Session Information
SES C 03, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of this paper is to explore the private tutoring phenomenon in higher education. Private tutoring is understood as, in accordance with Bray & Kwok (2003: 612), the support in academic subjects supplied by individuals paid for this service and that is supplementary to what is taught in formal schools. Several studies from different countries point out that private tutoring is an extra-curricular activity that is popular among school pupils, especially in secondary education (Psacharopoulos & Papakonstantinou, 2005; Tansel & Bircan, 2005) and that is used by pupils all over the world (accounts of this use exist, for example: in Canada, Aurini & Davies, 2003; Egypt, Hartmann, 2008; Hong Kong, Kwok, 2004; Japan, Dierkes, 2008; Portugal, Ventura, Neto-Mendes, Costa, & Azevedo, 2006, Costa, Neto-Mendes, & Ventura, 2008; Romania, Popa & Acedo, 2006; South Korea, Lee, 2005, and in the United Kingdom, Ireson, 2004). These studies lead to the conclusion that private tutoring plays an important role in many students’ lives. In addition, the way private tutoring is perceived seems also to be changing. Traditionally, private tutoring has been associated with weak students, who use it to overcome their difficulties. But widespread use of this service leads to the question, also asked by Dang & Rogers (2008: 6): “… do students take private tutoring for remedial or enrichment purposes? In other words, are most tutored students those who are performing at levels below or above their (conditionally) expected levels?”. These conclusions motivated this study, and its main goals: 1) finding out if the use of private tutoring in secondary education continues throughout higher education, and 2) uncovering the reasons that lead students to use this type of service, how students perceive private tutoring and how this service is used by students. Few investigations have been undertaken on the use of private tutoring in this educational level and the aim of this study is therefore to contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon. As Bray & Silova (2006: 27) state, notwithstanding the fact that private tutoring has a centuries-old history, not much attention has been given to it in academia and educational policies, and although this situation has began being remedied in the 1990s, this subject still needs to be further studied. These authors also indicate that partly because most private tutoring sessions take place unofficially, there is a lack of data on this matter (Bray & Silova, 2006: 30). Furthermore, according to Bray (2005: 2), private tutoring is a major industry in many Asian countries and is in rapid development in other areas of the world, particularly in Africa, in Europe and in North America. This topic deserves therefore further attention as it is still an understudied subject and private tutoring is a service that is used around the world, in increasing percentages, and has a close link to mainstream education, as the use of this educational service may shape the results students obtain in their educational career and their perceptions on mainstream education and its activities.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Aurini, Janice, & Davies, Scott (2003). The Transformation of Private Tutoring: Education in a Franchise Form. Annual Meetings of the CSAA, Halifax. Bray, Mark (2005). Private Supplementary Tutoring: Comparative Perspectives on Patterns and Implications. Oxford International Conference on Education and Development, 13-15 September 2005. Bray, Mark, & Kwok, Percy (2003). Demand for Private Supplementary Tutoring: Conceptual Considerations, and Socio-Economic Patterns in Hong Kong. Economics of Education Review, 22, 611-620. Bray, Mark, & Silova, Iveta (2006). The private tutoring phenomenon: international patterns and perspectives. In ESP (Ed.), Education in a hidden marketplace: monitoring of private tutoring (pp. 27-40). Budapest: Education Support Program (ESP) of the Open Society Institute. Costa, Jorge Adelino, Neto-Mendes, António, & Ventura, Alexandre (Eds.) (2008). Xplika: Investigação sobre o mercado das explicações. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro. Dang, Hai-Anh, & Rogers, F. Halsey (2008). How to Interpret the Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring: Human Capital Deepening, Inequality Increasing, or Waste of Resources? : The World Bank. Ireson, Judith (2004). Private Tutoring: how prevalent and effective is it? London Review of Education, Vol. 2, No. 2, 109-122. Kwok, Percy Lai-yin (2004). Emergence of Demand for Private Supplementary Tutoring in Hong Kong: Argument, Indicators and Implications. Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre Journal, Vol. 3, 1-14. Lee, Chong Jae (2005). Korean education fever and private tutoring. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy, Vol. 2, No. 1, 99-107. Psacharopoulos, George, & Papakonstantinou, George (2005). The real university cost in a "free" higher education country. Economics of Education Review, Vol. 24, Issue 1, 103-108. Tansel, Aysit, & Bircan, Fatma (2005). Effect of Private Tutoring on University Entrance Examination Performance in Turkey. Ankara: Economic Research Center. Ventura, Alexandre, Neto-Mendes, António, Costa, Jorge Adelino, & Azevedo, Sara (2006). The private tutoring scenario: contributions to a comparative analysis. XXII CESE Conference, Granada, Spain, 3-6 July 2006.
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