Internet and Higher Education: Chao-Hsiu Chen, Chen-Hung Liao, Yi-Chieh Chen, Chen-Feng Lee

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Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33

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Internet and Higher Education

The integration of synchronous communication technology into service learning for


pre-service teachers' online tutoring of middle school students
Chao-Hsiu Chen ⁎, Chen-Hung Liao, Yi-Chieh Chen, Chen-Feng Lee
Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: To well prepare pre-service teachers for their future teaching, researchers and teacher-educators have been
Teacher education employing information and communication technology to improve pre-service teachers' learning of subject-
Synchronous communication technology matter knowledge, pedagogies, classroom-management skills, and so on. This study illustrates a service-
Service learning learning project we conducted to engage 18 Taiwanese pre-service teachers in tutoring middle school
Online tutoring students by means of synchronous communication tools. To evaluate this project, we collected data from
observations, surveys, postings on a discussion forum, teaching journals, and learning journals. Although the
pre-service teachers and students generally held positive attitudes toward the tutoring experience and the
pre-service teachers reported various benefits from participating in this project, some tutors were concerned
with the effectiveness of online tutoring. Most of the tutors tried to motivate their students by providing
appealing materials to, and by facilitating interaction with, the students. Yet, some tutors were troubled by
students' misbehavior and low motivation.
© 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction knowledge and beliefs about teaching into practice while facing the
complexity of classroom situations such as interacting with many
To prepare pre-service teachers to be competent teachers, teacher- students and arranging and implementing various instructional
educators strive to foster all kinds of knowledge and skills including events simultaneously (Hammerness et al., 2005). Allen (2009)
subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical con- interviewed fourteen first-year teachers graduating from a teacher-
tent knowledge, appropriate assessment skills, and effective communi- education program, and found that pre-service teachers value both
cation skills (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). More and more the theories learned in their training and the practices observed in
teacher-educators are employing various technological tools to support schools, but that new teachers tend to prioritize practices in the
pre-service teachers' learning. Gomez, Sherin, Griesdorn, and Finn workplace. Researchers have stressed that teacher-education pro-
(2008) recommended that technology serve to create connections grams should acknowledge this type of inconsistency and should find
among teacher-education faculty, pre-service teachers, and other ways to effectively assist pre-service teachers in connecting theory
stakeholders, and to engage pre-service teachers in meaningful learning with practice (Kennedy, 2006; Korthagen, Loughran, & Russell, 2006).
tasks. These researchers also specified four benefits of technological This article presents a project in which, during the summer of
application in teacher education: (1) preparing technically literate 2008, the researchers employed synchronous communication tech-
teachers, (2) helping pre-service teachers bridge the gap between nology to engage 18 Taiwanese pre-service teachers in a task of
theories learned in university and teaching practices observed in real tutoring middle school students online. The purpose of this project
classrooms, (3) facilitating practice-centered professional development, was to enhance pre-service teachers' understanding of how to apply
and (4) encouraging reflection on teaching knowledge and teaching instructional theories and pedagogical knowledge to the real practice
practice. of tutoring students with whom the teachers rarely had a chance to
A frequently mentioned problem in helping teachers learn to teach interact during their teacher-education coursework. Meanwhile, the
is the discrepancy between the theories emphasized in teacher- synchronous communication tools provided the pre-service teachers
education programs and the practices observed in classrooms. To and the students with a means for real-time interaction without face-
most teachers, it is a challenging task to effectively put their to-face meetings, and the university faculty did not have to be
concerned with safety issues (e.g., the high incidence of automobile
accidents in Taiwan) characterizing pre-service teachers' travel to and
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 886 3 5712121x58056; fax: + 886 3 5738083.
E-mail addresses: chaohsiuchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw (C.-H. Chen),
from school. It was expected that this project would enable the pre-
nowordson@gmail.com (C.-H. Liao), always811154@gmail.com (Y.-C. Chen), service teachers to obtain web-enabled field experience. Data were
nctupaullee@gmail.com (C.-F. Lee). collected from observations, surveys, tutors' and students' journals,

