RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
Practical initiatives
Two case studies present examples of
how the authors initiated developments
in their institution. Having noted poor
student engagement with personal
tutoring meetings, which had a knock-on
effect on staff engagement, one
colleague decided to trial a promising
approach based on good practice by a
different course team: ‘an 'exit interview'
structure for their last APA [Academic
Personal Advisor) meeting of each
academic year, in which the student and
APA review the student's year together
and work on an action plan’ (Portfolio 19,
CS 4). A similar initiative was attempted
in a different institution:
Our university's revised personal
tutoring process requires tutors to
provide students with structured and
purposeful group tutorial activities.
As part of a university-wide project, I
was involved in defining a
programme of group tutorial activities
based on distinct themes aligned to
specific points in the student journey.
The programme takes the view that
personal tutoring is a form of
teaching (Lowenstein 2005,
Lowenstein 2013), and can be used
to support student transition by
equipping students with the
academic skills needed to learn in a
university setting. The programme
has defined learning outcomes
(Martin 2007) and can be viewed as
an academic advising curriculum
(Campbell & Nutt 2008). It is
intended to provide general
academic/study skill support whilst
allowing space for the support of
discipline-specific skills. I produced a
discipline-specific version of this
programme for first year students in
my own department, incorporating
some of the general academic skills
activities (understanding personal
tuition, taking notes, finding
information, referencing, planning
assignments, time management,
etc.) from the institutional
programme blended with disciplinespecific
activities designed to support
first-year taught modules so that it
appeared as a seamless, integrated
curriculum (Warren 2002; Earwaker
1992; Stevenson 2009). The
programme outline was circulated to
departmental colleagues at the
beginning of the year and supported
by fully documented tutorial activities
released weekly. (Portfolio 25, CS 2)
Both these examples attempt to bring
focus and structure to tutorial meetings,
as a way of motivating and engaging
tutors and students.
Portfolio 30 gives an example of a
different facet of leadership – fostering
networking - and shows how an
individual has worked to achieve
synergies between different groups for
mutual support and benefit:
Giovagnoli and Stover (2004) assert
that ‘networking is crucial for
organization success’ and claim that
it increases collaboration and
innovative thinking, as well as
reducing conflict and fostering a
mutually supportive atmosphere.
Building on this idea, I would claim
that the awareness of potential
support from others engenders in
turn a willingness to provide support.
Ridley (2006) stresses the
importance of connections with
networks, as well as with a senior
colleague, as a support mechanism
for new tutors, a point also
emphasized by Huq (2006).
Brokering contact between my team
of tutors and staff central support
services, such as the Funding Unit or
the Counselling Service is as much
about facilitating network
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