Tutoring
Tutoring in the School of Mathematics
Tutor Hub
The tutor hub is a great recource for you and contains the following information:
- Key information and a quick start guide
- Code of practice
- Support for tutors
- Everything you need to know about workshops
- The MathsBase and the MathsHub
- Feedback and Marking
- Quick tips on improving
The main messages for students
There are some wrongly held beliefs some students have when going into university. You need to help repeat these key messages to students to develop their learning.
- Students need to take responsibility for their education, seeking out sources of information and help. They cannot wait and hope that somebody else will act for them.
- It is important to stress to them that they need to do a lot of self-directed study in their own time (reading over lecture notes, doing problems, etc). The recommended figure is 2 hours of extra study for each contact (lecture or workshop) hour.
- Learning procedures are not enough: understanding is important. In exam questions, students are expected to be able to solve problems that are not exactly like exercises.
- Solving problems is an important skill, and you can not learn to solve problems by looking at somebody else solving it or reading a model solution. The value of a problem is in the journey of solving it, not in the solution.
- At university level, "answers" to problems normally need to be logical arguments written in English sentences (and not just assertions with no connectives).
Model solutions or helpful tutors doing the work are more appropriate for exercises (although encouraging the use of lecture notes to find a model is a good idea), whereas for problems it does defeat the purpose.
The most important guidelines for tutoring
- Students are usually given the relevant information and your job is to help them make sense of it and use it rather than to teach it again.
- Think carefully before doing or explaining a question in a different way from what the lecturer intended. A new perspective may help but it is often better to help students understand and use the methods they have been given.
- Do not get drawn into lecturing or explaining at length to largely passive students.
- Think of yourself as a guide, helping to direct students' work.
- Sit down with a group if possible and be a part of it rather than a looming authority figure.
- Listen more than you speak: try and understand what the students are thinking so that you can spot things they haven't appreciated and their misconceptions.
- Try and deflect questions from a student to others in the group or try replying with a question of your own (e.g. "Have you seen an example like this before?") rather than simply providing answers.
- Wait: give students plenty of time to respond to your own or each others' questions, and also give them time to add to, correct or improve their own or each other's replies and arguments.
Concerns
If concerns are raised about your tutoring, the following procedures will be followed.
| Teaching issues | If a concern is raised about the running of a tutorial, a member of the PG Tutor Support Team will arrange to observe a tutorial and provide written feedback, copied to the Course Organiser. A follow-up observation may be arranged to monitor improvement. |
| English language issues | If a concern is raised regarding an English language issue, a member of the PG Tutor Support Team would arrange to observe a tutorial. If we feel that is necessary we would recommend that you enrol on an appropriate English Language course. This recommendation would be made through the Head of Graduate School who will discuss it with your supervisor. |
| Extreme cases | If a problem is felt to be extreme, or a problem such as lateness persists, and it is felt that you should not be tutoring, then the matter would be referred to the Head of Graduate School. This may have implications for scholarships and should be discussed with the MTO or the Head of School. |
Further reading
John H Mason (2002) “Mathematics Teaching Practice: Guide for university and college lecturers”. Chichester: Horwood (Especially chapter 3: Tutoring) (A copy is in the Murray library.)
Problem Solving Classes by Derek Arthur
University Code of Practice on Tutoring and Demonstrating
See also the Institute for Academic Development for other resources and a range of courses for new and more experienced tutors: