Live Tutors Research Articles

Live tutoring calls did not improve learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone

Education systems regularly face unexpected school closures, whether due to disease outbreaks, natural disasters, or other adverse shocks. In low-income countries where internet access is scarce, distance learning – the most common educational solution – is often passive, via TV or radio, with little opportunity for teacher–student interaction. In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of live tutoring calls from teachers, designed to supplement radio instruction during the 2020 school closures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We do this with a randomised controlled trial with 4,399 primary school students in Sierra Leone. Tutoring calls led to some limited increase in educational activity, but had no effect on mathematics or language test scores, whether for girls or boys, and whether provided by public or private school teachers. Even having received tutoring calls, one in three children reported not listening to educational radio at all, so limited take-up may partly explain our results.

English

For the implantation of one hectare of black pepper (Piper nigrum), about 25 to 30 trees are removed from the Amazon Forest to produce tutors for black pepper. As an alternative to the dead wooden stake (WS), there is sustainable cultivation of black pepper with tree species, with the living supports (LS) of gliricídia (Gliricidia sepium L.). However, there is inadequate technical information on the effect of black pepper cultivation with tree species on the growth, physiology, and production of the culture. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the vegetative growth, physiology, and production of black pepper, cultivated in a LS subjected to doses of nitrogen (N). The experiment was carried in a randomized design blocks, in split plots, with three replications in a field. The plots consisted of two tutors (dead tutor and live tutor of G. sepium) and the subplots consisted of increasing doses of N (10, 20, 40 and 60g N plant-1). The results indicated that black pepper plants in WS stand out in terms of initial growth; however, at the end of the first year of black pepper cultivation with LS tends to present a vegetative growth slightly like the cultivation with a WS. The production of green pepper was higher in cultivation with G. sepium, while in terms of dry pepper there was no distinction between the tutors, with only N doses affected, which was estimated at 37 g N plant-1 to obtain the highest productivity of dry pepper. Key words: Black pepper, Grain yield, Vegetative growth Nitrogen competition, Vegetative growth.

Neural circuit for social authentication in song learning

Social interactions are essential when learning to communicate. In human speech and bird song, infants must acquire accurate vocalization patterns and learn to associate them with live tutors and not mimetic sources. However, the neural mechanism of social reality during vocal learning remains unknown. Here, we characterize a neural circuit for social authentication in support of accurate song learning in the zebra finch. We recorded neural activity in the attention/arousal state control center, the locus coeruleus (LC), of juvenile birds during song learning from a live adult tutor. LC activity increased with real, not artificial, social information during learning that enhanced the precision and robustness of the learned song. During live social song learning, LC activity regulated long-term song-selective neural responsiveness in an auditory memory region, the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). In accord, optogenetic inhibition of LC presynaptic signaling in the NCM reduced NCM neuronal responsiveness to live tutor singing and impaired song learning. These results demonstrate that the LC-NCM neural circuit integrates sensory evidence of real social interactions, distinct from song acoustic features, to authenticate song learning. The findings suggest a general mechanism for validating social information in brain development.

Multimodality during live tutoring is relevant for vocal learning in zebra finches

In many songbird species, young birds learn their song from adult conspecifics. Like much animal communication, birdsong is multimodal: singing is accompanied by beak and body movements. We hypothesized that these visual cues could enhance vocal learning thus partly explaining the reduced learning from unimodal audio playbacks compared to multimodal live social tutoring observed in many birdsong studies. To test this, juvenile zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, were tutored in a yoked design where replicate tutoring groups of three male–female dyads were exposed to the same live tutor simultaneously in three different ways. (1) Tutees were housed with the tutor in a central compartment; hence they could hear, see and interact with their tutor (‘live’). (2) Tutees placed in one of two adjacent compartments could hear but not see the same tutor from behind a black loudspeaker cloth (‘audio-only’). (3) Tutees could likewise hear the tutor through loudspeaker cloth but could also see the tutor through a one-way mirror (‘audiovisual’). Comparisons of subadult and adult song showed more changes in the audio-only than in the audiovisual or live tutored tutees, suggesting the audio-only group's song development was delayed. According to (blinded) human observer similarity scoring, the audio-only tutees' singing was least similar and the live tutees' singing most similar to their tutor's singing, while the audiovisual tutees showed an intermediate level of similarity, but the between-treatment differences in similarity were not significant. Conversely, the audio-only group showed the highest similarity values with their father's song, which they only heard before the experimental tutoring. Given that the quantity and quality of the tutor song input were the same across treatments within tutoring groups, the results support the hypothesis that visual in addition to auditory exposure to a tutor can affect the timing and possibly also the amount of vocal learning.