1096-7516/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.02.003
28 C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33

and discussion-forum postings to evaluate the effectiveness of this and inquiry-based science teaching into practice, and they valued
project. This article reports the preliminary findings derived from the opinions given by the in-service teachers in the discussion forums.
data collected for evaluating this project, and two research questions Also, being involved in the asynchronous discussion, the in-service
follow: (1) What were the pre-service teachers' and the students' teachers reflected on their own knowledge and beliefs about science
attitudes toward the online-tutoring experience? (2) What are the teaching.
factors influencing the effectiveness of the online-tutoring process? Lord and Lomicka (2007) found that computer-mediated commu-
nication (CMC) technologies such as e-mail and discussion forums
2. Literature review helped create social-reflection environments in which pre-service
teachers of foreign languages undertook reflective-journal writing,
2.1. Technology supporting teacher education shared thoughts and experiences, commented on each other's journal
entries, and grew proficient in using technological tools. The CMC
Technology is an important part of contemporary teachers' and tools can strengthen connections among pre-service teachers, school
students' lives, indeed becoming an indispensable tool for teaching and teachers, and teacher-education faculty, and the pre-service teachers
learning. In particular, teachers rely on technology because they have to can improve their teaching skills (Hedrick, McGee, & Mittag, 2000;
view their profession from a curricular perspective, which means Makinster, Barab, Harwood, & Andersen, 2006) and receive or give
comprehensively considering contextualized instruction, and have to social and emotional support (Paulus and Scherff, 2008) by sharing
employ appropriate technological tools to achieve their instructional and reflecting on their student-teaching experiences.
objectives. Hence, because pre-service teachers should learn how to Technology has the unique capacity of rendering a web-enabled
adequately apply technology to instruction, teacher education should practicum achievable. Mouza (2007) described a case in which faculty
foster pre-service teachers' technology literacy, including an ability to and school teachers cooperated with one another to engage pre-
operate new technologies proficiently, to access and to use information service teachers in a social-studies learning project targeting school
efficiently and critically, and to participate appropriately in communi- students. The pre-service teachers served as tutors and learning peers
ties and to collaborate with others via networks (Darling-Hammond of small-group students, and the task was to investigate Irish
et al., 2005). In addition, teacher-educators nowadays are paying more literature, history, and culture via various online tools. For example,
attention to the affordability of technology in enhancing pre-service a trip calendar (i.e., an itinerary) ensured that the pre-service teachers
teachers' learning. Technology such as databases, digital storage and the students would work on learning tasks in similar phases, and
systems, and synchronous and asynchronous communication tools a webpage consisting of useful resources and information about
allow students to efficiently and effectively access a vast amount of Ireland enabled the learners to effectively locate useful information.
information resources, and these tools facilitate students' critical Tools for asynchronous communication and file uploading gave the
reflections on the complexity of learning experiences without time- pre-service teachers and students the flexibility of communicating
constraint and location-constraint problems. Consequently, pre-service and sharing information and ideas with one another without time-
teachers are able to undertake learning tasks more efficiently and and space-constraints. Besides answering the students' questions in
effectively in university coursework and field experience (Borko, discussion forums, the pre-service teachers traveled as a group to
Whitcomb, & Liston, 2009). meet their students face-to-face.
Teacher-educators employ various pedagogies and tools to educate Mouza (2007) argued that the web-enabled practicum design gave
their students, who in turn can develop adaptive expertise in their the pre-service teachers opportunities (1) to apply theories learned in
future profession as teachers. These pedagogies and tools have their the teacher-education program to the field experience of tutoring school
specific strengths and limitations. According to their teaching goals, students in specific subject matter, and (2) to form a community of
teacher-educators choose certain pedagogies and tools. For instance, a learners in the teaching profession. The community members included
focus of current teacher education is to encourage pre-service teachers pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, teacher-educators, and stu-
to analyze and reflect on the processes and outcomes of authentic dents. To the pre-service teachers, the online practicum presented
incidents in classrooms; in this way, the pre-service teachers can strengths such as facilitating collaborative learning, concentrating on
gradually acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions for student learning, and assuming ownership of their field experiences.
adequate teaching practice. However, the complexity and fast pace of Yet, the practicum did not provide the pre-service teachers with
classroom activities make meaningful analysis and reflection difficult to opportunities of interacting with experienced teachers, and the
achieve. Teacher-educators may ask pre-service teachers to watch and interaction with students was mainly related to the learning tasks, so
analyze videos of teaching and learning incidents, from which they can the pre-service teachers knew very little about the students' social and
experience authentic teaching practices, share their understandings emotional needs.
with others, and reflect on and revise their own perspectives, but
without being overwhelmed by the complexity of the teaching practices 2.2. Tutoring and pre-service teachers' learning to teach
(Darling-Hammond, Hammerness, Grossman, Rust, & Shulman, 2005).
Technology can provide educators and pre-service teachers with Clift and Brady (2005) reviewed much teacher-education research
convenient and effective tools to support a variety of teaching on methods courses and field experiences, and they concluded that
approaches and learning tasks. For example, Barnett (2006) developed although methods courses and field experiences as offered in most
a web-based system combining videos of teaching practice and teacher-education programs influence pre-service teachers' knowl-
discussion forums, and within the system, pre-service teachers taking edge and beliefs about subject matter, teaching, and learning, pre-
a science-methods course strengthened their understanding of service teachers could demonstrate knowledge and beliefs quite
learning theories and reform-based teaching practices by watching different from those that university faculty try to foster. Researchers
videotaped classroom practices online and by discussing these videos caution that pre-service teachers often face a conflict between
with in-service teachers on asynchronous discussion forums. Before teacher-educators' instruction and their school-based field experi-
participating in the study, the 60 pre-service teachers felt little ences; however, research findings indicate that pre-service teachers
confidence in their own subject-matter knowledge, and the 16 in- may decline to change their existing beliefs or practices, even when
service teachers—despite being more experienced in teaching science— their teacher-education courses and field experiences promote
were unfamiliar with inquiry-based science teaching. After the consistent concepts and actions.
completion of the study, however, the pre-service teachers reported To soften pre-service teachers' resistance to changing knowledge
deeper understanding of science teaching and of how to put theories and beliefs, and to narrow the theory-practice gap, teacher-educators
C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33 29

