In the daily grind, we often don’t take time (or indeed have time) to sit back and reflect on our learning in the job as much as we ought to. What’s worse, is that I am constantly encouraging students on my course to be reflective in their experiences, particularly on drawing together insights from their placement experiences with their “classroom” learning. So, here is my attempt to practice what I preach. Namely, these are some tips on what I have learnt about being an effective tutor in Higher Education (HE).
1. I am not a “teacher”
The word “teacher” implies I am the holder of knowledge, and I simply impart this onto my students. Whilst this model is common (and in my opinion, largely flawed) in the school education system, HE is a different environment. In fact, I believe it isn’t really “teaching” at all; “tutoring” appears to function as a better term in defining our role in supporting the learning of our students. It is not my role as a university tutor, to tell students everything they need to learn, so they can relate it back to me. Instead, my role is to stimulate insight into the ideas and basics of the issues, which is the platform from which they can build their own learning. The phrase I find myself using time and time again, is that “My role is not to fill buckets, but instead, to light fires”.
2. Students learn best when I don’t tell them what to learn
Drawing further from #2 above, in my experience, students learn best (and appear to have more positive, meaningful learning experiences) when I don’t tell them what it is they should be learning. This is most relevant in the case of assignment-based tasks. I design their curriculum in respect of issues and general content, and align assignment briefs to meet the respective learning outcomes, but it is not my place to tell a student how they should articulate their learning. In the case of essays, often students will ask “what should I include in my essay?” or “is this reference relevant for my essay?”. In all cases, my answer will be; “I don’t know; what do you want to say in your essay?” Once we have established this, I can advise more specifically. I find this process is greatly enabled through a verbal dialogue, as described in #3 below. I am also an advocate for student-led learning, and integrate enquiry-based methods into my modules, so students resource the content of their learning themselves and thus gain ownership of their learning experience. I have found the engagement and attainment associated with these sorts of pedagogic approaches are far greater than more traditional instructional-based approaches (when implemented appropriately).
3. Asking students to verbalise their ideas for written work is crucial
In respect of #2 on assignment-based queries; when establishing “what should I include in my essay?”, I will ask a student to tell me what they want to “say” in their essay. In some cases, I will get a list of the specific points and references they are intending to include. This is a good start, but what I really want to know is; what case or perspective do you have, and how are you intending to argue this in your essay? This is trying to promote an approach which is more “top-down” in nature and thus creates an overall picture of a student’s perspective, from which individual points or ideas can be drawn in, in a coherent narrative. This is a very difficult process to get right and is most relevant in the latter stages of a university course, but in my experience, some students will “get” this, and produce some exceptional (and critically-argued) work as a result. Verbal discussion on this is most useful, as a student can construct and re-construct their own thinking out-loud (with some prompting from me) which helps the writing process more generally anyway.
4. Critical thinking is motivated emotionally, not cognitively
This is only something I have learnt recently, primarily through a discussion with a colleague who is researching critical thinking for his PhD. When reflecting on how I myself learnt to be a “critical thinker” (take whatever definition of that you wish), it became clear that the turning point for me was upon approaching an essay in the second year of my BSc Psychology course, in which I had a personal passionate to make my case. I remember this distinctly, as the essay related to twin studies and, as a twin myself, I had a number of very strong views on this. Reflecting on this made me realise that the primary antecedent for critical thinking appears to be more emotionally-based which translates to being more cognitive as it develops. Maybe, we are teaching critical thinking all wrong….,but that’s a whole debate in itself…..
5. Powerpoint should not take away my voice
I’ve seen so many Powerpoint presentations (including student presentations and conference presentations) in which people use Powerpoint all wrong (in my opinion). Powerpoint was designed as a visual aid, not a substitute voice, but this is where most of the fault appears to lie. In many presentations, it is Powerpoint which leads the narrative (often based by the words or content on the slides) instead of the presenter’s story being at the heart of the presentation. Presenting (both in learning activities and in conference presentations) is often best approached from a more “top-down” angle in which the story determines the content, not the other way round. As such, the presenter can draw out the main take-home story, using visual content as a support for their story-telling, instead of being dragged along by individual slides which lack a sense of overall coherence. This is something I try to instil in my own practice and how I encourage students to present. When a student asks me how many slides they should include for a 10 minute presentation, I refuse to give them an answer, and explain that it is not my place to tell them their story and determine how they support this process using Powerpoint.