Adding colour-realistic video images to audio playbacks increases stimulus engagement but does not enhance vocal learning in zebra finches

Bird song and human speech are learned early in life and for both cases engagement with live social tutors generally leads to better learning outcomes than passive audio-only exposure. Real-world tutor–tutee relations are normally not uni- but multimodal and observations suggest that visual cues related to sound production might enhance vocal learning. We tested this hypothesis by pairing appropriate, colour-realistic, high frame-rate videos of a singing adult male zebra finch tutor with song playbacks and presenting these stimuli to juvenile zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Juveniles exposed to song playbacks combined with video presentation of a singing bird approached the stimulus more often and spent more time close to it than juveniles exposed to audio playback only or audio playback combined with pixelated and time-reversed videos. However, higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli was not predictive of better song learning. Thus, although multimodality increased stimulus engagement and biologically relevant video content was more salient than colour and movement equivalent videos, the higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli did not lead to enhanced vocal learning. Whether the lack of three-dimensionality of a video tutor and/or the lack of meaningful social interaction make them less suitable for facilitating song learning than audio–visual exposure to a live tutor remains to be tested.

An imitation circuit

Song Learning Animals, including humans, rely heavily on imitation and social learning, yet we know little about how this process operates in the brain. Zhao et al. used optogenetic manipulation of a synaptic pathway connecting auditory and vocal motor circuits to implant song memories sufficient to guide song learning into young zebra finches (see the Perspective by Clayton). Activation of this circuit overrode learning from live tutors. These experiments define circuits essential for social learning of songs from tutors and show that such memories can be localized. Science , this issue p. [83][1]; see also p. [33][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaw4226 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaz1552

English Central

English Central is an online software program designed to teach various skills of conversation and the basic vocabulary of English. The program is available in 11 different languages, including Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. Non-native English speakers can use one of these languages to access the website and its various learning materials. According to the program’s homepage (www.englishcentral.com), English Central is a leading provider of online conversation solutions, combining the Internet’s best English videos, a proprietary Intelligent Speech Assessment Technology, an adaptive vocabulary learning system, and live tutors, all of which are delivered seamlessly to computers and mobile devices.
 Users enjoy a welcome lesson, and every topic in the course’s platform contains at least ten units that have comprehensive lessons in conversation. The software also offers different activities for grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, writing, and speaking. Each activity focuses on a particular sort of conversation arising in everyday life, such as those associated with business engagements, social interactions, travel, academic encounters, and so on. Those who initiate a lesson but then stop prior to its completion can complete the exercise at a later point. The program will mark their placement and remind them where to resume their training.

Eavesdropping on adult vocal interactions does not enhance juvenile song learning: an experiment with wild songbirds

Animals often live within close proximity of multiple conspecific individuals, allowing them to eavesdrop on other animals' signalling interactions to guide their own social behaviours. For a young animal that is learning to vocalize, eavesdropping on vocal interactions between adults may provide a rich source of information: young animals might preferentially learn vocalizations that are commonly heard in interactions between adults or that are heard to be effective for attracting mates or defending resources. We used a multispeaker playback experiment with wild Savannah sparrows, Passerculus sandwichensis , to test the hypothesis that vocal learning is guided by eavesdropping. Over a 6-year period, we tutored young Savannah sparrows with experimental tutor songs; half of the tutor songs were broadcast in simulated vocal interactions between two tutors, and the other half were broadcast as noninteractive, stand-alone solo performances. If eavesdropping plays an important role in guiding vocal learning, we predicted that young birds would preferentially learn the vocalizations heard during interactions between tutors. In contrast to our prediction, young Savannah sparrows did not preferentially learn interactive tutor songs; birds were similarly likely to learn songs heard in an interactive context ( N = 13) and in a noninteractive context ( N = 17). Analysis of live adult tutors' reactions to the loudspeakers showed that they responded with similar vocal behaviour during interactive and noninteractive treatments, and therefore their vocal behaviour did not compromise the playback simulation. We conclude that eavesdropping on vocal interactions between tutors does not appear to be essential for vocal learning of wild Savannah sparrows. • Animals that learn vocalizations may eavesdrop on interactions between tutors. • We used playback to study learning through eavesdropping in wild Savannah sparrows. • Birds learned songs at similar rates from interactive and noninteractive tutors. • Live tutors did not sing differently with interactive versus noninteractive tutors. • We found no evidence that eavesdropping guides vocal learning in Savannah sparrows.

