1 Tutoring as Sharing Eric Amsel Department of Psychology

I. INTRODUCTION A. What do Tutors Do?  What do tutors/SIs do?  List the things that you think tutors do  Tutoring activities  Instruct  Give answers to problems, check homework, explain concepts, etc.  Offer Emotional Support  Build confidence, lend support, encourage, reinforce, etc.  Listen  Listen to students’ complaints about the professor, the book, other students, the university, life! Understand their conceptual misunderstandings, etc.  Socialize  Meet new people, talk about all kinds of things, get to know someone, etc.

I.INTRODUCTION B. Importance of activities  These activities are important in teaching and learning  Socializing is an important part of the human interaction, giving tutoring a social context.  Tutoring more fun for students than a CAI.  Emotional Support is the expression of concern and caring so important in learning  Learn more when emotionally supported by instructor.  Listening is important for understanding the problems students are having with the material.  Diagnosing problems is a critical but difficult skill.  Instruction combines the other 3 activities.  Addressing diagnosed problems through a process which is emotionally supported and interpersonally satisfying.

I. INTRODUCTION C. Tutoring as Sharing  Tutoring combines all four activities  Each activity works together with others for the effective tutor.  Think of tutoring as sharing  The sharing involves creating and managing relationships.  The giving and taking between people – What do tutors give?  The quality of give and take depends on the depth and trust in the relationship.  Good communication is key.  There are multiple relationships implicated in tutoring  Each one is different and important to think about.

 A model of tutoring relationships Social Context T SF T-S Relationship T-F Relationship F-S Relationship II. WHAT TUTORS DO B. Model

II. WHAT TUTORS DO C. Social Context  The nature of the social context Social Context The social context is important for students (tutees) to develop a relationship with you (tutor). If they are willing, talk to them about everyday things. Keep boundaries so it’s not overly personal, but be social and conversational.

II. WHAT TUTORS DO D. Tutor - Faculty Relationship  The nature of Tutor-Faculty relationships Social Context T F T-F Relationship You have a relationship with the faculty member teaching the course. You need to know what the faculty expects of you and your students, the standards they use to evaluate students, and the level of support they expect you to offer. Often this is inferred, but feel free to ask a faculty member or administrator about these issues.

II. WHAT TUTORS DO E. Faculty Student relationships.  The nature of Faculty-Student relationships. Social Context SF F-S Relationship Students have relationships with faculty which you must respect. Try to promote trust and respect, but stay out of their relationship just as you would in any other relationships between people you do not know so well. But encourage students to talk to faculty members about concerns.

II. WHAT TUTORS DO F. Tutor-Student Relationships  The nature of the Tutor-Student relationship Social Context T S T-S Relationship The tutor-student relationship is key. It is an emotionally- supported instructional dialog. You are listening to their (mis)understandings, diagnosing their problems, and helping them overcome misconceptions.

III.TUTORING TECHNIQUES A. Key Issues: Listening  Listening to their (mis)understanding of the material.  Listen carefully to students’ own characterization of their problems and misunderstanding  Collecting the data for a diagnosis  Sometimes the problems will be clear, other times, students may not know why they are confused.  Ask students to perform a relevant task, looking to see whether they reliably go wrong.  Listen carefully without interrupting, supporting them to do their best. Show students lots of respect in this phase.  Respect cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal communication. Don’t pathologize students.

III.TUTORING TECHNIQUES B. Key Issues: Diagnosing Problems  Diagnosing their problems  Students may come to you to get you to do their work!  HELP ME WITH THIS really means DO THIS FOR ME.  Your job is help them understand why they are struggling to do the work  Understanding what their struggle is may be the most difficult of all challenges.  Listening well will give you the relevant data for diagnosing a problem  Look for misconceptions! Problems which:  occurs in different setting and tasks  occur regularly  are difficult to overcome with simple instruction

III.TUTORING TECHNIQUES C. Key Issues: Overcoming Misconceptions  Helping students overcome misconceptions.  Overcoming misconceptions begins with helping students understand their misconceptions.  Concept of equivalence  Direct challenge to their misconception inefficient.  Concert of gravity  To be effective, have students reflect on their performance by:  Using yourself as a model of correct performance.  Talk aloud how you solve a problem, making explicit all the steps.  Have them compare their performance to others’  Ask professor for examples of good performance.  Critique their own work from someone else’s perspective  How would the professor solve the problem or evaluate the work?

IV. SUMMARY A. Model  Reviewing the model Social Context T SF Listening, Emotionally Supporting, and Instructing Inferring and discussing expectations of you and students Supporting F/S trust and respect

IV. SUMMARY B. Final Thoughts  Last thoughts  The experience allows you a unique opportunity to think about teaching.  Talk to the faculty about how they teach the material, most will be receptive.  The experience allows you a unique opportunity to think about learning  Reflect on how you learn material.  Teaching is the best and most efficient way of learning.  Enjoy yourself!  You are a more effective tutor if you are having fun and making the experience enjoyable.