RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
is built through students believing that
their tutors genuinely listen.
But we must also be mindful of the fact
that listening well be difficult and stressful.
As Jones (2011:90) states:
'…listening to an upsetting event is
healing for the support seeker but
stressful for the listener'.
How an institution listens to the
experiences of their personal tutors is
thus important. Owen (2002), for
example, shows how tutors often speak of
the need for training around this role,
whilst Grey and Osborne (2018) and
Race (2010) suggest that tutors need to
be given the opportunity to regularly
engage in continuing professional
development relating to their personal
tutoring practice because of the
challenges the role brings.
Listening dimensions from the
case studies
The following case studies were selected
from the CRA portfolios because of the
tutor’s reflective focus on listening. A
number of key aspects of practice emerge
from this grounded approach to the
portfolio data.
'Slow listening'
Listening within the personal tutoring
relationship is seen through a temporal
lens. Good personal tutoring
relationships take time to develop and are
based on the development of trust and
familiarity between tutor and tutee:
Speaking quite frankly to him about
the need for him to plan his working
schedule better seemed to work as
he acknowledged that I was right … I
think the meeting went well and
although it was a quite robust
conversation this is because of the
relationship we have developed.
(Portfolio 2, CS 1)
Time is needed for advice or discussion to
be considered, often with the student
needing to go away and think about what
was said. The tutor's work is not then
complete, it is still necessary continually
to check in with the student over time:
I asked if she needed to have a little
time to think about what she wanted
to do, she said that she would go
away and think about it. So, we
decided that she will come in and
see me again after Easter... In
remaining seminars, she seemed
happier and more involved. (Portfolio
2, CS 4)
Good personal tutoring also avoids
rushing the tutee in conversation. Tutees
often need time to reveal what is
important to them:
A tutee asked to see me today and
when we met, she said she had
come to talk to me about the
assignment but it soon became clear
this was not the prime reason she
wanted to see me. I was surprised at
how anxious she appeared. (Portfolio
3, CS1)
Personal tutors know that things can't be
rushed:
What I thought would be a 5-minute
conversation lasted for over an hour.
(Portfolio 9, CS 2)
The finite amount of time allocated to
personal tutoring is a source of frustration
and stress:
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