MASAYA-ANON 1

THE PERSPECTIVES OF PEOPLE TOWARD ‘TUTORING’

IN TODAY’S SOCIETY
A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

NATTAKORN MASAYA-ANON

ADVISOR: MISS ORANA MEENONGWHA

A PAPER SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENT FOR THE 4TH QUARTER FINAL PROJECT
ENGLISH GRADE 10
MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL
DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL (MUIDS)
ACADEMIC YEAR 2017-2018
 MASAYA-ANON 2

Nattakorn Masaya-anon

Ms. Orana Meenongwha

English 10/1002

May 24, 2018

The perspectives of people toward ‘tutoring’ in today’s society

Introduction

In this 21st century, as a learner in the modern world, a large of number people must

know the term ‘tutoring’, especially adolescents in studying ages. Tutoring exists in many parts

of the world and in millions of students’ lives, even been claimed to be the thing that students

cannot refuse nowadays. Some might be in favor of tutoring so much because they attest that

it helps enhance their academic performance and gives more chances of admission in quality

schools or universities. At the same time, others say that tutoring wastes a lot of money and

deprive children of free time to do other creative activities. The ones against tutoring dispute

that tutoring may lead to the lack of independent learning skills in students because the

information is processed for them by tutors; contrarily, other people may argue that this enable

students to have a better understanding than just learning in class which sometimes they find it

struggling. But, among plenty of notions toward tutoring, what is actually tutoring?

The meaning of tutoring is slightly distinct in accordance with different dictionaries.

However, it is commonly defined as a students’ assistance to enhance their studying skills, for

them to be able to carry out their learning by themselves. Tutoring is meant to help develop

independence in the learners so that they can go without tutoring anymore (“What is tutoring?”,

n.d.) In general, it can mean the extra studies apart from the compulsory or regular classes.

Each individual may experience a different type of tutoring: private tutoring, free tutoring in
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school, or going to a tutoring center, etc. and may have different disposition toward it. The

subjects for which they receive the tutoring also vary, as well as the cost and time spent.

Since the periods of Greek and Middle Age had tutoring existed. It was mainly for well-

off youths in the upper class who had a master or a tutor taught them in a small group. Later

on, formal schools began to provide education to children; still, tutoring kept playing a role in

students’ learning. It has become more accessible by students not only the wealthy ones, and

students can obtain it from many sources including schools, churches, tutorial centers, and

community organizations. Those help students on studying each subject and also preparing for

the standardized tests (“What Tutoring is and What Tutoring is not”, 2016). If you are the one

who consider yourself familiar with tutoring, you might have some opinions in your mind;

however, others’ ideas may differ from yours.

This report, as a result, is meant to demonstrate the perspectives of students, teachers,

and the public toward tutoring. It shows how people perceive this additional part of education

nowadays as well as the trend of tutoring in the big picture. Several distinct aspects in this

paper may widen or change your view of tutoring, too.

Students’ perspectives toward tutoring

Students are the main constituent in the process of tutoring. They are the people who

receive this kind of teaching outside of their normal education. In many recent studies, the

percentage of the tutoring-receiving-students in a particular school is measured and varied with

the type of tutoring, and the type and the location of the school. For example, 30% of the

Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School (BB&N) students in Cambridge, Massachusetts,

received private tutoring, in 2004-2005 (Gut & Monell, 2008). Another study from Tamalpais
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High School, Mill Valley, California, also displays that 39% of Tam Students go to have math

tutoring while 4% of them acquire free tutoring (Choley, Connelly, Finn, & Hogan, 2016).

To know students’ aspects toward tutoring, the researcher has created a survey which

comprises three sections: the general information of the survey takers, the familiarity with

tutoring, and the attitude toward tutoring. In order to study not only the perspective of Thai

students toward tutoring, the researcher has done a survey with two groups of students: the first

group of 17 students in Mahidol University International Demonstration School (MUIDS),

Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, in 10th -12th Grade, and the second group of 34 students in Ackworth

School’s Girl School House (GSH), in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. The survey

purpose is to analyze and make a comparison of how much students are accustomed to tutoring

and how they feel about tutoring, between students in different cultures across the world.

