Abstract

This issue of Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning includes research from scholars representing North Carolina and Ohio in the United States and Canada, South Africa and Taiwan. These international contributors mainly explore the ideas of collaborative tutoring and coaching as well as the influences of these developmental interaction behaviors on learning and academic performance. Although there is no agreed-upon conceptual definitions that clearly differentiate coaching, tutoring, and mentoring, the literature supports that these developmental human interactions are different in various aspects. Coaches and tutors are usually individuals or groups that possess advanced experience and knowledge in a certain field. The focus of these relationships is centered around problems, tasks, or performance improvement, whereas mentoring relationships are people-centered. Coaching and tutoring relationships usually end when those problems or issues are solved; thus, these relationships occur relatively for a short-term period, whereas mentoring relationships can last even for life-long (Irby, 2012; D’Abate, Eddy, & Tannenbaum, 2003). Watt and Wasburn-Moses, in their article, The Use of a Collaborative Math Tutoring Model to Improve Content Knowledge among Special Education Teacher Candidates, qualitatively explored changes in 19 special education teacher candidate’s attitudes towards teaching and learning after they participated in experiential learning. Their study also identified the impact of authentic learning experiences, enhanced by sufficient host teacher support and modeling, on the math content knowledge of the preservice teacher. The authors found participation in the collaborative field experience in mathematics enhanced the teacher candidate’s knowledge of math content. Additionally, their findings implied the importance of host teacher in influencing teacher candidates sense of self-efficacy. In the article Reclaiming Tutorials as Learning Spaces in the Sciences, Louw investigated the practice of tutorials as learning spaces at a large researchintensive university in South Africa. Using a mixed-method investigation at the faculty level, the author examined (1) how tutorials are structured, (2) what kinds of training and support exist for tutors and (3) the indicators faculty use to assess the success of tutorials. The findings of the study support the need for careful planning of how tutorials will be used as learning spaces. Additionally, the authors emphasized the need for tutor preparation and MENTORING & TUTORING: PARTNERSHIP IN LEARNING 2018, VOL. 26, NO. 3, 245–248 https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2018.1511955