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To what extent do tutor-related behaviours influence student learning in PBL?

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how tutor behaviours influence learning in problem-based learning (PBL). A previous study had indicated a significant influence of the tutor’s social congruent behaviour on the PBL process and this study further investigates this finding by examining two groups of tutors displaying differences in social congruence. The participants were 77 students under the tutelage of four tutors and a self-report questionnaire ranked two tutors to be more socially congruent as compared to the other two. Student learning was measured by a concept recall test and the results from the analysis of covariance indicated a significant impact of the tutor’s social congruent behaviour on learning after the problem analysis phase but not on the self-directed learning and reporting phases. It was concluded that the academic abilities of students and the small number of tutors involved may have affected the results, which led to the second part of this study. A group of 11 tutors were selected and the impact of their behaviours on student achievement measured by the module grade was examined. Results indicated that the tutor behaviours had a greater influence on average students as compared to the academically stronger and weaker students. This finding suggests that students who are academically stronger are not as reliant on the tutor while average students may depend more on the tutor to guide and motivate them in order to achieve the learning goals.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Tan Chin Pei for her support in preparing the data files for Study 2.

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Correspondence to Esther Chng.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix 1: Problem statement that was offered to students

‘It’s unbelievable’

Jon: “My friend told me that he was injected with the chicken pox virus to prevent chicken pox for life! I don’t quite believe it!”

Lee: “But I think there may be some truth in it. It makes sense, since I’ve had chicken pox before and….” (Lee starts to ponder)

Jon: “Come on! How can it be? Common sense tells us that the injected virus will cause the disease, not prevent it! We also can’t be sure that once injected, he’s protected from the disease for his entire life!”

Discuss who do you think is right.

(From the Immunology curriculum, Republic Polytechnic, 2010–2011)

Appendix 2: Tutor behaviours measured by a questionnaire involving the use of a five-point likert scale

Tutor behaviour

Questions

Subject-matter expertise

The tutor used his/her content knowledge to help us

The tutor has a lot of content knowledge

Social congruence

The tutor showed that he/she liked informal contact with us

I was not afraid to tell the tutor when I did not understand something

The tutor showed interest in our personal lives

Our efforts were appreciated by the tutor

Cognitive congruence

We could understand the questions asked by the tutor

We were interrupted several times by the tutor, which disturbed the progress of the group discussion

The tutor helped us to understand the topic

I had difficulty understanding the words/terminologies used by the tutor

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Chng, E., Yew, E.H.J. & Schmidt, H.G. To what extent do tutor-related behaviours influence student learning in PBL?. Adv in Health Sci Educ 20, 5–21 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-014-9503-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-014-9503-y

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