According to the results from both schools (mainly the responses from 10th Grade/4th

Form students), a vast majority—about 90 per cent—of students has experienced tutoring.

Most tutoring took place in tutoring centers, where students go to buy and take their courses.

There are other forms of tutoring such as having friends, seniors, teachers, or parents assist

them in school work and exam preparation and having private tutor come to teach them at

home, as well. Students often have their tutoring on occasion like when they are going to have

an important examination e.g. university admission examination, SAT, TOEFL, GCSE, A-

Level, and school exam. Meanwhile, the second majority has his/her tutoring every weekend.

Data shows that most students have experienced tutoring for quite a long time—since in

primary and middle schools.

The reasons for tutoring and for not tutoring drawn from both surveys can be

categorized as following: the main purpose of tutoring is ‘for examinations’ unanimously. But

for the other purposes, they have equal distributions. Some students stated that they had
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tutoring for ‘better understanding’ including studying in advance, reviewing topic learned, and

improving their skills. At the same time, some said that they had ‘trouble studying’ the subjects

in school so they needed tutoring while the issue might be the means by which teachers taught

and the difficulty of the lessons. Another mention which frequently appears is ‘for better grade’

at school. In fact, tutoring for examination, better understanding, and getting over learning

problems definitely result in a better academic performance. On the other hand, tutoring is

claimed to be uncomfortable, and a waste of money. The students that don’t take tutoring

remarked that they were fine to look after their study and review the lessons themselves before

the exams; however, a few replied that their reason was not enough time for tutoring.

Tutoring has made both positive and negative attitude in students. The series of bar

graphs illustrates the majority of acknowledgement of students toward each statement which

displays either positive or negative aspect of tutoring. The students from both school highly

agreed that tutoring enhances their academic performance, has a good importance in their

study, but not really makes them so sociable; still, tutoring stressed students out to some extent

and caused them to have less free time; they moderately agreed. In comparison between two

schools, the responses from Ackworth students are more deviated whilst those from MUIDS

students are more unanimous. This can result from the more differences in ages, grades, and

the greater number of the participants in Ackworth School; juniors in middle school are

possibly less engaged in tutoring since they don’t have to prepare for big exams yet, whereas

seniors may get involved a lot in tutoring and get either impression or dislike in tutoring.

Culture also affects by providing distinct systems of education. For example, in the U.S., the

government has enforced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to measure the academic

performance of every school, and it stipulated that schools that didn’t reach the Adequate

Yearly Progress must offer free tutoring as a part of education services other than the normal

courses (Warkentien & Grady, 2009). Students who study in this kind of school probably
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experience more tutoring than those who don’t. Similarly, Ackworth School also provided

tutoring with the additional tuition included in the school tuition for those who need, while in

some communities, tutoring may be processed more commercially.

Teachers’ perspectives toward tutoring

A teacher is a major component in education system. Not so long ago, the role of teacher

had been expected at all times even after the school time. Improper enactments resulted in

sanction from the community (Allen, 1976). Today, teachers still maintain the importance in

the pupils’ education, but will it be different by the more presence of tutoring? To understand

the teachers’ perception of tutoring as well as its effect to their mainstream teaching, we must

understand the roles of these two positions first.