make efforts to form university-school partnerships that provide pre- chronous tools, and this article describes the implementation and
service teachers with opportunities both to interact with school evaluation of this project. The findings should provide researchers and
students and to apply instructional theories and advocated practices teacher-educators with different perspectives on how technology can
to instructional events. Among these endeavors, integrating service support pre-service teachers' teaching and learning.
learning into teacher education is advocated for various rationales,
including fostering pre-service teachers' critical reflection on and 3. Methods
understanding of academic course content and pedagogical skills,
preparing pre-service teachers for using service learning as a 3.1. Research contexts and participants
promising teaching method, and promoting such matters as social
understanding, civic engagement, and commitment to social justice In the summer of 2008, 18 Taiwanese pre-service teachers (eleven
(Anderson, 1998; Guadarrama, 2000; Verducci & Pope, 2001; Wade, females and seven males) were recruited to tutor 22 middle school
1997). Combining early-childhood teacher education with service students (eleven girls and eleven boys) online via synchronous
learning, Lake and Jones (2008) asked pre-service teachers to work communication tools during four 50-minute weekday sessions for
with classroom children in conducting service-learning projects that four weeks. The researchers deliberately recruited students who were
covered issues such as community outreach for the disadvantaged and disadvantaged learners or from low-SES families including aboriginal
environmental awareness. The research results indicate that the families, low-income and tax-exempt families, and single-parent and
experience helped the pre-service teachers transform their instruc- foreign-nationality families. Because not all tutors could participate in
tion in a more constructivist manner. all tutoring sessions, the tutoring schedule was arranged on the basis
A common approach to integrating service learning into teacher of requests from the pre-service teachers. According to their majors,
education is to conduct tutoring programs that take place in either nine of the pre-service teachers served as math tutors and the
practicum placement or student teaching, and that feature pre-service remaining nine as English tutors. At first, the 22 middle school
teachers who hone their teaching knowledge, teaching skills, and students were divided into eleven groups, and each tutor taught two
service-learning pedagogy by tutoring children (Cobb, 2001; Hart & students at a time. Three students quit the project during the first
King, 2007; Wade, 1997). Two meta-analysis articles reviewed, in week, and some pairs of students had very different academic levels,
total, 86 tutoring programs, and the overall results indicate that the so some adjustments in the tutor–student assignment were made.
tutoring programs helped the tutored students to improve their Finally in each session, there were eleven tutors teaching eight pairs of
academic performance (Ritter, Barnett, Denny, & Albin, 2009; Cohen, students and three individual students. The students participated in
Kulik, & Kulik, 1982). In addition, tutoring experiences appear to be two-hour math sessions and two-hour English sessions every
beneficial to pre-service teachers (Hart & King, 2007; Malone, Jones, & weekday during the tutoring-project period.
Stallings, 2002). For instance, Malone and his colleagues investigated Each tutor had a microphone-equipped headset, a pen tablet, and a
the attitude change in 108 pre-service teachers when they took webcam to communicate with his or her student(s), who had a
teacher-education courses to tutor at-risk elementary school stu- similarly equipped headset and a pen tablet. Owing to the limited
dents, and the researchers found that the tutoring experiences sig- budget, only one hearing-impaired student was equipped with a
nificantly transformed the pre-service teachers' perspectives on webcam. Math and English textbooks used in the schools were
identity and personal development, teaching and learning, and service provided for the tutors' reference. The tutors convened the tutoring
and responsibility to the community. Also, the tutors viewed the sessions in a computer lab that was located in the participants'
tutoring experience of helping and interacting with children as teacher-education center and that featured technical support from a
satisfying and enjoyable. graduate student. Meanwhile, the middle school students were in
Hart and King (2007) arranged for pre-service teachers who took a their own school's computer lab, itself also technically supported by a
course entitled “Linking Literacy Assessment and Instruction” to tutor graduate student. The tutors and the students met in an online
in the field of children's literacy. The pre-service teachers employed meeting room using an application called xLearn. The online meeting
comparable literacy-assessment tools to understand their tutees' room included functions such as instant messaging, whiteboards for
needs, and the pre-service teachers designed and executed literacy- typing and drawing, document uploading and sharing, and screen
teaching strategies according to the diagnosis of the assessment broadcasting. Fig. 1 shows a tutor explaining a math concept via the
results. The researchers found that in tutoring the children, the pre-
service teachers (1) took responsibility for their actions, (2) viewed
the tutoring experience as an opportunity to practice what they were
learning, and (3) exhibited and experienced an enhanced motivation
to learn the course content.
Wade (1997) suggested that pre-service teachers not only partic-
ipate in service activities, but also develop the knowledge and skills
necessary for classroom use of service learning because, by providing
such services, the pre-service teachers could experience frustrations and
rewards and understand how to manage classrooms, how to interact
with the community, and how to supervise students. Given the
aforementioned advantages of service learning in teacher education,
Wade further suggested that teacher-educators, if lacking the time or
the energy to undertake multiple types of learning projects, should
prioritize involving pre-service teachers in service-learning activities
geared toward helping K-12 students. Additionally, although asynchro-
nous communication tools have gradually emerged in teacher-educa-
tion coursework and teacher professional development, little research
focuses on the use of synchronous technology for pre-service teachers'
teaching and learning tasks. Hence, the researchers conducted a service-
learning project where pre-service teachers tutored economically and Fig. 1. A tutor demonstrating a math concept using the synchronous communication
academically disadvantaged middle school students via online syn- tools.
30 C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33

