Wood et al (1976) on the
role of tutoring
Background and aims
• Wood et al argued children must be able to recognise what a solution
looks like before being able to produce steps to solve it without help
• Clinchy 1974: In the game 20 questions children could tell between a
good or bad strategy or answer even though the could not do the
question without help
• Aim: To investigate how children responded to ‘tutoring’ when they had
a problem to solve, and to look at how this changed with different age
groups
Methodology
• An investigation using controlled observation in a laboratory
environement.
• Sample: 30 children, 10 aged 3, 10 aged 4, 10 aged 5 years old (YO),
mainly from middle/lower class families from USA. Parent’s responded
to ads asking for volunteers. Parent’s accompanied their child to an
individual session lasting between 20 mins to 1 hour
• Task: Researchers set children a task that was fun, had lots of features
so it was interesting, it was easy enough to be within the child’s
current capabilities, it was complex enough to extend each child. The
task was to construct a pyramid from a set of jumbled blocks
The toy
• 21 wooden blocks forming a pyramid about
23cm high with a 23cm square base.
• Formed of 6 blocks with the top layer being a
single cube
• Each of the other layers was made up of 4
blocks divided into 2 pairs that fit together
with a peg and a hole
• Each layer also had a small quarter of a
dome indentation in the base and the top so
the pieces had to be put together to fit as a
pyramid
Procedure: The tutoring procedure
Tutor was Gail Ross, one of the researchers, who’s goal was to allow each child to do as
much as they could themselves
Standardised procedure: Each child was tutored individually and sat at a small table with
the 21 blocks spread out.5 minutes of free play, after which the tutor took 2 blocks and
showed how they could be joined. The tutor then changed what she did dependent on the
child's reaction.
Child’s response
Tutor’s response
Ignore tutor and continue to play
The tutor would again present the paired
blocks
The child could take the blocks the tutor had
just made and play with them
The tutor would again present paired blocks,
pairing them in front of the child
The child could take up the blocks and
manipulate them in a similar way, such as
putting sticks in the holes.
The tutor would verbally point out any errors
they were making.
The tutor would only intervene if the child stopped building or got into difficulty.
Procedure: The scoring system
Each act of construction by every child was
classified as:
• Trying to assemble the blocks, after
tutor presented/indicated them
(assisted)
• Trying to assemble the blocks, after
selecting them himself (unassisted)
• Manipulating assembled blocks, after
tutor presented/indicated them
(assisted)
• Manipulating assembled blocks after
selecting himself (unassisted)
The researchers noted each of the
tutors interventions and classified them
into:
• Direct assistance (tutor presented or
indicated blocks to assemble)
• Verbal error prompt (e.g. Does it look
like this?)
• Verbal attempt to get the child to
make more constructions (e.g. can
you make anymore like this?)
All behaviours were categorized and an inter-rater reliability of 94% was achieved between 2 observers,
working independently , on 594 video tapes.
Results: Observation on tutorials
Age
3YO
4YO
5YO
Total CSTRN
acts
39
41
32
Pairing acts
10%
50%
75%
13
4
4
Reconstruction
s
• Total construction acts: puts blocks together or disassembles previous constructions
• Pairing acts: completely construct a correct pyramid
• Reconstructions: took apart and reconstructs a pyramid
Results: The tutorial relationship
Age
3YO
4YO
5YO
64.5%
79.3%
87.5%
Help from
tutor(assisted)
9
6.5
3
Ignored tutor
11
No data
Virtually never
Showing
Verbal
Verbal
Tutorial help
Type of interaction
5 year olds performed significantly more construction acts per tutor
intervention than 4 year olds. 4 year olds performed significantly
better than 3 year olds.
Conclusions
Scaffolding
• On the basis of the observations of the study researchers identified 6
steps during the process of scaffolding (as per background)
• Other results show with age comes more success , more complex
operations and more accurate ways of completing tasks
• Comprehension precedes production
• Tutors play different roles depending on age:
3 YO – captivator of their interests
4 YO –prodder and corrector
5 YO – confirmer and checker of operations
A 6 YO is unlikely to need a tutor
Applications
Explain how the research by Wood et al. (1976) could be used by
teachers to help children solve problems. [10]
First, include some relevant detail on the study, for this question hat is the sample, procedure, findings
and conclusions.
Then, focus on what this research showed about the amount and type of support a teacher can expect to
have to give young children. Remember that older children are capable of more unassisted acts. The
youngest children need to be kept on task, middle age children need verbal prodding and correcting, and
the oldest children need only confirming and checking.
C+: In your answer explain findings and conclusions in relations to scaffolding and focus on the application of the key components of the
scaffolding process.
Plenary
Summarise the study in 10 sentences.