On Becoming a Tutor: Toward an Ontogenetic Model

Wood, David; Wood, Heather; Ainsworth, Shaaron; O’Malley, Claire

Abstract

Eight pairs of girls and 8 pairs of boys at each of three age groups (3, 5, and 7 years) took part in a three-phase investigation. One child in each pair was taught how to assemble a construction task by a computer-assisted tutoring system. That child then taught a peer of the same age and sex. After the peer-tutoring session, the child who had been taught by the peer attempted to construct the task alone. Predictions about age-related differences in the tutoring behavior of children at the three age groups were drawn from the literature on peer tutoring and children's theory of mind. The hypothesis that children's ability to learn a task correlates with both their instructional competence and their peer's learning received some support. The results also show significant changes in tutoring strategies, verbal instruction, and contingency of teaching at the three ages that are in line with hypotheses drawn from the theory of mind literature. The theoretical implications of the results in relation to connections between the ontogenesis of tutoring skills and theory of mind are explored. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Citation

Wood, D., Wood, H., Ainsworth, S., & O’Malley, C. (1995). On Becoming a Tutor: Toward an Ontogenetic Model. Cognition and Instruction, 13(4), 565-581. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1304_7

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 1995
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2024
• Journal: Cognition and Instruction
• Print ISSN: 0737-0008
• Electronic ISSN: 1532-690X
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 565-581
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1304_7
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/23577736
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s1532690xci1304_7