TUTORIALS
Though I conduct tutorials for neurodiverse students, I believe all students can benefit from 1-2-1 tutorials at various times throughout university. Not all teaching staff is comfortable with carrying them out. Reasons vary for this, but certainly there is an intensity in this setting as there is no group to disperse energy away from the pair. Fortunately, there is teaching support for 1-2-1s available to join on canvas, as stated a bit later.
Tutorials that simply work one-way transactionally from the tutor achieve limited productivity; however, they can be quite valuable for the student, if they are allowed to record and review such sage advice.
One outcome of the pandemic at UAL, was the department finally secured students’ access to recorded lecture material, overcoming lecturer resistance. So if your tutorial is a one way transactional experience for the student, at least they can record it to reflect on later!
GOSLING
Gosling (2009), in their chapter on ‘Supporting Student Learning’, expresses that support should be made available to students through a variety of face-to-face and virtual means.
Buried deep and located at the bottem of this UAL webpage:
We can find the UAL Tutorial Policy, which outlines in ‘2.1 – Tutorials are face-to-face or online as appropriate to students’ circumstances’. This indicates the importance of responding to students’ needs.
UAL DISABILITY DEPARTMENT PANDEMIC RESEARCH
https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia
The disability department at UAL has welcomed another outcome from the pandemic. During this difficult time, and not without its challenges, teaching staff had to provide remote support. This has led to an appreciation of the benefits of remote support, and in the future, the university will be carrying over a blended support approach, as outlined recently by our vice-chancellor.
Many disabled students whose disabilities sometimes prevent them from attending learning and teaching activities, experienced increased opportunities for engagement (RESEARCH) during the pandemic. This was due to the availability of remote learning methods.
The UAL tutorial policy in section 3 ‘Tutorials in Principle’ lists the following essential elements: sensitive, fair, responsive, constructive, discursive, and timely. Offering options for remote support seems to me, responsive.
DISABLED STUDENT ALLOWANCE POLICY
Non-medical Help such as 1-2-1 tutorials for students who qualify for funds from the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) is required to be conducted in suitable rooms that ensure privacy and confidentiality (DSA-QAG, 2016). Sessions need to be conducted sensitively. Principles of learning support recognise that students shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed of their work or the challenges they experience, through oppressive hierarchical positioning from the tutor. Some learners have an unhappy history of school and they don’t need to re-visit these memories nor do they need spectators witnessing their personal struggles, emphasising the need for confidential setting as outlined by the DSA.
UAL UNCONSCIOUS BIAS TRAINING
Additionally, tutors need to ensure no micro-aggressions take place during tutorials. This means becoming conscious of unconscious bias and the UAL induction process includes some online ‘mandatory and essential training’ (UAL, 2022) to support teaching staffs’ Continuing Professional Development that all teaching staff up the organisational chart can do with.
ME AND FREIRE
From my more personal perspective, I believe tutors need to take a proactive approach to sharing agency throughout the tutorial time, by conducting a student-led pedagogy with Freirean principles underpinning the tutorial dialogue. This means practising non-hierarchal democratic behaviours, facilitating power within the tutorial exchanges and above all, remembering and demonstrating that the student always has something to teach the tutor.
UAL COURSE DESIGNER
The UAL Course Designer: Visions and Values identifies,
‘Agency: space for student agency in the
curriculum – e.g. student-led contributions,
student well-being, student choice in as-
sessment and co-marking, peer learning,
students co-creating content, choosing
texts, and co-evaluating courses each
contribute to course culture’
The 1-2-1 tutorial space is a great opportunity for students to have agency and articulate their perceptions and the tutor can make contributions to this process, by welcoming and facilitating the discursive dialogue, without hijacking it with their ego.
UAL COACHING CONVERSATIONS EVENTS
UAL offers ‘Coaching Conversations’ events as part of their staff development programme, that can help teaching staff learn how to listen and how to give feedback. This seems like an excellent event that all teaching staff could benefit from, contributing to their self-reflexivity.
References
DSA-QAG (2016). DSA guidance for new DSA students in annual year 2016-17. Available from: http://www.dsa-qag.org.uk/docman-public/assessors-tab/1851-dsa-guidance-for-new-dsa- students-in-ay-2016-17-final-15th-feb/file [Accessed 11 October 2019]
Gosling, D. (2008) Supporting student learning. In A Handbook for Teaching and Learningin Higher Education. Ed.: Fry, Ketterridge and Marshall.
UAL (2022) Mandatory and Essential Training. canvas.arts.ac.uk.
UAL (2018) Tutorial Policy. canvas.arts.ac.uk