Shadow Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics: an Exploratory Study | |
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Purpose This study aims to explore the practice of shadow | |
education (private tutoring) in Mathematics among first | |
year | |
university students and to examine how this mode of | |
learning during high school years impact students | |
performance in freshman mathematics course. | |
Methodology Taking a case study of Business Mathematics | |
course at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in | |
United Arab Emirates (UAE), the author undertook a | |
quantitative analysis of students final grades in the | |
course | |
categorized by students responses to some private tutoring | |
related questionnaire items. | |
Findings Students who have received private tutoring in | |
Mathematics in the form of individualized instruction for | |
at | |
least one year in high school are more likely to request | |
tutoring in the subject during freshman year at the | |
university. | |
As for performance, students who purchased private | |
tutoring in order to improve their performance in the | |
course | |
consistently underperformed their peers irrespective of | |
whether they had tutoring experience in Mathematics in | |
high | |
school or not. They showed significantly higher failing | |
rate | |
in the course than their peers. | |
Research limitations The study did not include other | |
tutoring unrelated factors that could affect students | |
performance in the course such as students motivation, | |
household and/or school characteristics. | |
Implications for teaching Given the observed negative | |
consequences of private tutoring on students learning, | |
educators of higher education where tutoring practices may | |
exist should invest time in discouraging these practices | |
and | |
educating their students of the negative effects tutoring | |
can | |
have. They should develop teaching strategies that promote | |
independent learning, give more support to challenged | |
students in Mathematics and encourage peer tutoring and | |
group studying. | |
Social Implications Given the cultural context of UAE | |
society, parents are envisaged to take lead and often | |
dictate | |
their children life choices. In their conviction of good | |
parenting, they drive their children into tutoring hoping | |
for | |
them to achieve competitive academic performance. Parents | |
should become aware of the negative consequences that | |
tutoring can have on their children education and | |
personality. | |
Originality There is little research on the long term | |
impact | |
of private tutoring. This paper tries to shed some light | |
on this | |
impact by examining how private tutoring in high school | |
could affect student s learning and performance in | |
freshman | |
Mathematics course. | |
Date Published: 2014-02-10 08:13:31 | |
Identifier: IJMEF008 | |
Item Size: 5812783 | |
Language: English | |
Media Type: texts | |
# Topics | |
Tutoring; Boxplot; Shadow Education; UAE | |
# Collections | |
folkscanomy_academic | |
folkscanomy | |
additional_collections | |
# Uploaded by | |
@rachael_you | |
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