The roles of teachers and tutors are identical in the aspect of an instructor; nonetheless,

there are differences in details. Teachers receive an attained status by preparing themselves to

be certified before being in charge of giving instructions in schools. Their role varies with the

age of the pupils; teachers who teach young pupils need to be parental while those who teach

more mature students need to undertake more rational, verbal, and esteem valuation (Allen,

1976). This show that the teachers’ role is not only giving instruction but also fostering

students’ morality and maturity toward adulthood. Meanwhile, tutors are described as pupils’

assistant who carry out their instruction or tutoring outside of the normal classes. The role tutor

can be taken by the older pupils, teachers, or any people having potential to guide the students

through their challenges or tasks. The difference between the two roles can be seen in the

relationship with the students. According to the research (Allen, 1976), the teaching from the

tutor can be more sentimental and caring while that from the teacher may be more formal and

full of esteem.
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Despite the problem of lack of student-teacher communication which is claimed to be

one of the factors that drive more tutoring, several studies illustrate teachers’ perception of

tutoring to be positive. Some teachers even practice tutoring themselves, too. Bouvier (2014)

pointed out in his research conducted with 2,833 Malaysian teachers that teachers found

tutoring effective as well as helpful to improve students examination results; it didn’t only

boost the students grades like their first aim was but also developed their confidence and

learning strategies. Teachers did believe that their performance was beneficial to students, and

more popularity of tutoring didn’t mean people didn’t trust in mainstream schools’ education.

They would welcome all students who came for help, so did the schools which would prefer to

prepare extra supervision for the pupils.

In the modern days, some schools start providing tutoring for their students; the teachers

participate in the program and learn to be a tutor. From there can teachers’ perspective of

tutoring be collected and analyzed. One of the example is the study of Johnson (2016) from

Walden University which was carried on with the teachers in urban schools in Mississippi who

participated in the tutoring program for at-risk students. She stated that the teacher regarded

the program to be very helpful to the at-risk students as it enhanced their academic performance

by increasing their graduation rate, besides, it laid more positive influence on students’ attitude

toward their learning. However, some problems are required to be improved. Some suggestions

were more notification about the program to parents, more administrative support, and more

communication among the tutors themselves.

“I help them to understand the part of question they don’t understand”. This is the reply

from Ms. Lucinda Hamill, the head of Mathematics Department of Ackworth School the

researcher had an opportunity to interview. She is the example of a teacher who also plays the

role of tutor in school. During her 19 years of teaching, students ranged from 11 to 18 years

old have come for her help. Tutoring is given as one-to-one teaching almost every day in school
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after class and once a weekend outside of the school. In her opinion, tutoring is more individual

while teaching is for the whole class. The material to study can be picked up from what students

don’t understand, and they can come to ask any times. “…In a class of 20 children, they get 2

minutes of 40 minute-lesson of my time. If I tutoring one for hour, they get 60 minutes of my

time. So, they learn a lot from that time because it’s just for them…”, she reflected. Ms. Hamill

also attested that tutoring is enjoyable, she likes teaching more because of the sense of

community, though.

After all, majority of teachers’ perspectives toward tutoring can be inferred optimistic

in spite of the more preference of tutoring. They acknowledge that tutoring is a beneficial and

effective means to help students develop their academic performance, enrich their grades, and

get higher score in examination. Furthermore, they perceive the supplementary advantages

other than the main purposes of tutoring which are more positive attitude toward students

learning, their learning strategy, and more self-confidence. It can be noticed that some

defections in the normal teaching such as teacher only lecturing and students having less

attention from teachers contribute to more tutoring. Thus, more schools start to have teachers

practice tutoring for their pupils. The teachers who have experienced tutoring then had positive

feedback on tutoring program although it still needs improvement to be more effective.

Public’s perspectives toward tutoring

Tutoring has become an inevitable part of education in many countries. It gains

prevalence in East Asia, and is expanding more in other parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and

North America. Being carried out more in every society, supplementary tutoring is what

people, critics, scholars, and governments pay attention to.

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It is obvious that tutoring has rapidly grown globally. Lots of money has circulated in

the tutorial business, for instance in Thailand, estimated 30 billion baht revolves in the

economy per year owing to high demands of tutoring; students take approximately 7-8 subjects

each in order to get into good universities, and this business continues to expand (“Pôo Bpòk

Krong Jáak”, 2015). The reasons behind this growth is contemplated by several sources; those

remarked on both the benefits of tutoring which corresponds to the market desire and on the

disadvantages of tutoring which are the impacts on social, economy, and traditional education.

