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From: ruffwork@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU (Ritchey Ruff)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <2960@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 27 Feb 88 15:47:17 GMT
References: <26@dogie.edu <3340@killer.UUCP <8194@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU <11128@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Reply-To: ruffwork@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Ritchey Ruff)
Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis, Oregon
Lines: 28
Keywords: tutoring,teaching,CAI
Summary: tutoring vs. teaching

In article <11128@duke.cs.duke.edu> crm@duke.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) writes:
[...mucho removed...]
>
>There exists a neurological disfunction analogous to dyslexia that makes
>calculation difficult: hours of drill at which the person fails over and
>over again does not make arithmetic skills better, but rather simply
>convinces the person of their lack of any mathematical talent.
>
>I think the real solution here --assuming it can be done-- is to somehow
>recognize individual needs and teach or train to best meet those needs.
>Saying, for example, calculators are good or bad in general doesn't seem
>to be all that helpful.
>-- 
>Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm) 

This points out the difference between teaching and tutoring.  Most people
I've talked to who have been involved in both agree that tutoring is
much more efficient from the students viewpoint, but teaching is
much more effecient from the teachers viewpoint.  I think this is the first
real win we might see in ICAI; use the few really good humans to teach
to classes, and have the many ICAI tutors go one-on-one with the
students to find the misunderstanding and holes in the students
knowledge and try to plug them.  I can also imagen that the ICAI program
would give feedback to the teacher on what is coming across to the
class and what the teacher needs to spend more time on (just like a
good T.A. will for the prof who is interested).

--ritchey ruff		ruffwork@cs.orst.edu -or- ...!hp-pcd!orstcs!ruffwork