English Private Tutoring in Macao: Perceptions of Senior Secondary Three Students

Abstract

Purpose: This article examines how individual, school, and social factors shape the perceptions of students in Senior Secondary Three (SS3; in some schools called Form Six [F6]) toward English private tutoring in Macao. Design/Approach/Methods: This is a comparative study of two F6 classes of an English-medium secondary school and four SS3 classes of a Chinese-medium secondary school in Macao, with a total number of 145 students. Mixed-methods approach (questionnaires and interviews) is employed in the study. Findings: The respondents’ participation in English tutoring is not very intensive. They prefer to receive government-subsidized after-school tutoring taught by their schoolteachers more than fee-paying English tutoring taught by tutors outside. Low level of social competition and high tertiary enrollment rates contribute to this phenomenon. Students’ needs and beliefs in English learning play key roles in determining their receipt of English tutoring. Originality/Value: Teachers may need better understanding of their students’ needs so as to design suitable pedagogies. Schools can consider more fully the types of tutoring that they provide for different kinds of pupils. The government-subsidized after-school tutoring could be a plausible way to reduce educational inequality.

Shadow education: a double-edged sword for Czech mainstream schools in the competitive educational market

“…Fees for these classes were lower than for external classes provided by commercial providers, such as tutoring centres. Chan found that tutees preferred to receive after-school tutoring by their schoolteachers rather than paid lessons by tutoring tutors outside (Chan 2019).…”

A Place Between School and Home: Exploring the Place of Shadow Education in Students’ Academic Lives in the Netherlands

“…If students, for instance, seek to refine already-learned study skills through shadow education, the practice adds to school. If, on the other hand, students seek extensive remedial lessons through shadow education (Bray & Kobakhidze, 2015;Chan, 2019), the practice may compensate for shortcomings in teaching. Studying what students seek from shadow education, that they do not find at school or home, can thus be a way to explore the place of shadow education in students' academic lives.…”

“…Whether shadow education adds to or substitutes teachers' instruction may also depend on the instructional quality of shadow education (Chan, 2019;Zheng, Wang, Shen, & Fang, 2020). Guill, Lüdtke, and Köller (2019) elaborate on three dimensions of instructional quality of shadow education: structure, challenge, and support.…”

Assessment of the Role of a Private Tutor in Individual Educational Approach of a University Applicant

“…The author also notes the discrepancy of the data even in vast studies on this issue. Comprehensive surveys of this problem were also carried out in Bangladesh (Nath, 2008), Taiwan (Kuan, 2011), North Korea (Chan, 2019), Hong Kong (Kwok, 2009), Germany (Guill & Lintorf, 2019), America (Buchmann et al, 2010) and Japan (Entrich, 2017).…”