RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
course which focus specifically on
providing academic support. The case
studies cited here all focused on some
stage of academic writing, which may well
reflect a certain subject bias in our sample
towards the social sciences where
academic writing is central to higher level
study.
Case studies; overview
From nearly one hundred and forty case
studies of academic and personal tutoring
drawn from staff portfolios produced as
part of the national CRA/SEDA course on
Academic Advising and Personal
Tutoring, only twelve focused on
academic development. Of these one
focused on a teaching seminar where the
academic tutor and teacher were the
same person, another explored materials
designed to support a faculty intervention
and the remaining ten reflected on one-toone
tutorials focused on academic
support.
These case studies were read closely and
analysed thematically for common themes
and moves within the tutorial, following
Braun and Clarke’s approach to thematic
analysis (2006: 87). The theme of
academic support emerged from an
inductive, grounded reading of the whole
data set of nearly 140 case studies. The
initial selection identified case studies
which focused on close, subject-based
academic work, excluding tutorials where
there was a clear focus on a pastoral
issue or employability (placement) issue.
Once an initial selection of case studies
was made, these were re-read carefully
and coded to identify ‘interesting features
in the data in a systematic fashion’ (Braun
& Clarke, 2006: 82). These codes were
then collated and this paper outlines
some of the key issues that emerged,
beginning with the embedded complexity
of academic support and examining the
experience of failure and struggle that
prompted these meetings. The dialogic
quality of the meetings is notable even in
these reflective staff accounts, as is the
use of scaffolding to develop learning.
The tutorial accounts will be examined
before considering some of the
implications for practice.
Contextual Complexity
A common background feature of these
tutorial accounts is the complexity of the
environment the students are navigating.
One tutor asks her tutee to bring along
. . . all feedback from semester one
along with the marking grids and task
outlines for the work she had
completed and received provisional
grades and feedback for. Secondary
to this, it was important for the
student to consider coursework
outlines and deadlines for semester
two. (Portfolio 23, CS 2)
Similarly, in a writing support session the
tutor asks the student to bring along
‘marking criteria and a sample of writing,
and they summarised some of the
feedback they had received on their
writing so far’ (Portfolio 5, CS 1). In order
to make sense of their own writing and
performance students need to triangulate
this text against assessment criteria and
staff commentary, an approach that is
recommended good practice in
developing assessment literacy (Evans
2013). This approach relies on a confident
handling and synthesis of a significant
quantity of academic metadiscourse,
something many novice students may find
daunting.
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