Comparing learning from observing and from human tutoring.

Abstract

A promising instructional approach corresponds to learning by observing others learn (i.e., by watching tutorial dialogue between a tutor and tutee). However, more work is needed to understand this approach's pedagogical utility. Thus, in 2 experiments we compared student learning from collaborative observation of dialogue with 2 other instructional contexts: 1-on-1 human tutoring and collaborative observation of monologue. In Study 1 (N ϭ 50), there was no significant difference in learning outcomes between the dialogue and tutoring conditions, while the dialogue condition was superior to the monologue condition. Study 2 (N ϭ 40), which involved a younger population than in Study 1, did not replicate these results, in that students learned less from observing dialogue than from being tutored, and there was no significant difference between the dialogue and monologue conditions. To shed light on our results, we analyzed the verbal data collected during the 2 experiments. This analysis showed that in Study 1, the dialogue observers generated more substantive contributions than did the monologue observers. In contrast, in Study 2 there was no significant difference between the observers in terms of substantive contributions; moreover, the total number of contributions was modest, which may have hindered observer learning in that study. In general, our findings suggest that collaboratively observing tutorial dialogue is a promising learning paradigm, but more work is needed to understand how to support young students to effectively learn in this paradigm.

Why Students Learn More From Dialogue- Than Monologue-Videos: Analyses of Peer Interactions

“…We have explored this new observational format in two studies (Chi et al, 2008;Muldner, Lam, & Chi, 2014). These two studies differed in two important ways.…”

“…Because our prior studies had the observers watch the videos collaboratively, we can analyze the conversations between the dyad peers to shed light on explaining why dialogue-videos are superior to monologue-videos for student learning. The purpose of this paper is to present the analyses of the data in the Muldner et al (2014) study.…”

“…Before explaining the analyses, some details of the method and results of Muldner et al (2014) study are provided below. …”

“…The average length of the monologue-videos was 21 minutes, which was not significantly different from the average length of the dialogue-videos at 25 minutes, p = .28. Additional details about how the videos were created are described in Muldner et al (2014).…”

“…In the Muldner et al (2014) study, the dialogue-videos were recorded using five adult tutors with minimal amount of tutoring experience. The tutors were either graduate students in our lab who were trained to understand the concept of diffusion, or recruited tutors who had taught diffusion in high school, so they were all familiar with the concept of diffusion.…”