Social interaction facilitates word learning in preverbal infants: Word–object mapping and word segmentation

In natural settings, infants learn spoken language with the aid of a caregiver who explicitly provides social signals. Although previous studies have demonstrated that young infants are sensitive to these signals that facilitate language development, the impact of real-life interactions on early word segmentation and word–object mapping remains elusive. We tested whether infants aged 5–6 months and 9–10 months could segment a word from continuous speech and acquire a word–object relation in an ecologically valid setting. In Experiment 1, infants were exposed to a live tutor, while in Experiment 2, another group of infants were exposed to a televised tutor. Results indicate that both younger and older infants were capable of segmenting a word and learning a word–object association only when the stimuli were derived from a live tutor in a natural manner, suggesting that real-life interaction enhances the learning of spoken words in preverbal infants.

Comparisons of different methods to train a young zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) to learn a song

Like humans, oscine songbirds exhibit vocal learning. They learn their song by imitating conspecifics, mainly adults. Among them, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) has been widely used as a model species to study the behavioral, cellular and molecular substrates of vocal learning. Various methods using taped song playback have been used in the laboratory to train young male finches to learn a song. Since different protocols have been applied by different research groups, the efficiency of the studies cannot be directly compared. The purpose of our study was to address this problem. Young finches were raised by their mother alone from day post hatching (dph) 10 and singly isolated from dph 35. One week later, exposure to a song model began, either using a live tutor or taped playback (passive or self-elicited). At dph 100, the birds were transferred to a common aviary. We observed that one-to-one live tutoring is the best method to get a fairly complete imitation. Using self-elicited playback we observed high inter-individual variability; while some finches learned well (including good copying of the song model), others exhibited poor copying. Passive playback resulted in poor imitation of the model. We also observed that finches exhibited vocal changes after dph 100 and that the range of these changes was negatively related to their imitation of the song model. Taken together, these results suggest that social aspects are predominant in the success outcome of song learning in the zebra finch.

Tracking sub-syllabic features in zebra finch song during development

Most natural behaviors are arranged hierarchically, with complex actions composed of serial combinations of more basic motor gestures. The learning of courtship song in birds presents an ideal model system for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying such learning. In the most commonly studied species, the zebra finch, songs are learned by young males from their fathers or other male tutors. They are highly stereotyped by adulthood, and yet vary greatly between individual birds. The basic element of song is generally considered to be the syllable, a period of continuous expiratory vocalization separated by silence and a brief period of inspiration. These brief silences make it relatively easy to segment the acoustic signal into syllables, and previous studies have examined song development by extracting acoustic features from the sound spectrogram and then averaging these features over syllables [1,2]. However, despite experimental evidence that syllables form behavioral units, the syllabic structure of song is not readily apparent in many electrophysiological recordings. Individual neurons in the song motor pathway generally produce 5-10 msec bursts of activity that are aligned to song production with millisecond precision and have no obvious relationship to syllable onsets or offsets. We have developed a suite of software that enables semi-automatic the tracking of sub-syllabic features in a large corpus of acoustic data recorded from developing zebra finches with live tutors. Our approach is based on three basic ideas. First, we segment song into syllables and annotate individual syllables based on averaged feature values in a manner similar to previous approaches. Second, we use a coarse temporal alignment to average across renditions and produce an averaged ‘template’ for each syllable type. Then we use dynamic time warping to align each syllable rendition to this averaged template. Finally, we measure how well each rendition matches the template, and use this measure to perform semi-automated screening of possible outliers and syllable misclassifications. We are currently applying this approach to track the development of song features during the later stages of song development. To quantify the degree to which the mechanisms of song development respect a division of song into syllable-based units, we will measure song-by-song correlations between different features in different sub-components of the same syllable and compare these to feature correlations across syllables.

