Assessing the effectiveness of supplemental instruction: A critique and a case study

Methods of assessing the effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction (SI) have neither satisfactorily nor conclusively demonstrated whether SI improves student performance in the university environment. Analysis which shows that students of all levels of preparedness attending SI perform better in the course than do their similarly prepared counterparts fails to account for other factors which may affect academic performance. This study points out deficiencies in existing research into the effectiveness of SI, suggests way of isolating the actual effect of SI on final student results, and posits, for future analytical work, a broadening of research methods to include non-statistical, qualitative forms of assessment. A case study of the effectiveness of SI in an engineering course at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg concludes the study.