The 2-Sigma Problem - Part 1

How to turn some of your practice into a tutoring session

I’m planning this as the first in a multi-part series, but I don’t have the whole series written out yet. I think it’s worth sharing parts of it periodically as I explore these pieces. When I finish this series (could be in 2 months, could be in 2 years, let’s see) I’ll put it all together in an organized compendium.

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I have a few books by the education researcher Benjamin Bloom. In particular, I’ve enjoyed All Our Children learning, a collection of essays and research papers by Bloom and his co-authors.

Bloom is famous in education circles for what he termed the 2-Sigma Problem. To paraphrase:

Individual tutoring works a lot better than everything else in education. But an education system where every child is individually tutored is not feasible.

Large parts of Bloom and co’s research have been dedicated to testing other educational interventions and comparing the effect size to individual Tutorial Instruction.

As you can see, in Bloom’s research, Tutorial Instruction dwarfs everything else. That doesn’t mean teachers shouldn’t focus on other methods; they must. Also, we’re volleyball coaches, so not every bit of educational research transfers perfectly to the volleyball court.

But… it makes you think, doesn’t it?

I’m starting with Tutorial Instruction, but really each item on the list that shows a significant effect size is worth pondering. So consider this a thought exercise on how each of these concepts can be incorporated as part of my volleyball coaching.

Pre-Practice Tutors