Investigating the efficacy of practical skill teaching: a pilot-study comparing three educational methods

Effective education of practical skills can alter clinician behaviour, positively influence patient outcomes, and reduce the risk of patient harm. This study compares the efficacy of two innovative practical skill teaching methods, against a traditional teaching method. Year three pre-clinical physiotherapy students consented to participate in a randomised controlled trial, with concealed allocation and blinded participants and outcome assessment. Each of the three randomly allocated groups were exposed to a different practical skills teaching method (traditional, pre-recorded video tutorial or student self-video) for two specific practical skills during the semester. Clinical performance was assessed using an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). The students were also administered a questionnaire to gain the participants level of satisfaction with the teaching method, and their perceptions of the teaching methods educational value. There were no significant differences in clinical performance between the three practical skill teaching methods as measured in the OSCE, or for student ratings of satisfaction. A significant difference existed between the methods for the student ratings of perceived educational value, with the teaching approaches of pre-recorded video tutorial and student self-video being rated higher than 'traditional' live tutoring. Alternative teaching methods to traditional live tutoring can produce equivalent learning outcomes when applied to the practical skill development of undergraduate health professional students. The use of alternative practical skill teaching methods may allow for greater flexibility for both staff and infrastructure resource allocation.

Using live, online tutoring to inspire post 16 students to engage with higher level mathematics

In recent years, there has been a decline in the number of students aged 16–18 studying and being able to access higher level mathematics in schools in the UK. The Further Mathematics Network (FMN) was set up to enable access to such mathematics to all students and to promote and encourage students to study at this level. The FMN has pioneered the use of Elluminate, a well established web-based package, for live mathematics tutoring. Small groups of students meet online with an experienced tutor to learn new aspects of mathematics and to look at ways to solve complex problems. There are also extensive online resources to support the students’ learning. The findings are discussed in the following article.

Assessing the Importance of Social Factors in Bird Song Learning: A Test Using Computer‐Simulated Tutors

AbstractWe used a mixed live/synthetic tutoring design to investigate whether the social factors of eavesdropping on adult singing interactions and/or direct interaction with a tutor would influence song learning in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Males were brought into the laboratory at 4–5 d‐old, hand‐raised and then tutored by two pairs of adult song sparrows in June and July From January through March of the next year, subjects received tutoring from computer simulations of two of the original live tutors. The first, non‐interactive, model simulated one of the earlier tutors singing ‘naturalistic’ bouts of song with no interaction with the subject. The second, interactive, model simulated a different early tutor that behaved similarly to the non‐interactive model, but synchronized its singing with the subject, and tried to match the subject’s song. Subjects learned relatively more from their interactive late tutor and his early partner, and showed no tendency to learn more from their late than their early‐only tutors. These results support the eavesdropping hypothesis, and also suggest that direct interaction with the tutor is a relevant social factor.

Lack of referential vocal learning from LCD video by grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) do not acquire referential English labels when tutored with videotapes displayed on CRT screens if (a) socially isolated, (b) reward for attempted labels is possible, (c) trainers direct birds’ attention to the monitor, (d) live video feed avoids habituation or (d) one trainer repeats labels produced on video and rewards label attempts. Because birds learned referential labels from live tutor pairs in concurrent sessions, we concluded that video failed because input lacked live social interaction and modeling (Pepperberg, 1999). Recent studies (e.g. Ikebuchi & Okanoya, 1999), however, suggest that standard CRT monitor flickering could instead have prevented learning. Using an LCD monitor, we found that eliminating flickering did not enable birds to learn from video under conditions of limited social interaction. Results emphasize the role of social interaction in referential label learning and may generalize to other systems (e.g. disabled children, or possibly software and robotic agents).

Localized immediate early gene expression related to the strength of song learning in socially reared zebra finches.

Recent evidence showed that exposure of tape-tutored zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis) males to the tutor song involves neuronal activation in brain regions outside the conventional 'song control pathways', particularly the caudal part of the neostriatum (NCM) and of the hyperstriatum ventrale (CMHV). Zebra finch males were reared with a live tutor during the sensitive period for song learning. When, as adults, they were re-exposed to the tutor song, the males showed increased expression of Fos, the protein product of the immediate early gene c-fos, in the NCM and CMHV, compared with expression in two conventional 'song control nuclei', high vocal centre (HVC) and Area X. The strength of the Fos response (which is a reflection of neuronal activation) in the NCM (but not in the other three regions) correlated significantly and positively with the number of song elements that the birds had copied from the tutor song. Thus, socially tutored zebra finch males show localized neural activation in response to tutor song exposure, which correlates with the strength of song learning.

