On Becoming a Tutor: Toward an Ontogenetic Model

Teaching Is a Natural Cognitive Ability for Humans

“…As teachers, 3 1 / 2 -year-olds predominantly demonstrate how to play a game with little explanation accompanying those demonstrations. Others, who did not assess ToM, also reported that demonstration was the principal teaching strategy among 3 1 / 2 -year-olds (Ashley & Tomasello, 1998;Ellis & Rogoff, 1982;Feldman, Devin-Sheehan, & Allen, 1976;Feshbach, 1976;Feshbach & Devor, 1969;Maynard, 2002Maynard, , 2004Wood, Wood, Ainsworth, & O'Malley, 1995).…”

“…Children age 7 engage in more systematic contingent teaching (Wood et al, 1995;Ziv et al, 2008). In this kind of scaffolded teaching, a teacher teaches a learner and as that learner's knowledge state does or does not change (she gains more knowledge and becomes increasingly competent, or the knowledge state does not change, or the learner becomes confused and what was seen as sure knowledge is now shaky), the teacher adjusts his teaching to his representation of that changing knowledge state.…”

The Teaching Brain and the End of the Empty Vessel

“…They found evidence that older children maintained more sophisticated teaching techniques through the use of description and collaboration while younger children taught only by showing. Wood, Wood, Ainsworth, and O'Malley (1995) reported that older children were more effective peer instructors when asked to perform teaching tasks requiring ToM. Due to its sophisticated meta-cognitive prerequisites (such as adaptation and intention), teaching becomes easily observable in the toddler years, growing more complex as one's need to socially synchronize expands to include more people (Strauss et al, 2002).…”

“…These studies highlight the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of teaching that mature within us. Teaching is an internal function which evolves and develops over time, not in service or as a byproduct of learning but as what Csibra and Gergely (2011) would call an ''independently selected adaptive cognitive system'' (Ashley & Tomasello, 1998;Astington & Pelletier, 1996;Wood et al, 1995). These studies help to debunk the belief that teaching is a selfless act existing for the sole purpose of learning where any learning tool (i.e., computer, iphone, textbook) is considered a teacher.…”

The Tutoring Process and its Manifestation in the Classroom Behaviour of Tutors and Tutees

“…Whenever something was not understood additional explanations were offered by the tutor until complete understanding was ensured. Since repeated explanations demanded considerable patience and tolerance on the part of the tutor, they were found to be most frequently given where tutor-tutee interaction was most positive (case 1) due to the tutor's awareness of and sensitivity to the tutee's needs (Shute et al, 1992;Wood et al, 1995); they became more frequent with improvement in the tutor-tutee relationship in cases 2 and 3. It was apparent that thoroughly understanding the material motivated the tutees to attempt to solve more difficult problems in mathematics, and to complete a greater amount of homework which they were assigned by their tutors.…”