New research shows tutorial attendance can increase your grades
Want to take your mark from a B- to a B+? Go to all of your tutorials.
A new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario indicates that participation in tutorials improves both test scores and final marks – but only when attending multiple tutorials throughout the term.
Tutorials are designed to give students in large classes the chance to discuss course material with peers and teaching assistants in smaller groups.
Researchers, including Bridget O’Shaughnessy, Abigail Payne, Olesya Kotlyachkov and Bradley Minaker from McMaster’s Public Economics Data Analysis Laboratory, studied a large economics class that included students from faculties across campus.
They found that attending a single tutorial had no effect on test performance or final grades, but attending more than one had a cumulative effect.
Students who participated in all tutorials typically improved their course grade by two full points on a twelve-point scale – they took their mark from a B- to a B+, for example.
The team also found that early participation was critical: students who didn’t attend one of their first two tutorials were unlikely to attend any of the remaining sessions.
More than 70 per cent of the students in the study attended at least three tutorials, though less than half took part in all five.
In addition to academic performance, the researchers also studied the effectiveness of the type of tutorial offered: “traditional” tutorials, in which students reviewed questions in advance and the TA provided solutions on the blackboard, and “collaborative” tutorials in which students worked together to answer questions.
They found that traditional tutorials had a stronger positive effect on test performance, but caution that it may be possible that the large size of the tutorial made the collaborative approach more difficult.
