Many institutions use undergraduate teaching assistants (tutors) in their computing courses to help provide more resources to students. Because of the role tutors play in students’ learning experiences, recent work has begun to explore student-tutor interactions through the tutor’s perspective and through direct observation of the interactions. The results suggest that these interactions are cognitively challenging for tutors and may not be as beneficial for students’ learning as one might hope. Given that many of these interactions may be unproductive, this work seeks to understand how student expectations of these sessions might be impacting the interactions’ effectiveness. We interviewed 15 students in a CS2 course to learn about the expectations and desires that students have when they attend tutoring sessions. Our findings indicate that there is variation in what students consider a desired result from the interaction, that assignment deadlines affect students’ expectations and desires for interactions, and that students do not always want what they believe is beneficial for their learning. We discuss implications for instructors and potential guidance for students and tutors to make tutoring sessions more effective.
Thu 16 MarDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
15:45 - 17:00 | |||
15:45 25mPaper | A Climate-First Approach to Training Student Teaching AssistantsIn-Person Papers DOI | ||
16:10 25mPaper | Teaching Assistant Training: An Adjustable Curriculum for Computing DisciplinesIn-Person Papers DOI | ||
16:35 25mPaper | Student Expectations of Tutors in Computing CoursesIn-Person Papers Rachel S. Lim University of California San Diego, Sophia Krause-Levy University of California, San Diego, Ismael Villegas Molina University of California San Diego, Leo Porter University of California San Diego DOI |