Does it Make a Difference? Investigating the Assessment Accuracy of Teacher Tutors and Student Tutors

Tutors often have difficulty with accurately assessing a tuteeʹs understanding. However, little is known about whether the professional expertise of tutors influences their assessment accuracy. In this study, the authors examined the accuracy with which 21 teacher tutors and 25 student tutors assessed a tuteeʹs understanding of the human circulatory system in the course of tutoring. The authors found that the teacher tutors were more accurate than were the student tutors in assessing whether a tutee had a low or high level of knowledge about concepts relevant to the human circulatory system. In addition, in comparison with the student teachers, the teacher tutors more accurately assessed the number of concepts that a tutee would know. However, the teacher tutors and the student tutors did poorly in assessing a tuteeʹs mental model of the human circulatory system even though the teacher tutors were more aware of their assessment difficulties than were the student tutors.