Student-led tutorials

Dr David Mosler
Department of History

"I thought this approach would remove the major intimidating agent, the tutor, and so free the students to talk amongst themselves. Each student would have to engage in their own work and also help to create a social and intellectual climate."

Background

As resources become more constricted and teaching loads increase we need to develop new strategies. Traditional tutorials are not only time consuming, they are often ineffective, in that only the student giving the paper is actively involved. Additionally, average students are intimidated by the better students, and of course, the tutor. This project is an attempt to come to grips with all of these issues; the constriction of teaching resources, the lack of active participation by students and the tendency for the average students to minimise their participation.

Aims

• to create a tutorial program that is resource efficient
• to offer a more collegial environment than the traditional Humanities tutorial

Process

I begin by dividing the class into twelve. A Convenor, elected by the group, does the organising of the tutorial meetings and interactions with the lecturer. Two Presenters are selected by the group and give an oral presentation of findings at the end of the semester. The rest of the group are Researchers, who produce 800-1000 words each on a sub-section of the main topic. They meet once per week, with the lecturer in charge rotating between groups (5 minutes with each group) each week discussing problems and interpretations. The groups divide topics into sub-topics, and a considerable amount of discussion takes place, trying to make sure the research is focussed - questions are important, and typically students get very little experience with this essential phase of the academic task. These groups have to come to grips with the difficulties in arriving at the right research questions. In my course Modern America, examples of topics in 1997 Semester 1 would be: Anarchists, Robber-Barons, Native Americans, Black Americans, and Migration. Assessment - The Convenor is assessed on the total presentation, Presenters are assessed on their presentation, and Researchers are assessed on the individual sections they write. As every member of the group is dependent on the others, and without the presence of the authority of the tutor or lecturer, these groups create an intellectual climate that is sorely lacking in most traditional tutorials.