Verbal interaction in university tutorials

✍ Scribed by Neil Baumgart

• Book ID: 104636364
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1976
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 923 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-1560
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00136451

✦ Synopsis

This article reports on an attempt to describe the verbal interaction in a sample of 29 university tutorial groups. Methodological problems inherent in a study focussing on an educational process with a restricted sample size are discussed. The description then reports on the total verbal activity, compares the tutorial discussion with that coded in two classroom studies, and contrasts tutor and student behaviours. Tutor behaviour is then examined in more depth and, by clustering like tutor behaviours, six tutor roles are identified and described. These roles are labelled reflexive judge, data input, stage setter, elaborator, probe, and cognitive engineer. A brief exploration is made of relationships between these tutor roles and two kinds of criteria. One is the rating by students of the worth of the tutorials over the semester; the other is the use by students of different cognitive levels during the discussion. An indication is given of how the role descriptions have been utilized in short courses on small group teaching for tertiary teachers.