Abstract
Studies of tutoring are producing rich descriptions of tutorial dialogue but have not identified constructs that tutors use to classify and discriminate among students for the purpose of adapting tutoring to student differences. This study investigated five experienced tutors’ personal constructs about students tutored over a significant period of time. Several tutoring settings and domains were represented. Constructs used by tutors to discriminate among tutees were identified with repertory grid interviews and interpreted with the aid of cluster analysis. All tutors judged and classified students in terms of two underlying dimensions that were similarly defined, though not exactly alike, across tutors: motivation and intellectual ability. Tutors’ personal constructs and tutorial decisions informed by those constructs are reported, and implications for programming computer-based tutors are discussed.
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