WHAT SHOULD TUTORING SESSIONS BE LIKE?

Greet tutees immediately. Many tutees will be timid. Whether tutees

visit for your help or for help from another tutor, greet tutees, ask how
you may help them, and direct them to the appropriate tutor.
Smile. Doing so will relax, not only the tutees, but you, as well. If you
are all relaxed, focusing on your work will be easierand you will enjoy
your tutoring time even more.
Get to know tutees. We are not simply in the business of tutoring. We
are in the business of helping students, students who have families, jobs,
dreams, hobbies, and struggles. Before beginning the business of
tutoring, first get to know tutees as human beings. Establishing a
rapport with tutees will increase the chance that they will return and,
therefore, increase the change of their academic success.
Ask tutees what they need help with. Try to get tutees to pinpoint
specifics. If their response is something general like math homework,
ask them what part of their homework is troubling them. While tutors
might feel compelled to sit and help tutees with entire assignments or
large projects, doing so is a great disservice to both the tutee being
helped and other tutees that will need assistance. Tutor regarding
specific parts of assignments after tutees have identified a specific need.
Set goals. Work with tutees to set short-term goals for at the beginning
of each tutoring session and long-term goals for future tutoring sessions.

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 Be patient. Sometimes tutoring is a last resort for tutees and, in such

cases; tutees may bring frustrations with them to tutoring sessions.
Avoid letting the tutees frustration become the tutors frustration. Keep
in mind that you are tutoring subjects in which you have succeeded and
that many tutees come for tutoring because they are fearful of failure.
Tutors patience is instrumental in making a tutoring session go
smoothly and in maintaining tutees comfort levels.
Have a solid work session. Stay focused on the task at hand. Be
conscious of drifting off track; keep yourself and your tutee working
toward a successful tutoring/learning session.
Leave pencils/pens in the hands of tutees. Never put marks on tutees
workkeep the responsibility and the sense of accomplishment for their
work in their hands.
Ask probing questions. While questions like Do you understand?
expedites the tutoring process, they do not reveal much. Asking How
did you arrive at your answer? requires tutees to reinforce their own
learning as they verbalize what they know.
Listen. After asking questions, wait, wait, and wait for a response. The
quiet may make tutors and tutees a bit uneasy, but tutors should be
patient so that tutees have time to think through the answers to
questions.
Watch body language. Often what tutees do or dont do will say more
than their words.

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THE TUTORING CYCLE

To make the most out of each tutoring session, use the following
checklist as your guide for each session.
INTRODUCTION

Greet tutee.
Ask tutee identify the overall goal for the session.

BODY

Guide tutees in breaking overall session goal into small,

manageable tasks.
Share thought processes: tutor and tutee reflect mentally on
goal objectives and verbalize their expectations.
Set an agenda for the session.
Begin the task.
Have tutee summarize the content of the tutoring session.
Have tutee reflect on and describe what is happening or what
has happened.
Tutor responds to tutees reflection.
Discuss what is yet to come, i.e., next topics, assignments, etc.

CLOSURE

Arrange and plan the next session.

Closure and good-byenever let tutees walk away without
letting them know they are appreciated.

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WHAT TUTORS SHOULD EXPECT . . .

To receive training that will increase your ability to be effective
tutors.
To receive and to give respect regardless of ethnic, gender, race, or
age differences.
To serve as a tutornot as an instructor, to be comfortable admitting
that you dont know something, but that you will find an answer.
To have tutees
o arrive for appointments on time
o come to sessions appropriately groomed
o be free of the influence of alcohol or drugs
o follow the rules
To have tutees come to each tutoring session with
o a positive attitude toward improving their academic skills
o all materials necessary to a successful tutoring session
o specific goals for each tutoring session

Adapted from the The Master Tutor, Dr. Ross B. MacDonald.

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DEALING WITH TUTEES FAILURES

Help tutees accept failure as part of the learning process. Remind them
that quizzes and tests represent only a portion of what is learned in
college and that failure on one quiz or test does not indicate that they
will never be successful with a particular subject. Help tutees
understand that in life, we generally value learning from our mistakes.
Believe and help tutees believe that failing a test does not define them as
failures! (Race and Brown, 114-115)
LEARNER PREFERENCES
There are many learning style/learner preference inventories available
on the Internet. Tutors should complete a learning style inventory
before beginning tutoring so that they can be aware of the way they
learn best, especially since those who teach usually teach to their own
learning styles. VARK, A Guide to Learning Styles, identifies four learning
styles: visual, aural, read-write, kinesthetic and provides
teaching/learning approaches for each of these four learner preferences.
Some tutees discover that they prefer one learner style, while others fall
in to multiple categories. Having tutees complete a learning styles
inventory can provide a starting place for successful tutoring if tutors
are familiar with the approaches that work for specific learner
preferences. At the VARK website tutees can print help sheets that offer
learning strategies for their particular learner preferences.

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MOTIVATING ADULT LEARNERS

Make a first great impression by making every first tutoring session
interesting (Wlodowski, 1998).
Create learning/tutoring sessions that enable tutees to leave with a
particular skill that can be practiced before returning to the next
learning/tutoring session (Vella, 2002).
Make tutees partners in the learning experience by discussing with
them what they feel their needs are and tailor tutoring sessions as
closely as possible to those needs (Wlodkowski, 1998).
Make each tutoring session a safe learning environment by making
your qualifications clear to tutees (Vella, 2002), creating clear goals
for the tutoring session (Wlodkowski, 1998), demonstrating how the
tutoring session contributes to tutees overall goals for the course
(Vella, 2002), and by employing a sequence of learning activities that
gradually increase in difficulty.
Encourage tutees to exercise control over their learning experiences
by having tutees decide which concepts are most important to cover
in a particular tutoring session and by explaining why those concepts
are the most important (Vella, 2002; Wlodkowski, 1998).
Nurture tutees sense of competence by utilizing strategies that
ensure educational success: providing quality instruction,
demonstrating that effort matters, and providing continued feedback
(Wlodkowski, 1998).
Discuss and, whenever possible, demonstrate the amount and quality
of effort required to be successful in individual assignments
(Wlodkowski, 1998).