In the study “Adverse effects of private supplementary tutoring” (Bray, 2003), some

interesting positive notions of tutoring are: students enjoy tutoring more than normal teaching

on account of a better understanding; it helps student overcome the gap caused by ineffective

or unspecialized teaching, students or teachers absence, and long period without instruction

(when the school closes), etc. It supplies diverse forms of education that correlates to the market

demands by having different techniques, size, location, and syllabus responsive to the needs of

different group of people. Moreover, people like going to the tutoring centers because they

provide convenience by having facilities, cafés, restaurants, parking lots near them

(Chuanchaiyakul, 2011). Bray’s another study, “Private supplementary tutoring: comparative

perspectives on patterns and implications”, also pointed out that tutoring created the

opportunity for tutors themselves to earn income and have occupation, for both amateur and

professional tutors. But, the major reason is definitely the tutoring effectiveness in students’

academic enrichment. Since in the process of tutoring, tutors may use several techniques and

strategies to enhance the learning of the students, and it is known as the tutors’ pedagogic skills.

The skills refer to how tutors determine each student’s understanding and give an instruction,

practice drills, or questions that are suitable and effective (Chi, Siler & Jeong, n.d.). Some

tutoring techniques are suggested to be applied in the mainstream teaching especially in large

classes to bring about more effectiveness. Following the strategies, instructors should create
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rapport with the students or tutees, ask questions that provoke reflection and active thinking as

well as lay more emphasis on the important points of understanding, and be encourageous to

the students by showing the confidence in them (Weimer, 2013). However, there is also a

disputation from the research of Chi, Siler & Jeong (n.d.) from Learning Research and

Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, large number of tutors have not realized the

students’ possible differentiated background knowledge, meaning that they have shortage of

pedagogic skills; therefore, the effectiveness of the tutoring may indeed to some extent come

from students’ capability to build on knowledge during the tutoring in additional to the forms

of interaction they have received.

Negative feedbacks toward tutoring are reflected a great deal just as the positive ones

are. One of the most critical issues viewed in Bray’s study (n.d.) is the fact that tutoring

potentially makes students dependent too much on the tutoring for everything ranging from

exams to their homework and neglect the importance of their mainstream school and teachers.

Students live in competitive environment which cause poorer development of morality, values,

attitude, and good relationship with fellows, which in fact are another purpose of education in

schools. This leads to corrupted minds of students when they consider school’s teaching not

necessary; they may consequently cause disciplinary problems. The second most discussed

issue is learning disparity that are caused by different income and the gap in knowledge. Since

tutoring costs extra expenditure, the better-off family can afford more quality and more amount

of tutoring. The badly off are subsequently left behind, and learning gap is created within the

class (Bray, 2017). Another problem is pressure on students and fatigue of teachers who have

to perform as tutoring spontaneously. Pressure is put on students who have to go for both

mainstream school and tutoring for a long time per day, for example in Mauritius, children

spent 9 hours on learning in both system while parents spent 7 hours working; students worked

harder than the adults (Bray, 2003). And, according to the study of Chuanchaiyakul (2011)
 MASAYA-ANON 11

from Srinakharinwirot University, tutoring contributes to students’ less time with family, more

selfishness, and waste of resources and time.

Because of these problems, many concerns are responded to the governments.

Governments in each country act differently toward the problems of tutoring. In the study

“Adverse effects of tutoring” (Bray, 2003), there are four types of actions from the government.

First is ignorance. In this type, the government just look over the problems—meaning that they

take no action due to no ability to improve anything. Second is forbiddance; the government

ban tutoring as occurring in the Republic of Korea and some other countries. The third type of

actions is regulation. In this type, tutoring market is control by the government in order to limit

the negative effects. Some countries where this happens are Hong Kong and Mauritius. And,

the last type is encouragement; the government like in Singapore and Taiwan vigorously

support tutoring because they focus more on its benefits.

