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The Learning Space in Tutoring

How learning happens and/or does not happen

  • Grzegorz Grzegorczyk

    Grzegorz Grzegorczyk (b. 1972) is Assistant Professor at the University of Gdańsk in the Department of Applied Linguistics. Research interests include dialogicality, interactivity, and languaging present in the educational context, particularly in academic tutoring and supervision. Publications include “Dialogue and language as factors contributing to transformative learning in academic tutoring” (2018).

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From the journal Chinese Semiotic Studies

Abstract

Following the relational turn that has been observed in the areas of therapy and medical care (cf. Dinis 2010), a similar trend is beginning to develop in education. One didactic manifestation is in academic tutoring, and can be considered as a prototype of personalized education, which is founded on interactivity, dialogicality, and languaging. In our text, we focus on the phenomenon of interactivity and, predominantly, languaging as the substrate for the emergence of a special domain. Here, the learning space is defined as “a cognitive situation where a learner attunes in his/her own epistemic change.” We observe that a learning space occurs as a teacher/tutor engages with aspects of the student’s/tutee’s epistemic frame by questioning, commenting on, or perspectivizing the utterances of the student. It follows that a learning space can be necessary but not sufficient for effective learning. As we show, some research into tutoring excessively idealizes it as an effective teaching tool. In the course of our brief scrutiny we find that success of the learning process also draws on factors like:

  • being prepared

  • being good at hearing and using hints

  • being willing to improvise a learning trajectory

  • allowing some degree of interdependence with the tutor

  • using many kinds of first-order activity

About the author

Grzegorz Grzegorczyk

Grzegorz Grzegorczyk (b. 1972) is Assistant Professor at the University of Gdańsk in the Department of Applied Linguistics. Research interests include dialogicality, interactivity, and languaging present in the educational context, particularly in academic tutoring and supervision. Publications include “Dialogue and language as factors contributing to transformative learning in academic tutoring” (2018).

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Appendix

Full transcript of the analyzed material divided into phases from the perspective of the events in the learning space.

Phase 1 – Louise languages about her essay (00:15.264–01:28.887)

1L:((looks at her notes)) He kind of said tha:t (0.9) ((looks at tutor)) travel writing in this period (0.5) was ((looks at notes)) a transfe::r >it was kind of< a partially desi::gned t’te::k (0.3) a middle class person out of that kind of (2.2) predetermined like economic situation↑ and put them in this kind of farawa:: place (1.0) e::m what which >was like you know essentially uncivil<lised e::m (1.5) and the:n ((smiles and looks up)) that would (.) make them appreciate that economic situation (0.2) and (0.5) realise that home is actually like (0.5)((glimpses at Ankita)) you know (0.8) the best (1.0) (( glimpses at Ankita)) option rather than the voyage and travel (0.2) ((glimpses at her notes)) um:: however (1.5) ((clears throat)) I argue that in::: Robinson Cru:soe it's kind of the opposite↑ it’s the voyage enables him to break free from his (0.8) kind of economic situation↑ his like comfortable middle class existence e:m and ((smiles at tutor)) and (0.2) in doing so he can kind of (1.5) ((glimpses at Ankita)) you know (0.5) get in this social mobility and economic mobility and (.) almost everything that he does if for some sort of profit↑ and this was kind of appear >just like< (1.9)((looks light and glimpses at Ankita)) at the b >very ((frowns)) beg<innings of like industrial capitalism and this was starting to eme:rge ((rests hands on her laps)) (0.2) so:: we see (0.1) a lot of those values like persisten::ce self-sufficiency::

Phase 2 – The tutor sets the task to Louise, and Louise replies (01:29.573– 01:37.091)

2P:And when we think of travel genre (.) ((takes off her glasses looks down)) do we mea::n (0.5) actual (0.8)((sways hands to right)) accounts of travel
3L:E::rm I [think
4P:[or f::ictional ones (0.2) ((seals lips, puts chin slightly upwards))
5L:.hhh e:::m I think (0.3) fictional ones↑ (2.1) yeah↑

Phase 3 – The tutor delegates the task to Ankita, and Louise takes over the dialogical space (01:41.590–02:38.961)

