How Does Youtube Support Learning Maths?

Edgar Dale was professor of education of Ohio state university and was credited as being The father of modern media in education . In 1946 he published his Cone of Experience which classified the method of learning that an individual might experience with their capacity or ability to learn the material at hand.

Dale's assertion (and I call it an assertion because there doesn't seem to be a lot of data to support it) was that the more immersed one is with the learning experience the more likely it is that you will learn. He goes on to refine this at the apex of the cone to say that watching a movie is better than looking at a picture& that looking at a picture is better than hearing words& and that hearing words beats reading the worst way of learning on the cone.

Further down the cone he states that watching a demonstration and then participating in discussion are even better when it comes to learning.

All well and good but what are the implications for this for tutoring?

Firstly, the one-to-one tutoring experience is aimed squarely at watching a demonstration and participating in discussion . A useful tutoring technique is demonstrating how problems are solved. When a student is seen to be struggling with a question in maths, it is very effective for the tutor to do the problem for the student supported by a running commentary of their thought processes in attacking the problem - of course to be followed by the student trying a similar problem for themselves. Teachers are able to do this but the tutor can give a personalised experience to the learner and then monitor subsequent attempts by the learner to get to grips with technique. The tutor is also able to engage the learner in one to one discussion about specific problems, a luxury which would not be afforded to a busy class teacher.

The area which is often overlooked by both teachers and tutors is the effectiveness of watching a movie (or video clip) as a learning aid. Many teachers and tutors rely on the tried methodology of one to one teaching followed by recommended reading and homework. Whilst Dale would have not envisaged what we now have available over the internet (he died in 1985) his words are probably more relevant now than they were when he first wrote them in 1946 and in particularly to how we go about being an effective tutor (or teacher).

It is now very easy to locate material online which supports the learner in understanding the curriculum. This is available form specialist providers such as Hegarty maths or more generally available on Youtube. This is coupled with the access to this material being available at any time and anywhere with portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets. This huge opportunity for learning should not be missed and should be harnessed as part of a tutoring session. It is no admission of failure to make recommendations for online learning resources that a student can pursue independently. The role of the tutor in this situation should be to review what is available (and there is a lot) and make specific recommendations to the student as to specific videos which can be accessed, at times convenient to them, which will support their one-to-one learning experience.

In this way we are creating an interesting learning experience for the student and one which in this day and age will be familiar to them. We are also, greatly increasing the amount of time that the student spends in contact with the subject area reinforcing what has been done during the tutoring session.