The influence of private tutoring on middle-class students' use of in-class time in formal schools in Taiwan

This study addresses how private tutoring influences middle-class students' use of in-class time in formal schools. Through interviews with five third-year public senior high school students from middle-class families in Taiwan, the research found that with the help of private tutoring those students were able to use the “time-stealing” strategy to steal time from an ongoing class and create a “double-context learning situation” to optimize the efficiency of the use of their in-class time. This behavior not only undermined teachers' teaching in formal schools, but also exposed the inadequacy of formal schooling in satisfying students' need for knowledge.