Strategic Approaches to the Development and Management of Personal Tutorial Systems in UK Higher Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
IMPact. The University of Lincoln Journal of Higher Education Research , 2018
Despite personal tutoring being a highly important area, it has a contested nature. One contention concerns its definition: in simple terms, what personal tutoring is and, by extension, what effective personal tutoring is. A book on personal tutoring (Stork and Walker, 2015) I co-authored entitled Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor - which aims to define the role of the personal tutor in further education as well as explain and demonstrate how to carry out the role effectively) - raises a number of questions to be explored further. These have been brought into sharper focus by both my journey from further to higher education and as a result of my ‘practical’ role as a manager of personal tutoring. The most urgent of these questions are centred on the theme of definition. What alternative definitions are out there? Are single definitions sufficient for the complexity of tutoring? When it comes to personal tutoring, what constitutes a definition anyway? The urgency stems from the increased importance placed on personal tutoring resulting from contextual developments and as shown from the findings of key research reports on the retention and success of students. Similarly, if there is a broad consensus that personal tutoring is vital, then further debate around what it stands for, and should stand for, in terms of good practice, needs to take place. Informed by critical pedagogy, this article will consider these questions of definition and the potential implications for organisations, those undertaking the role and students.
2018
Despite personal tutoring being a highly important area, it has a contested nature. One contention concerns its definition: in simple terms, what personal tutoring is and, by extension, what effective personal tutoring is. A book on personal tutoring (Stork and Walker, 2015) I co-authored entitled Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor - which aims to define the role of the personal tutor in further education as well as explain and demonstrate how to carry out the role effectively) - raises a number of questions to be explored further. These have been brought into sharper focus by both my journey from further to higher education and as a result of my ‘practical’ role as a manager of personal tutoring. The most urgent of these questions are centred on the theme of definition. What alternative definitions are out there? Are single definitions sufficient for the complexity of tutoring? When it comes to personal tutoring, what constitutes a definition anyway? The urgency stems from the ...
Personal Tutoring Enhancing Staff and Student Experiences
INTED2016 Proceedings, 2016
This paper reports on the review of a personal tutoring policy in one United Kingdom Higher Education Institution. In order to review the policy a stakeholder group was set up and some empirical data was collected and analysed alongside a literature review. Whilst there were a range of data sources this paper will focus on the data that was collected from individual and focus group interviews with 19 academic staff and 34 students. The themes that arose from the data included allocation of personal tutors, the role and process of personal tutoring, other sources of support, record keeping and references and staff development and recognition. Overall there were many positives findings in relation to personal tutoring but there were some suggestions that would enhance this process further. These were mostly to provide further clarity over around the whole process and provide additional support for the role in relation to record keeping and ensuring staff had the knowledge to undertake the role competently. The paper concludes with an overview of the recommendations and changes to the policy which are now in place.
Working With Me: Revisiting the Tutorial as Academic Care
Frontiers in Education, 2020
Tutoring in one form or another is a consistent feature in the higher education learning experience. However, the tutorial relationship involves an intricate mix of intra and interpersonal dynamics which influence short and long-term learning. In this paper, work from a phenomenological study of distance learning students provides transferable insights about the immediate and lasting impact of the tutorial relationship. Ideas from Heideggarian hermeneutic phenomenology are translated to the context of contemporary higher education to establish how achieving a sense of being-with has affective implications to help students to strengthen resilience and the capacity to challenge, confirm and develop confidence in their new learning, thinking and actions. The discussion introduces and unravels the nature of academic care in relation to working with learner vulnerability to enhance ability. Re-conceptualizing the tutorial as a form of academic care can provide support and security for learners at a time of unsettlement without lessening their autonomy. We argue that by creating an atmosphere of academic care, learners are empowered and inspired to be courageous and curious, both in the immediate and longer-term. The discussion refocuses the tutorial relationship through ideas and applied strategies for successful future-facing tutoring practices, without major upheaval to the existing operational tutoring infrastructure within the HEI.
A self study of a higher education tutor : how can I improve my practice?
2004
This thesis is a self-study of a tutor in higher education committed to practice improvement. It is presented as a study of singularity and an example of first person education action research. It is epistemologically and methodologically distinct in that it is based on my values as an educator and ideas about what constitutes loving and life-affirming educational practice. The aim of this thesis is to present a storied account of my inquiry, in which I explore what it means to live my values in practice. Through descriptions and explanations of my practice, this thesis unveils a process of action and reflection, punctuated by moments when I deny or fail to live my values fully in practice, prompting the iterative question “How do I improve my practice?”; the reflective process enabling me to better understand my practice and test out that understanding with others in the public domain. My claim to originality is embodied in the aesthetics of my teaching and learning relationships, ...