Additionally, some serious remarks stated that the growth and the problems following

tutoring reflect the ineffectiveness of the education system. For instance, the competitive

education system in Thailand is perceived to set a value that if students don’t go to tutoring,

their performance will be poorer than others and consequently cannot get into good university

or lose opportunity to have good future; thus, tutoring becomes an inevitable part of students’

lives (“Pôo Bpòk Krong Jáak”, 2015).

Conclusion

The perspectives toward tutoring from students, teachers, and the public slightly differs

owing to different areas of involvement, but their reflections are present within the two

common themes, the advantages and disadvantages of tutoring.

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The advantages of tutoring are attributed to its effectiveness in boosting students’

academic performance which includes higher scores in examinations and better grades. The

people as mentioned above also suggested the complementary advantages which are more self-

confidence, better understanding, having strategies to solve the problem as well as to learn the

contents, and having more positive attitude toward their study. This effectiveness results from

several factors which tutors’ one-to-one teaching or the closer relationship of the instructor and

the students are—more attention is given to an individual student in case of private tutoring,

tutors’ pedagogic skills such as monitoring tutees’ understanding and giving a proper question

to help them strengthen in the area they miss, and more sentimental or casual approach. Other

supplementary advantages are convenience from the tutoring centers which provide facilities

and the means for the tutors to make a living or earning extra income.

On the contrary, students, teachers, and the public have pointed out many impacts of

tutoring. Regarding to students, tutoring can deprive them from having free time to do other

creative activities. It makes them feel exhausted and have less time with family. Parents also

have more expenditure which means more burden, and teachers who give the tutoring become

more tired too despite of the more income. But, the bigger concerns are the excessive reliance

on tutoring, mind corruption, and learning inequality. Students may be dependent on tutoring

for everything even their homework. They may eventually overlook the importance of the

mainstream education and teachers and consequently misbehave. That is the mind corruption

since students disregard the role of schools and teachers which is not only supplying an

academic instruction but also morality, discipline, and other life skills. Tutoring is likely to

create learning inequality as more wealthy families can afford more and higher quality of

tutoring while the poor cannot. The contrast in background knowledge of students is then

created in a class. The higher cost of tutoring, the more learning disparity.
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Coming along with both positive and negative disposition of people, the trend of

tutoring still rises rapidly in recent years. Tutoring has become dominant in many countries

such as Hongkong, Singapore, Korean, Taiwan, Mauritius, as well as Thailand; it is reported

to be widespread in in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. A great deal of money has

circulated in tutoring business due to higher demand for both in form of private tutoring and

tutoring center. The percentage of students who have tutoring varies from place to place but all

data show that at least one-third of the students in each report receive tutoring. Used since the

age of Greek and Roman, tutoring today has grown vastly and has provoked many responses

from societies. Government in each country acts differently: some support; some ignore; some

prohibit it. Numerous students as well as tutors take advantage of tutoring while at the same

time problems of tutoring still exist and are not yet solved.

However, in conclusion, tutoring was obviously perceived to have both advantages and

disadvantages, and it is spontaneously growing. Therefore, it depends on how you manipulate

your usage of tutoring in order to obtain its optimal effectiveness and prevent other impacts.
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Reference

Academic Success Center Math, Science and Engineering Skills Center, Rhodes State

College.

