Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3191533/consider-peer-tutoring-help-all-hong-kong-students-need
Comment/ Letters

Consider peer tutoring to help all Hong Kong students in need

  • Readers discuss the benefits of adult mentors versus peer tutors and ask questions about the duration and fate of unsuccessful Strive and Rise applicants
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han (left), Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki (centre) and Director of Social Welfare Charmaine Lee Pui-sze at the announcement of the Strive and Rise Programme on August 22. Photo: Dickson Lee

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The Hong Kong government’s new Strive and Rise Programme aims to recruit adult mentors for 2,000 underprivileged students. However, peer tutoring is a broader, more sustainable policy to help all students academically, and both student tutors and tutees will benefit.

Here is an example to illustrate why that is the case. Tutee Lola doesn’t understand why 3x2=6, so tutor Heidi thinks about how to clarify it and tries to reorganise the ideas in new ways to help Lola understand it.

So Heidi draws three boxes each with two items inside and explains why 3x2=6 by counting the objects. Heidi’s richer, deeper explanation of multiplication as boxes of items, repeated addition and counting helps Lola better understand arithmetic concepts and solution procedures while also integrating and deepening Heidi’s own mastery of arithmetic. Such help often academically benefits the tutor more than the tutee.

As peers often share ways of speaking, they can translate difficult words and ideas into familiar ones more readily than adults can and hence be more effective tutors. For example, when a student incorrectly says, “a negative times a negative is a negative”, a peer might say, “Think of a negative times a negative as removing a ‘dislike’, so it’s a positive result.”

Simply giving the correct answer often does not help. Teachers should show ways to give more effective help and provide students opportunities to practise giving help in class.

A teacher can invite students to ask questions or bring up common questions and answer them with a simple, easy-to-understand explanation. A teacher can also identify common errors and discuss how to correct them.

Finally, a teacher can ask classmates to help answer a student’s question, thereby giving them opportunities to offer their explanations and practise error detection and correction skills. Peer tutoring can benefit the tutor at least as much as the tutee, so higher-achieving students can volunteer to tutor lower-achieving students with their parents’ blessing.

Students’ abilities differ across academic subjects, so a student might be a tutor in maths but a tutee in Chinese. Hence, many students can enjoy the experiences of being both a tutor and a tutee.

As so many students can benefit from a peer tutor scheme, do we want to help only 2,000 students or help all students in Hong Kong?

Ming Ming Chiu, Chair Professor of Analytics and Diversity, Education University

Questions linger over tutoring programme

The newly launched Strive and Rise Programme aims to deal with the problem of intergenerational poverty in Hong Kong. The government is recruiting 2,000 underprivileged secondary students that it will match with a mentor. It will provide HK$10,000 (US$1,270) in financial support for each student.

The programme’s purpose is meaningful. Intergenerational poverty is a serious problem in Hong Kong and perpetuates the problem of wealth disparity in society. Therefore, I am glad to see that the government is dealing with this issue.

However, I have some concerns about the duration and the quota of the programme. Only 2,000 students can take part in the programme, but many more will qualify based on the conditions for joining.

How will the government pick the most suitable candidates? For those who applied but were not chosen, could the government offer another kind of help, such as some financial support or a chance to take part in another activity?

Also, what are the rules for matching a student with a mentor? Is it based on their background or other characteristics? One suggestion is to hold an activity for both mentors and mentees so they can get to know one another.

After matching mentor with mentee, the programme lasts only a year, which is not enough time for both to build a long-term relationship. More time is needed for trust to develop. Otherwise, the programme might not achieve its target of helping the students grow and broaden their horizons. The programme should last for two to three years to develop a more stable relationship.

Christy Chan, Tseung Kwan O