6. Never underestimate the power of early relationship-building
Effective learning is best fostered through positive tutor-student (and peer) relationships. There is a whole literature on this within Educational Psychology, but we often don’t take the time to integrate this relationship-building into our practice. Mutual respect is at the heart of this; believe me, if your students don’t respect you, then you’re going to struggle as an effective tutor. I am lucky to be very efficient at learning people’s names. My most recent success was meeting a group of 26 students for the first time, and having learnt all their names by the end of our first three-hour session. Never under-estimate the power of this strategy. A student who knows that you know who they are, will experience a greater warmth to you, compared to one who believes that you have no clue who they are. Name-learning is one of many simple, but powerful tools but ultimately, gaining mutual respect is entirely necessary for you to create positive learning environments. Using an entire first seminar as a “getting to know you” session may seem like a waste of curriculum time, but believe me, if this is done right, it will be worth it in the long run.
7. Being an introvert doesn’t mean I’m bad at teaching or presenting
One thing I am constantly reflective of, is my introversion and how this impacts on my relationships and interactions with others. I’m a high self-monitor and am constantly analysing my situations and how others may be appraising me. Whilst this is typical for me (and most likely, other introverts) in most social situations, what I have come to realise is that this isn’t the case when I’m presenting or teaching. In fact, I thrive in teaching and presenting, and am rewarded as such with positive feedback in most cases. There is a whole psychological literature on personality (which I’m not going to discuss here), but there is much to say about how this is true among many introverts who “find their voice” in these situations. This is certainly the case for me, and something I cherish as a manifestation of my introversion. I often reflect that I am perhaps an “extraverted-introvert”; in which I can be extraverted in some situations, such as teaching or presenting.
8. Teaching doesn’t exist without learning (but learning can exist without teaching)
If I am standing up in front of a group of students, and they are not learning, then by definition, I am not teaching. This is at the essence of pedagogic theory, and forms the reasoning behind “active” learning opportunities to ensure students are actively processing (i.e., learning) rather than just receiving content. This is not to say that receiving content, such as in lectures does not have a place in HE, rather that this needs to be aligned coherently with other learning opportunities to draw out the outcomes of learning.
9. Quality over quantity
In respect of contact time, if I can draw out the key learning experiences in less time than expected (e.g., two hours instead of the designated three hours), then this is perfectly fine. So long as the quality of this learning is appropriate, then in my experience, my students will be more than happy. In fact, when I use problem-based learning in my modules, students attend a group tutorial for 40 minutes out of their designed three hour session for a number of weeks of the module. Rather than receiving complaints that “they’re not getting what they pay for”, students have typically commented on how they find these sessions the most useful part of their course or module, in getting more “one-to-one” support (it’s actually usually more like five-to-one support, but still, encouraging to know). Contact time does not always equate to more or better learning time.
10. I don’t know everything, and it’s ok to admit that
Let’s face it, we all know people who can’t admit when they don’t know the answer, or worse, BS their way out of the situation. I’ve learnt that admission of ignorance is fine, as long as you have already gained respect from those around you. If a student asks me a question and I don’t have a clue on the answer, I am perfectly happy to admit that, and may suggest they find out the answer and let me know when they’ve resourced something insightful. This is actually really important, because it’s making a statement that we’re not all perfect and are in fact, human (or at least, partially so), and that it’s also ok to make mistakes. This can be a good lesson for our students in itself, and can help our students feel less threatened when they may have misunderstood an essay question or got a low mark. Mistakes the best way of learning, and shouldn’t be undermined.
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