(n.d.). What is tutoring?. Retrieved from http://www.rhodesstate.edu/en/About%20

Rhodes/College%20Offices%20and%20Departments/Academic%20Success%20Cent

er/

~/media/pdf/TheLearningCenter/14What%20is%20Tutoring.ashx

Bray, M. (2003). Adverse effects of private supplementary tutoring. Dimension, implications

and

government responses. Retrieved from

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001330/133039e.pdf

Bray, M. (January 19, 2007). Private supplementary tutoring: comparative perspectives on

patterns and implications. Retrieved from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080

/03057920601024974?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Chi, M. T. H., Siler, S. A., & Jeong, H. (n.d.). CAN TUTORS MONITOR STUDENTS’

UNDERSTANDING ACCURATELY?. Retrieved from

http://www.public.asu.edu/~mtchi/papers/ChiSilerJeong.pdf

Chorley, H., Connelly, W., & Finn, J. (April 27, 2016). It Doesn’t Add Up: Why Does 39% of

Our Student Population Pay for Math Tutoring? Retrieved from

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http://thetamnews.org/features/it-doesnt-add-up-why-does-39-of-our-student-

population-pay-for-math-tutoring/

Chuanchaiyakul, P. (October, 2011). A study of impact and situation of tutorial schools in

Thailand. Retrieved from http://thesis.swu.ac.th/swudis/Ed_Adm/Prapawan_C.pdf

Gut, G. F., & Monell, J. (2008). Private Tutoring. Retrieved from

https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-school/summer-2008/private-tutoring/

Johnson, K. Y. (2016). Teachers' Perceptions of the Use of Small-Group Tutorial. Retrieved

From https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=

3103&context=dissertations

Kenayathulla, H. B. (May 27, 2014). Teachers’ perceptions on the effectiveness of private

tutoring in Malaysia. Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org/ries/3801

Malone, D., Jones, B., & Stallings, D. (2002). Perspective Transformation: Effects of a

Service-

Learning Tutoring Experience on Prospective Teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly,

29(1), 61-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23478328

Pôo Bpòk Krong Jáak, Gùat Wí-Chaa Kêun Kâa Rian Sà-Tón Gaan Sèuk-Săa Tai Lĕo

[Parents

are shocked because of the up price of tutoring, reflecting Thailand’s failed

education]. (March 16, 2015). Posttoday. Retrieved from

https://www.posttoday.com/politic/report/353368
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Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University. (February 9, 2016). What

Tutoring is and What Tutoring is not. Defining and choosing a good, effective tutor.

Retrieved from https://blogs.chapman.edu/scst/2016/02/09/what-tutoring-is-and-what-

tutoring-is-not/

Trent, J. (June, 2016). Constructing professional identities in shadow education: perspectives

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private supplementary educators in Hong Kong. Retrieved from

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/article/10.1007%2Fs10671-015-9182-3

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Warkentien, S., & Grady, S. (November, 2009). Students’ Use of Tutoring Services, by

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Appendix

Survey results: Part 1 (general information) and Part2 (familiarity)
MUIDS (Thailand)
Survey participant information:
Number of participants: 17
Grade majority: 10th Grade (from 10th-12th)
Age majority: 15 years old (from 14-18)
Nationality: Thai
Tutoring familiarity:
The most frequency: Going on
occasion when having a test, a quiz, an
exam, etc. (47.1%) and going every
weekend (41.2%)
The most period when started
tutoring: middle school (41.2%), and
primary and high school (29.4% both)
MASAYA-ANON 18
Ackworth School (U.K.)
Survey participant information:
Number of participants: 34
Grade majority: 4th Form (from 4th-Upper
6th) ***4th Form is equivalent to 10th Grade
Age majority: 17 years old (from 11-20)
Nationality: Asian (40%), European
(17.6%), British (17.6%)
Tutoring familiarity:
The most frequency: Going on
occasion when having a test, a quiz, an
exam, etc. (47.1%) and going every
weekend (41.2%)
The most period when started
tutoring: primary school (36.7%), and
then high school (30%)
 MASAYA-ANON 19

Survey results: Part3 (attitude)

A MUIDS (Thailand) Ackworth School (U.K.)

Positive attitude Positive attitude

Survey results: Part3 (attitude)

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Negative attitude Negative attitude

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