tools provided in the meeting classroom. Fig. 2 presents a group of 4. Findings


students listening to their tutor's instructions.
Before participating in the project, the 18 pre-service teachers
reported that they regularly used MSN or Skype to communicate with
3.2. Data collection and data analysis friends and family members, and ten of them were confident that they
would be sufficiently skilled in using the synchronous communication
Before starting the tutoring sessions, two workshops in which the tools to tutor the students. Of the 18 tutors, 16 stated that they were
pre-service teachers witnessed demonstrations of how to use the proficient in operating a computer, installing software, using a word
synchronous communication tools were held; in addition, the workshop processor, and creating slides. Except for the first chaotic day of
sessions highlighted the limitations of online interaction and served as a tutoring, during the whole project period the tutors rarely had
forum in which the researchers distributed questionnaires to the pre- difficulties with equipment operation or the Internet connection,
service teachers in the hopes of better understanding their technology thanks in large measure to the technical assistance of the graduate
use. The purpose of distributing the questionnaires was to understand student in the teacher-education center's computer lab. However, the
the pre-service teachers' habits of using computers and network computers in the middle school were quite dated, and the tutors
technology, their ability to operate computers and to search for useful sometimes had to wait for the students' computers to recover from
information, and general attitudes toward online tutoring. A 45-minute inexplicable breakdowns. Seven tutors stated that the issue of
orientation was also held in the middle school, enabling the students to equipment stability was a major flaw of this project. The field notes
become familiar with the login procedure and the xLearn system's show that the problem of equipment breakdown sometimes inter-
operation. rupted the tutoring.
During the tutoring sessions, the researchers observed the tutors
and the students and kept field notes about events in the computer A student kept raising his hand to report that a computer had
labs. The tutors updated their own teaching journals and the students crashed, and the problem was not resolved after he had twice
updated their own learning journals after finishing each weekday's switched computers. The computers in this lab were too dated
tutoring. The pre-service teachers were also encouraged to discuss, in and had too many problems. Although in general, the students
a discussion forum, their experiences and difficulties in tutoring the could switch to another computer to continue the tutoring, much
middle school students. At first, the researchers planned to distribute time would be wasted in these transitions (field notes in the
another survey after a completion ceremony to understand whether school, 07/16/08).
the pre-service teachers' general attitudes toward the activity had
changed, but a typhoon warning was issued on that day and the Table 1 lists the survey-question responses from the tutors
ceremony was called off. Therefore, the survey was distributed to the regarding their general attitudes toward the tutoring experience.
pre-service teachers via e-mail, and only four pre-service teachers Most tutors agreed on the benefits of conducting this project for
completed and returned the survey. Only responses to the open- disadvantaged students and were willing to continue to tutor the
ended questions were used for data analysis. students after the project's completion. Most tutors' responses to the
The quantitative data collected from the survey were analyzed open-ended questions showed that the benefits of participating in this
with descriptive statistics. Most collected data, including journal project included getting familiar with subject-matter content, having
entries, field notes, and discussion-forum postings were qualitative, opportunities to interact with middle school students, being able to
and the coding strategies specified by Merriam (2001) were used to help disadvantaged students, practicing how to motivate students,
code and categorize the qualitative data. The researchers added, and experiencing inspiration and enthusiasm as a result of the
modified, and deleted categories while main patterns were emerging. teaching. However, the tutors' responses to the survey questions
For instance, after finding that the students' misbehavior negatively indicate some limitations of online tutoring such as instruction
affected the tutors' spirits and, indeed, motivated some tutors to effectiveness and student discipline.
change their instruction, the researchers added the category “student In responding to the open-ended questions, seven tutors stated
misbehavior” to the existing categories in order to highlight this issue. that their inability to see their students' faces might have compro-
After multiple additions, deletions, and revisions of categories, the mised the effectiveness of the tutor–student interactions, and their
researchers confirmed the coding results and reported major findings. responses included “I couldn't see my students' expressions so I
couldn't exactly know what they were doing”, “If I could have seen my
students' expressions, it would have been much easier to understand
their learning situations”, and “I couldn't see their faces; I felt distant
from my students”. Not being able to see the students' faces could
even cause misunderstanding, and the field notes recorded a
misbehavior incident.