Late song learning in song sparrows

In many oscine species, young males learn songs that match those of their first breeding-season neighbours. Because sharing songs with neighbours may be advantageous, selection should favour birds that retain the capacity to memorize new songs later in their first year as the birds cannot know for sure who their neighbours will be until spring. We investigated whether song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, from a sedentary western population were capable of acquiring new songs after their natal summer in a two-stage laboratory experiment. In the first stage (30–90 days of age), we rotated hand-reared males equally among one set of four live tutors that had been neighbours in the field (and therefore shared songs between them). During the second stage (140–330 days old), we removed two of the original tutors and replaced them with two new tutors (which did not share any songs with the original tutors). During stage two, subjects were not rotated, but were stationed next to only one of the four tutors (they could hear the other three at a distance). Eight of 12 subjects learned songs from tutors they only heard after they were 140 days old, and six subjects learned most of their songs from a late tutor. Thus, sedentary song sparrows are capable of acquiring many songs de novo in late autumn. These results are consistent with a song-learning strategy that provides young male song sparrows with a repertoire of songs they will share with their first breeding-season neighbours.

Vocal learning in the Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus): effects of species identity and number of trainers.

Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) learn referential English labels when they view and interact with 2 humans who model vocal labeling and who demonstrate referentiality and functionality of a label (I.M. Pepperberg, 1990a). To test if both trainers are necessary, the authors contrasted 2-trainer modeling with training by 1 human who presented targeted labels to a bird in concert with appropriate items, who asked questions, and who would reward attempts at the label with the item. The bird was also tutored by either 1 or 2 interactive humans in conjunction with a conspecific who already used referential labels. Referential labels were learned from multiple live tutors but not a single trainer. Presence of a conspecific enhanced learning compared with single-trainer sessions but did not affect acquisition in 2-human sessions. Specific aspects of paired tutoring seem critical for acquiring referential vocal labels.

Song development by chipping sparrows and field sparrows

When, where and from whom young songbirds learn their songs have been controversial issues in the study of song development. We chose to study some of these issues in two migratory and closely related songbirds, the chipping sparrow,Spizella passerina , and field sparrow, Spizella pusilla . Nestlings of both species were collected in western Massachusetts and hand-reared in the laboratory. There, juveniles were placed in separate cages and assigned to one of three rooms; in each room were eight young chipping sparrows, eight young field sparrows and two adult tutors of each species, arranged so that most of the young males were adjacent to adult tutors of the same species. During mid-winter, adult tutors were moved from one room to another, so that the young birds heard different song types from different tutors during their hatching year and the following spring. From spectral analysis of our extensive tape recordings, we found that most juvenile males imitated the songs of their hatching-year tutors but then gradually modified their songs to match more closely either their adult tutors or other pupils the next spring. One chipping and one field sparrow clearly imitated a new song syllable from a spring live tutor; that is, these yearling males learned songs by ‘instruction’. Other sparrows improvised extensively, and one chipping sparrow learned a field sparrow's song syllable. Our results reveal great individual variation in how songs are developed, and we expect similar flexibility among birds in nature.

External validity and experimental design: the sensitive phase for song learning

In the past decade there has been widespread acceptance of the idea that the use of live, socially interactive tutors in song learning experiments produces results that differ dramatically from, and are more valid than, results obtained with tape tutors. The influential series of experiments by Baptista & Petrinovich (1984,Animal Behaviour,32, 172–181, 1986,Animal Behaviour,34, 1359–1371; Petrinovich & Baptista 1987,Animal Behaviour,35, 961–974) have promoted this view, and their results have been widely accepted. Baptista & Petrinovich's results have led them and others to question whether there are age-limited sensitive phases for song learning, as Marler's (1970,Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology Monographs,711–25) early studies on the white-crowned sparrow,Zonotrichia leucophrys, suggested, and led them to argue that interactive tutoring produces essentially open-ended learning. I argue here that this view is mistaken, and that the sensitive phase for song learning in the white-crowned sparrow is identical for live and tape tutors and is restricted to the first few months of life. Baptista & Petrinovich presented live and tape tutors for different periods to their subjects. Type of tutor (live versus tape) is confounded with duration of exposure to tutors. As a consequence, their experiments confound two different forms of song learning that occur at different ages, and give the mistaken appearance of an extended sensitive phase when live tutors are used.