The effect of attending tutoring on course grades in Calculus I

ABSTRACT

Tutoring centres are common in universities in the United States, but there are few published studies that statistically examine the effects of tutoring on student success. This study utilizes multiple regression analysis to model the effect of tutoring attendance on final course grades in Calculus I. Our model predicted that every three visits to the tutoring centre is correlated with an increase of a students’ course grade by one per cent, after controlling for prior academic ability. We also found that for lower-achieving students, attending tutoring had a greater impact on final grades.

KEYWORDS:

• Calculus I
• multiple regression
• student success rates
• peer tutoring
• undergraduate mathematics

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Elizabeth Keiffer, Adam Molnar and Chris Francisco for their helpful comments on the earlier drafts of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.