Today, a student paid no attention to his tutor's continual


questioning, and the other student in the same group lost his
patience and typed a bad word with the instant messaging function.
The tutor thought the word was attacking her and felt offended so
she wanted to quit…. Later, the instructor called my cell, and I
explained the whole situation. Finally, the tutor was pacified and
continued to teach (field notes in the school, 07/09/08).

Because only one student (who was hearing-impaired) was


equipped with a webcam, most tutors experienced various levels of
trouble communicating with the students and handling their
misbehavior. From the second day, the researchers kept observing
that some students would open multiple windows to watch video
Fig. 2. Two students listening to their tutor's instructions. clips, to play games, or to browse websites they were interested in.
C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33 31

Table 1
Numbers and percentages of the 18 tutors' agreement levels on survey items.

Item statement Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Face-to-face tutoring is more effective than online tutoring. 0(0) 3(16.7) 2(11.1) 11(61.1) 2(11.1)
Online tutoring makes me more stressed than face-to-face tutoring. 0(0) 1(5.6) 12(66.7) 5(27.8) 0(0)
While tutoring online, I expect to spend much time handling issues irrelevant to teaching. 0(0) 0(0) 5(27.8) 9(50) 4(22.2)
It is more pleasant to sit in a computer lab tutoring students online with air conditioning than to 0(0) 4(22.2) 5(27.8) 7(38.9) 2(11.1)
tutor students face-to-face in a middle school classroom.
Online tutoring alleviates the worries of my family and my teachers regarding the safety issues 0(0) 1(5.6) 3(16.7) 10(55.6) 4(22.2)
of traveling to school.
I am willing to tutor the student(s) via telephone, e-mail, or MSN after finishing this project. 0(0) 1(5.6) 3(16.7) 10(55.6) 4(22.2)
Overall, I think this project is helpful to the disadvantaged students. 0(0) 0(0) 2(11.1) 13(72.2) 3(16.7)

From the tutors' journal entries, ten students progressively paid less grammar rules. The English tutors tended to prepare their own teaching
attention to their tutors and became less active and responsive. With materials including slides, documents, and websites for the instruction.
the novelty of online tutoring gradually fading, the tutors needed to
make an effort to discipline students and to regain their attention. For Most math tutors used pen tablets a lot. They wrote and drew
example, in his journal one tutor wrote, “I caught my student math formulas, problems, and graphics on the whiteboards using
downloading files and not paying attention to me”, and on the next pen tablets, and their students would give responses using the
day he wrote, “My student didn't cooperate with me at first, but the same method. The tutors also provided their students with
situation got better after I gave him a serious warning”. The supplementary materials that they [the tutors] had created and
observation field notes showed similar findings. that included accumulated lists of graphics and formulas (field
notes in the university, 07/16/08).
Because we cannot lock the windows, the students can do whatever
they want: for example, they can browse interesting websites. If they Most English tutors created their own teaching materials includ-
are not interested in the tutors' teaching, they simply perfunctorily ing slides and documents. They also asked the students to browse
react to the tutors' requests but actually engage in activities they various websites (field notes in the university, 07/04/08).
enjoy. This problem is difficult to handle and control in online
tutoring (field notes in the school, 07/02/08). In their journal entries, fourteen students revealed their positive
attitudes toward participation in this project and enthusiastically
One tutor bargained with his students that if they paid attention inquired as to whether this project would continue after the start of
to his teaching, they could have a longer break. Gradually, more the new semester. Even on a day during which government
tutors traded longer breaks for more attention from students. I authorities issued a typhoon warning, all students were present at
guess this is because the motivation of the tutors' students was the computer lab in the school. The learning journal on the last
getting lower and lower, and therefore, the tutors needed to use tutoring day highlighted the students' self-evaluated improvement
some novel strategies (field notes in the school, 07/09/08). and eagerness to learn more with their tutors.

