Consumers as tutors - legitimate teachers?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to research the feasibility of training mental health consumers as tutors for 4th year medical students in psychiatry. METHODS: A partnership between a consumer network and an academic unit in Psychological Medicine was formed to jointly develop a training package for consumer tutors and a curriculum in interviewing skills for medical students. Student attitudes to mental health consumers were measured pre and post the program. All tutorial evaluation data was analysed using univariate statistics. Both tutors and students evaluated the teaching program using a 4 point rating scale. The mean scores for teaching and content for both students and tutors were compared using an independent samples t-test. RESULTS: Consumer tutors were successfully trained and accredited as tutors and able to sustain delivery of tutorials over a 4 year period. The study found that whilst the medical students started with positive attitudes towards consumers prior to the program, there was a general trend towards improved attitude across all measures. Other outcomes for tutors and students (both positive and negative) are described. CONCLUSIONS: Consumer tutors along with professional tutors have a place in the education of medical students, are an untapped resource and deliver largely positive outcomes for students and themselves. Further possible developments are described

Our Students Can Do That: Peer Writing Tutors at the Two Year College

Because of the author’s experience hearing from other writing center professionals at community colleges that community college students are not capable of serving as peer tutors, as well as survey data demonstrating that community colleges do not hire peer tutors at the same rate as other institutions of higher learning, the author conducted exit interviews of peer tutors at Salt Lake Community College in order to determine what peer tutors learn from their work experiences in a community college writing center. The purpose of the study was to establish what peer tutors learn, in order to correlate not simply what they take away from their experience, but also to substantiate that peer tutors can indeed help the writers they work with to learn. Since the results of this analysis were broad and represented a wide variety of concepts that are learned by peer tutors, the author designed a more specific survey to explore what they learned about writing and being a writer. The resulting data lead the author to conclude that peer tutors learn much from their work experience, allaying concerns that community college students are not capable of serving as peer tutors.University Writing Cente

Watch and Learn: Peer Evaluation and Tutoring Pedagogy

By observing fellow tutors’ consultations, writing center tutors improve their abilities to evaluate their own practices when working with students. How can we as writing center directors strike a balance between evaluating tutors and allowing them to become independent, selfreflective thinkers? One solution I’ve found has been to ask tutors to observe and evaluate one another’s tutoring.University Writing Cente

Cultivating Professional Writing Tutor Identities at a Two-Year College

Since their inception, writing centers at two-year colleges have had to be creative in their methods of maintaining a staff of tutors who can meet the writing support needs of their student writers. As early as 1981, Gary Olson noted, “[s]taffing the center is perhaps the most difficult problem two-year colleges encounter” (21). In contrast to writing centers at fouryear institutions, which traditionally rely on peer tutors, the trend at two-year colleges, as noted by Leslie Roberts in 2008, has been to employ a wide variety of tutors, such as English instructors, professional tutors, and volunteers, in addition to peer tutors. Because writing tutors at two-year colleges come from a wide variety of backgrounds, they similarly bring a wide variety of experiences to their work. And while these varied backgrounds and experiences can potentially enrich the tutorials of student writers at two-year colleges, they can also potentially result in a disconnect between the writing tutors’ expectations for the tutorial and the best practices in the field.University Writing Cente

Why do we teach the way we do? : the relationship between tutors' conceptions of teaching and learning, the design/teaching of their online courses and effecive online teaching principles : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

There is an increase in the use of e-learning within tertiary institutions and many courses are moving to online learning as the means to deliver all or part of courses that were previously delivered face-to-face. Online delivery, primarily through the internet, provides new challenges for tutors in delivering courses that demonstrate effective teaching principles. This study researched the perspectives and practice of twelve tutors from three different New Zealand polytechnics via a multiple case study. It investigated how tutors’ conceptions of teaching and learning aligned with the design and teaching of their online courses, and with effective online teaching principles. Enablers and barriers to tutors using effective online teaching principles were also examined. Interaction between students, between tutor and student and between tutor and content were all found to be important conceptions of teaching and learning shared by the participants. It appeared that an understanding of learning theory was related to tutors’ conceptions of teaching and learning aligning with the design of their courses. In addition, this understanding influenced tutors’ use of effective online teaching principles. The research identified that all tutors’ courses aligned with the effective online teaching principles of constructive alignment, the chunking of content and tasks into appropriate sizes, and scaffolding of information. The principles related to student interactivity with content, between students and with the tutor were evidenced on two of the polytechnics’ courses with limited evidence on the third polytechnics’ site. The effective online teaching principles of promoting student ownership of the learning process, and interaction with a larger learning environment was demonstrated on few of the tutors’ online courses in this study. The enablers and barriers experienced by tutors played a key role in the extent to which tutors implemented effective online teaching principles in their courses. Institutional processes related to course design, and tutor professional learning and support played a critical role in providing tutors with the knowledge and time they needed to effectively teach online

A Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an Alumna Walk into the Writing Center

As the writing center director, I believe our professional tutors provide valuable expert perspectives to student writers. They also help me mentor the peer tutors and push me to reevaluate our practices. They add staffing stability to the center (whose peer tutors never stay for more than three years). Finally, these trusted writing experts professionalize the writing center’s status among administration, faculty, and students. In the following paragraphs, Amy, Ellen, Chris, and Lindsey illustrate the rich variety of skills and perspectives professional writing tutors can contribute to a writing centerUniversity Writing Cente

Investigating Continuing Professional Development Provided for Egyptian Higher Education Online Tutors

Tutors confront great challenges in their teaching practices, including changes in subject content, new instructional methods, changes laws and procedures and students’ needs. In online learning (OL), more changes can be added, namely, the massive and accelerated advance in technology. Therefore, online tutors need to be provided with CPD that develops their skills and experience to improve the effectiveness of their distance learning courses. This paper investigates how Egyptian Higher Education (HE) online tutors are provided with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to pursue their work. Data for this paper was collected form 20 online tutors from two major Egyptian universities. This paper explores the current situation of CPD provided for HE online tutors with its affordances, limitations, and proposed recommendations that can help to overcome these challenges

Using Jing to enhance student understanding through video recorded assignment commentary

This poster describes the findings to date of a project involving nine language tutors and 47 students. The tutors used Jing to make screencasts (recordings of the computer screen with an audio commentary) of themselves correcting students' written language assignments in Microsoft Word. Data was gathered by means of feedback questionnaires completed by the tutors and seven students. Initial findings suggest students found this feedback more personal and more motivating. Tutors considered it more personal and able to convey 'softer' feedback and considered that the step by step annotations might be less overwhelming for students. Further research will be conducted via follow-up interviews with the seven students and analysing the type of feedback provided by the tutors using Jing with reference to all 47 assignments and feedback

Career entry and development profile companion guide: a guide for ITT tutors and induction tutors

Who is the companion guide for? This guide is for initial teacher training (ITT) tutors working with trainees/teachers, and for induction tutors in schools working with newly qualified teachers (NQTs) during their induction period. This guide provides information and guidance to support engagement in the Career Entry and Development Profile (CEDP) process. What is the purpose of the guide? The guide provides background information for tutors on the key principles of the CEDP process, as well as guidance for each CEDP transition point, making it clear how their role supports that of their trainees/NQTs. It also offers direction to help shape the meetings and discussions which should take place at each of the transition points. How should the guide be used? The guide will support tutors in their role throughout the whole CEDP process, and it will be most useful if used alongside the CEDP which is available to download on the TDA website This guide is not intended to be exhaustive or prescriptive, as meetings between tutors and a trainee/teacher will take different formats. This guide provides suggestions and examples to support tutors and makes clear their responsibilities during the CEDP process

Colleagues, Classmates, and Friends: Graduate versus Undergraduate Tutor Identities and Professionalization

This study provides a new framework for thinking about the value of writing center work by illuminating how tutors define and negotiate their various and emergent identities as students and as professionals. We build on conversations about tutor identity to argue that tutors’ multiple roles affect the dynamics of the writing center as a whole. From interviews with graduate and undergraduate tutors about professionalization and the writing center, we reveal that the tutors’ level of resistance to or acceptance of writing center work impacts the extent to which they see themselves as burgeoning professionals within that space and, concomitantly, affects the sense of community in the writing center. At our site of study, undergraduate tutors who self-selected into writing center employment generally had much more positive associations with their writing center experiences than their graduate student counterparts, who were often compelled to work in the center as part of their assistantships. We argue then that while writing centers can be valuable in building the professional identities of both undergraduate and graduate tutors, the ways in which these different populations affect our centers is significant. As such, writing center professionals at all levels should work to acknowledge different identities and foster community among tutors who come to us with multiple backgrounds, purposes, and agendas.University Writing Cente