effectiveness or access to coaching, then you cannot make assumptions about ability based on the verbal reasoning tests.
(Thank you Pippi for the extract). Sorry, have tried and failed to make a link!

Thank you for all this information - it just seems so logical to me. If you work harder you have to benefit (unless you are some kind of prodigy to whom it all comes naturally) - this is true in every field in life so why would anyone think it would not apply to this discussion. As for all the banal comments about just read more, chop carrots etc - my DS reads for at least an hour every night, he plays two instruments (and guess what, when he has extra lessons and practice, he does better), he's in 3 orchestras, goes to concerts, theatre, exhibitions etc, etc (and kicks a ball around with his friends) AND he benefitted hugely from having a wonderful tutor who gave him personalised one-to-one attention that his schooling could never dream to provide. Reading expanded his vocabulary - tutor helped him develop that into creative writing that was commended in one Independent school entrance exam.

[ccr]

Amen to that.

PS How on earth do you remember your username?

May be he is in to cricket and has learned the trick from the Srilankan cricketers like this one, WarnakulasuriyaPatabendigeUshanthaJosephChamindaVaas....surely 'ql7gt3ssJBtku0kS' has got to be easier to remember!

[KS10]

Amen to that.

PS How on earth do you remember your username?

May be he is in to cricket and has learned the trick from the Srilankan cricketers like this one, WarnakulasuriyaPatabendigeUshanthaJosephChamindaVaas....surely 'ql7gt3ssJBtku0kS' has got to be easier to remember!

The Sri Lankan names are far easier as they have vowels in between that make the names pronounceable.
Although if you look carefully at ql7gt3ssJBtku0kS I'm sure you will see a couple of words for bottom.

[fatbananas]

Although if you look carefully at ql7gt3ssJBtku0kS I'm sure you will see a couple of words for bottom.

Ahhh, KS10, displaying your VR skills ...