Today, my math tutor taught me new math problems. If I know


In their teaching journals, most tutors confirmed that they (1) how to solve these problems, I can establish a good foundation to
usually experienced diligent cooperation with their students regard- learn the new semester's math and I can learn difficult things
ing the studies, and (2) could strategically regain the attention of any faster. Therefore, we need to take the first step [in this direction]
distracted students by employing multiple types of instructional (Student A's journals, 07/25/08).
activities and materials. For example, the tutors recorded such entries
as the following: “Today, a student of mine seemed to be distracted Today is the last tutoring day. I learned pretty well. I don't want
and passive, so I gave him more real-life problems”, “He [a tutor's the tutoring activities to end (Student B's journals, 07/25/08).
student] would be more focused if I encouraged him more often”, “A
student's spirits were low, so we played math games after completing At first I didn't understand what my English tutor was showing me
some math problems”, “We listened to English songs together, and I and talking about, but I gradually got it after her repeated
explained the lyrics afterward”, and “I talked with him [a student] explanations. The same with math, because now I really understand
patiently for quite a while, and he finally cooperated with me in the first-degree polynomials with one variable, which we first tried
following session”. The field notes recorded that, in addition to or in learning in the seventh grade (Student C's journals, 07/25/08).
place of the textbooks, most English tutors and some math tutors
employed such materials as videos, educational games, websites, and Although most tutors tried to motivate their students by providing
books full of illustrations in order to motivate their students. interesting instructional materials and by promoting more student
Most of the math tutors reviewed and explained the math responses, some tutors obviously felt frustrated by some of the
concepts in the textbooks, modeled how to solve problems, monitored students' reactions. The observations revealed that the students'
the students' problem-solving process, and gave the students attention and motivation could not remain high for four 50-minute
feedback; the pen tablets were critical in facilitating this instructional sessions a day, not to mention that fact that this project was held
style. More English tutors than math tutors reported the necessity of during the summer vacation.
providing alternative teaching materials because the English tutors
thought the textbook content had been covered by the school teachers Today, my students didn't respond to my questions from the
in the previous semester, so the students' motivation to review the outset. Using microphones to communicate was troublesome
content was low. Therefore, most English tutors searched for enough, and regardless, they didn't answer my questions at all. I
materials outside the given textbook, and their instruction focused asked whether they understood me, but they didn't give me a
on modeling pronunciation, on providing student-performance response. I asked whether the question was too difficult, and I got
feedback, and on explaining vocabulary, sentence structures, and no response either. Later, a student asked for a break, but we were
32 C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33

