Multiple Literacy Tutoring Experiences across a Teacher Preparation Program: How Can Practice in Hybrid Spaces Challenge the “Practice Makes Practice” Dilemma?

A Research Review of Literacy Tutoring and Mentoring in Initial Teacher Preparation: Toward Practices That Can Transform Teaching

“…We identified only three studies that explored tutoring experiences across multiple experiences. Assaf and López (2012, 2015) and Hoffman, Mosley Wetzel, and DeJulio (2018) studied tutorials that spanned multiple semesters.…”

“…Reading was the primary focus in most of the studies. However, there were studies that focused on writing or some combination of reading and writing (e.g., Assaf & López, 2012, 2015; Dutro & Cartun, 2016; Hitchens, 2014; Hoffman et al, 2018; Moore & Seeger, 2009; Roser et al, 2014; Wake & Modla, 2009). Howrey (2016) focused on tutees’ understandings of technology, and Lake, Otaiba, and Guidry (2010) emphasized social skills.…”

“…These studies provide evidence that the experiences affected the preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching, influenced their understanding of their roles as teachers and their attitudes regarding diversity, allowed them to draw connections between their tutoring experience and future teaching in the classroom, enhanced their pedagogical knowledge, and helped them recognize the complexity of teaching a class full of individuals who vary in instructional needs. One study included data collected across three semesters as well as data collected at the end of the participants’ teacher education program (Hoffman et al, 2018). This study documented that the preservice teachers’ understandings and strategies continued to expand with each additional tutorial experience.…”

“…Tutoring that was cross-disciplinary, as in Flint and colleagues’ (2002) disruption of traditional writing instruction or in tutoring framed as inquiry (e.g., Kidd et al, 2000; Payne et al, 2017), mattered to students. Finally, tutoring experiences sequenced across a teacher education program (Hoffman et al, 2018) provided extended experiences that mattered to preservice teachers in the ways their practices grew over time.…”

“…The social practice turn in literacy (Schutz & Hoffman, 2017) has shifted the focus away from skills toward the social and cultural dimensions of literacy activity and the importance of these contextual and community-related forces in becoming literate. This shifting theoretical lens for understanding literacy from a skill to a process to a practice (Hoffman, DeJulio, & Lammert, 2018) is a perspective that underscores our consideration of future directions for tutoring in literacy teacher preparation.…”