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participation, by embracing all students and valuing diversity. Tutoring is multifaceted and promotes the inclusive development of the student (Faroa 2017).
Although the UJ tutor programme focuses on the provision of academic student support,
it recognises the role that psychosocial factors can play in student learning. Given this, the UJ tutor programme acknowledges the holistic development of students (Jordá 2015). It assists students in various dimensions such as academic, professional and personal growth, by partnering with the relevant resources available at UJ. Students are then encouraged
to access these resources in order to successfully navigate their academic and personal journeys. Tutoring does not only focus on content knowledge but also promotes the holistic development of a student who is seen as part of society.
Tutorial spaces create opportunities for engagement, which promotes greater understanding, thereby promoting teaching and learning. At UJ, the tutor can facilitate student engagement through various models, that being, one-on-one tutoring, group tutoring and, with the pandemic, online tutoring (UJ Tutor Policy, reviewed 2017). According to Faroa (2017), tutoring forms an important part of teaching and learning in universities and hence can be characterised as a strategy to improve the student’s academic performance. Tutorials, therefore, provide a more individualised forum that promotes a collaborative teaching and learning method that goes beyond traditional lecture settings.
Innovative support for tutors @ UJ
The recent shift in higher education to online platforms resulted in academic support programmes adopting a blended approach. At UJ, the tutor programme continued to offer support to student via online platforms. In order to support the tutors, the Centre for Academic Staff Development (CASD) needed to ensure that the tutors were adequately trained to facilitate learning in an online environment (Gahl, Gale, Kaestner, Yoshina, Paglione & Bergman 2021). Training had to equip tutors with the skills necessary to adapt
to the various roles that they were expected to play. Tutor training served to mimic and mirror the online learning space which tutors needed to navigate. The tutor training at UJ actively engaged tutors, viewed tutors as collaborators in co-creating knowledge, provided opportunities for self-reflection and allowed tutors to build on their existing knowledge and experience of learning. In this way, tutor training served to demonstrate and model how tutors could create and maintain a shared learning environment where participants had a voice and opinions and knowledge were valued (Clarence 2018).
The shift to an online environment necessitated a shift in UJ’s approach to tutor training. The CASD acknowledged that they would require more than just technical competence. They would require an understanding of the dynamics of online communication and interaction (Klimova & Poulova 2011). In addition, their roles would include a pedagogical
or intellectual role, which entails peer leaders using questions and probes to generate discussion around key concepts and ensuring that students are engaged; a social role, which focuses on the creation of friendly and comfortable social environments in which students feel that learning is possible; a managerial or organisational role, which involves setting learning objectives, establishing agendas for the learning activities, timetabling learning activities and tasks, clarifying procedural rules and decision-making norms; and a technical role, which deems that they are familiar, comfortable and competent with the institution’s learning management system and that they are able to effectively assist students (Berge 1995). Therefore, the tutor training at UJ was designed to ensure that peer leaders would be equipped with the skills to create learning environments where they could guide, facilitate, question and ultimately also learn within the platform which they needed to offer student support.
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