only 25 minutes into the session. I asked him why, and he didn't 5. Discussion and conclusion
reply. I kept silent for about five minutes and then called a break.
I'm pissed off by their reaction. It is not fun to get up early to deal This article describes pre-service teachers' and middle school
with two of the kids (A tutor's message on the discussion forum, students' attitudes toward an online-tutoring project, and factors
07/03/08). influencing the effectiveness of the synchronous online instruction
and interaction. Consistent with the arguments reviewed in the
aforementioned studies, the findings show that this online-tutoring
A tutor was nearly driven crazy because he couldn't manage a experience could help the pre-service teachers both improve their
student's behavior and get her attention. I asked this student why teaching skills and apply what they had learned in their coursework to
she wasn't cooperating with her tutor. She told me that she hadn't teaching their own students. The tutors generally agreed on the
liked math and English before because her former math and benefits of participating in this project insofar as it enhanced their
English teachers hadn't really cared [about her learning]. She said understanding of subject matter, of middle school students, of
the online tutors were pretty good. Although the student thought student-behavior management, and of pedagogical skills. The tutors
her tutors were good, sometimes she couldn't force herself to confirmed that the disadvantaged students benefited from receiving
remain focused (field notes in the school, 07/25/08). online tutoring, and they were willing to continue to tutor the
students after this project's completion. Furthermore, some tutors
commented on such ways to improve this service-learning project as
On the fifteenth tutoring day, two tutors reported that they were including activities of greater interest, providing face-to-face tutoring,
sick, and one tutor's motorcycle had broken down. The three tutors and employing similar projects in contiguous semesters. While most
were absent on very short notice so the researchers could not find students reported positive attitudes toward the tutoring experience
substitute tutors right away. The researchers had to undertake an and eagerness to participate in similar tutoring projects in the future,
impromptu rearrangement of groups so that the otherwise unattend- the findings could not explicitly explain whether the students
ed students would have some assigned work. preferred online tutoring to face-to-face tutoring, and it is worth
noting that some students' attention and motivation lessened over
Three tutors reported their absence on very short notice this time as the novelty of online tutoring itself faded. Researchers should
morning. We had to reassign groups and call other available tutors further investigate what it is that students specifically benefit from in
to come in to help. We asked four students without tutors to go to online tutoring and how these benefits take hold.
the school office to help the staff, and we didn't find all the Wade (1997) argued that the integration of service learning into
substitute tutors until the third session. Irritated, the students teacher-education programs gives pre-service teachers chances to
asked why their tutors hadn't shown up (field notes in the school, experience the frustrations and the rewards of being a teacher, and in
07/21/08). this same sense, this study found that the tutors were inspired but
sometimes discouraged by student reactions. The findings indicate
that most tutors endeavored to enhance their instruction by providing
Although the service-learning experiences were not always their students with various materials and by facilitating interaction
rewarding, some tutors reflected on the tutoring experiences and with the students. Yet, some tutors were troubled by the students'
raised alternative perspectives on how to help the students. Three misbehavior and low motivation, and the fact that they had to
tutors suggested that similar tutoring services be frequently provided communicate with students online without seeing their faces made
during semester time so students can receive just-in-time help rather the tutoring even more challenging. The students might perfunctorily
than review a large amount of content in a short period of time. Three respond to their tutors' questions while watching video clips, playing
tutors argued that had more interesting activities been integrated into games, or browsing websites. This particular result suggests (1) the
the summer project, the students could have had more enjoyable importance of equipping both tutors and students with webcams that
learning experiences. Four tutors mentioned the alternative of allow all such individuals to see each other, and (2) the limitations of
blending face-to-face tutoring with online tutoring to get the benefits online tutoring such as less effective communication means and
of both tutoring methods. difficulty in managing student misbehavior. Other results highlight
Table 2 summarizes factors influencing the effectiveness of the importance of equipment stability, technical support, substitute
synchronous online instruction and tutor–tutee interaction according plans, and substitute tutors in efforts to undertake similar projects.
to the findings. The enablers include the availability of technical assis- Regarding future work, the researchers plan to redesign this
tance, tutors' technology literacy, students' cooperation and diligence, project on the basis of what was learned, and the researchers are
and tutors' willingness and ability to employ different instructional implementing a new tutoring project in a teacher-education course.
strategies. The disablers are dated equipment, shortage of webcams, The pre-service teachers taking the course teach students online for
overly long tutoring sessions, diminished novelty of online tutoring, 2 h every two weeks, and the tutors and students are all equipped
student-discipline issues, and tutors' absence. with webcams. Following the tutoring week, the instructor discusses
with the pre-service teachers how to interact with students online
and how to incorporate various online resources and instructional
Table 2 strategies to motivate students. The pre-service teachers reflect on
Factors influencing the effectiveness of online tutoring.
their tutoring experiences frequently. The study has two important
Enablers Disablers focuses: to understand whether pre-service teachers' knowledge of
Technical assistance on both the tutors' side Dated equipment and beliefs about teaching and classroom conduct will change
and the students' side through involvement in such tutoring activities, and to identify
Tutors' technology literacy (i.e., proficiency in No webcam on the students' through the detailed analysis of tutor–student interactions various
operating technology, in searching for useful side
patterns of effective synchronous online tutoring.
information, and in creating Overly long tutoring sessions
teaching materials with technology) Students' feeling of the novelty Additionally, this paper has used self-reported data to draw
of online tutoring fading conclusions about the tutors' and students' attitudes toward tutoring
Students' cooperation and diligence Students' discipline issues experiences, and about what these individuals learned. The limitation
Tutors' willingness and ability to employ Tutors' absence of deriving findings from self-reports is evident, so multiple sources of
different instructional strategies
data should be collected to verify research findings. Practical data-
C.-H. Chen et al. / Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 27–33 33

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