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 Give prompt and frequent feedback throughout the tutoring session,

particularly positive reinforcement (Wlodkowski, 1998).
Include changes in instructional method in each tutoring session
(Wlodkowski, 1998).
Employ disequilibrium: new topics, unusual [approaches],
unfamiliar insights, surprising research, and unique skills
(Wlodkowski 1998, p. 107).
Include reflection as part of the tutoring process so that skills are not
just practiced, but are considered in relation to broader concepts
(Vella, 2002; Brookfields, 1986).
Ideas for motivating adult learners from unpublished paper, Judy Ann Parks, June 2006.

Excerpts from Tutoring Manual March 4, 2008

MORE IDEAS ON WORKING WITH NON-TRADITIONAL

STUDENTS
Create a relaxed learning environment.
Ask about their lives outside academia.
Turn their life experiences into teaching tools.
Give feedbackpositive feedback, often!
Help them find their preferred learning style(s). Then tailor tutoring
to that learning style, and help learners develop study strategies that
match their preferred learning styles.
Maximize on their desire to learn for learnings sake, their solid work
ethics, and their commitment to excellence.
Help soothe their insecurities by reminding them that because nontraditional students have considerable life experience and are
dedicated to learning, they can be even more successful than
traditional students. In fact, traditional students will often turn to
non-traditional students for answers, not just about life, but also
about subject matter and study habits.
Adapted from Helping Adult Students Succeed by Lee Noel in Recruitment and
Retention, Dec. 1993.

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WHAT CAN I LEARN ABOUT TUTORING FROM RESEARCH IN

THE FIELD?
Structured tutoring sessions are the most effective (Brandwein, 85).
Training helps tutors make a greater impact (MacDonald, 91).
Group tutoring requires considerable preparation and includes
special challenges, but creates opportunities for students to learn
from each other (MacDonald, 91).
Underprepared students benefit greatly from attending weekly
tutoring sessions (Maxwell, 79).
Tutoring offers a feeling of support to new, struggling students, not
just in relation to academics, but also in relation to college life in
general (Burton, 86).
The benefits of the tutoring process include social, cognitive, selfesteem, and motivational benefitsfor both tutees and tutors
(Cloward, 67).
Tutoring can be done in two ways: questioning and explaining. And
not just tutors, but tutees as well, can do both (MacDonald, 95).
Tutoring has a positive impact on student retention (Vincent, 83).

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HELPING STUDENTS PREPARE FOR TESTS

Flash cards. Because students have incredible demands on their
time, using flash cards is an easy way to squeeze studying in as they
are walking to and from classes, waiting for class to begin, standing
in line in the cafeteria, etc.
A bit at a time. Help students break larger assignments into smaller,
more manageable segments. For instance, for a research paper that is
due at the end of a term, schedule research checks for every week
for the first part of the term and page checks for every week of the
last part of the term. Help students avoid doing-it-the-night-before
disasters.
Audio reviews. For students who are auditory learners, taping
lectures or recording summaries of their own reading may be a more
efficient and successful way to study.
Daylight savings time. Encourage student athletes to maximize
available daylight hours for their study time so that they can save
evenings for a bit of fun.

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WORKING WITH ATHLETES*

Understand them. Athletes have multiple, and sometimes
conflicting, demands. Most of them are students, athletes, and
cadetsall at once, and they can lose focus if they respond to
whichever role yells loudest. Getting help from tutors is often the
one-thing-too-many that end up going by the wayside. The Learning
Center offers tutoring specifically for athletes in the athletic building,
but all tutors need to know how to relate to this group of students.
Show them you care by asking about their lives.
Provide structure. Create a routine for their tutoring session, and
follow that routine consistently. Athletes are accustomed to
scheduled workouts, practices, and games and tutors can help
athletes relate this previous time management capability to tutoring
and to academics.
Provide feedbackand soon! Athletes see the immediate results of
a good play or a bad one, whether they or in practice or in a game, so
providing immediate feedback is important to them. Show them the
connection between study and success. When they come to tutoring
prepare, compliment them. If they come unprepared, relate the
consequences of not studying to some element of athletics. In other
words, get them where they live! Each bit of encouragement builds
motivation and increased effort.
Relate the subject to something real. Whether you relate the
subject to the sport the athlete plays or to another interest they have,
presented the subject in terms they can understand. Doing so will
provide increased motivation and understanding.
Complete the loop! After athletic competitions, coaches and athletes
review their performance. They look at good plays and bad plays
and evaluate what created the outcome for each. At the end of each
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tutoring session always have the athlete review or summarize the

material covered and to assess/evaluate his/her grasp of the material.
Begin the subsequent tutoring session with a summary and
evaluation of the previous session and of the athletes work between
the two sessions.
Have fun! If you are bored, the athletes will be too. If they have fun,
they will return.

*Adapted from Student-Athletes and Time Management for Studying by James

Pinkney.

Excerpts from Tutoring Manual March 4, 2008