6P:What do you think Ankita
7A:Um: so last time I did an essay >on account of< Harriot a:nd it was Harriot's True Report on Virginia and >I was I was kind of< struck by all (0.8) that context when I was o̱writing this essay >because obviously< those were (0.2) those weren't fictionalised they were real reports that were written but in some ways they share a lot of the same (0.3) .hh narrative qualitie:s as Robinson Crusoe does. U::m and
8P:(0.9) which is itself based on some ((sways hands to her right, makes rabbit ears gesture))
9A:(0.5) yeah um on[um on um
10P:[true accounts
11A:[on a tru:: account as well. (0.4) But also: I was kind of just struck by:: what what is fact and fiction o̱in the travel genre and how Defoe does explore tha:t↑ in some ways because (0.9) hi:s TEXT his text altho::ugh is set ((smiles at tutor and makes a wave away gesture to her left)) in ((gazes left, moves hand up in a semi-circle)) this kind of exotic country and (.) and all that it ultimately: it >talks about the< truth of England more than it talks about the truth of (0.2) the the o̱foreign place ººI think that's what fascinated me it's #kind of more (0.3) o̱inte[rnalised (in here)
12L:[o̱uhm ((left forearm goes up with index finger extended)) And I think that came up as [...] the classes that rise in the novel:↑ by that (middle and index finger of left hand pointing towards tutor)) tension between::n (0.2) nonfiction and fiction: ((left forearm goes up)) and you see >it's something< li:ke (.) >the unfortunate tra<velle:r like (0.2) last time ((left forearm circles in the air at head level)) I did tha::t and there was inside tension ((puts nose to upper side of left hand resting on it)) between the (0.8) how far you can take something as fact and (0.5) Thomas Nash kind of played around o̱with
13P:o̱uhm
14L:er::m you know (0.2) fiction:↑

Phase 4 – The tutor challenges Louise and provides her with a clue (02:58.790– 03:52.660)

15P:((points her finger at Louise and smiles moving chin up)) So you were taking issue with Terry Eagleton's ((head goes forward chin goes down)) (1.2)
16L:(1.2)um yeah↓
17P:((clenched teeth)) assertion now Eagleton as you (0.2) probably know is a very (0.3) ((eyebrows go up)) famous acclaimed cr:itic and theorist of literature (0.4) >and it< (0.2) seems that (1.2) (( makes rabbit’s ears gesture in the air)) he's >a bit of a< (.) straw man for you isn't he:↓
18L:Yeah hhh
19P:So (0.6) how >how ((moves forearms outwards in front of her))is it possible that< he so completely <misunderstood what travel writing is about> or or is there something more to the quot:
20L:((speaks with fist clenched and thumb toughing chin)) Yeah (0.2) I don't think he's like ((twists hand outwards with thumb and index finger extended)) completely misunderstood I think it's just () er::m (0.2) the contrast between:::n: an uncivilised lan:d and ((hand goes downwards)) England and a ((frowns, hand goes downwards)) a middle class home and ((hand goes downwards)) a middle class environment (0.4) That's wha- ((turns hands around in front of her)) >along with tha- voyage< <will enabl::> (0.3) ((puts one hand into another)) someone in the middle class to (0.2)((puts one hand into another)) er::m <appreciate their environment- (0.2) because:: it >it you know being in contrast< with the uncivilized ((rubs hands together))
21P:=benighted [I think is the term that he uses
22L:[peoples yeah yeah yeah

Phase 5 – The tutor deepens problem space (03:52.652–04:57.950)

23P:But surely ((extends forearms slightly towards students))(1.8)((makes repetitive downward forearm movement)) Eagleton is aware that that (0.5) that that (0.5) is a fake contrast <isn't he:↑> (1.2) So is he trying to get at something
24L:(3.4) Em:: (2.8) ((covers mouth with hand and looks right upwards then at Ankita))
25A:(1.8) and () Robert Ascham's The Schoolmaster he'd kind of talked about like the Englishman Italianated↑ and the fact that (0.5) ((waves with right hand towards Louise and looks at her)) when a traveller goes abro:ad er:: he changes himself (0.5) #because of this (1.5) because ((moves her forearms in front of her with fingers outstretched)) of this kind of meeting o̱with with other people and stuff >and the fact that< the traveller's own #body and manners and language (0.6) itself evo:lves and >mainly he was< getting o̱at that aspect. ((glances at Louise)) In fact I don't completely agree o̱with the quote
26P:No I'm just interested because all of you seem to have (1.0) BASHED poor Terry Eagleton ((laughs))
27A:I don't know if it was didacticism because I'm kind of (1.5) bit more cynical about the <purpose of> >he was obviously writing< at particular time and that's what people wanted to re:ad and so (0.3) in some ways his text itself was (0.3) ((looks at Louise)) like an emblem of commercialism
Published Online: 2019-11-21
Published in Print: 2019-11-26

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