RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
Personal Tutoring and Transforming Practice in Higher Education
Steve Outram
Higher Education Consultant and Researcher
Abstract
The objective of this article is to explore how personal tutoring practices described in the
portfolios of participants in the Centre for Recording Achievement’s Professional
Development Award in Personal Tutoring and Academic Advising (the CRA/SEDA
Programme) can potentially inform an institution’s learning and teaching strategies,
policies and practices. Through an exploration of research completed by Graham Gibbs
this article will consider all of the necessary elements to developing a strategy or policy
to support personal tutoring and academic advising.
Introduction
Following the advent of learning and
teaching strategy development in the UK
in the 1990s it is often the case that
strategic development follows a
consultation process and employs tried
and tested approaches such as the
‘balanced scorecard’ approach (see
Donoghue 2007). A typical narrative in
relation to institutional strategies is to
‘start where you mean to end up’ and
work backwards to describe the
appropriate goals and activities to achieve
the strategic objectives. The development
of such an institutional narrative and its
implementation as a strategy is often
characterised as ‘top down’ with the most
senior management in an institution
taking a lead and informing everyone else
what is to be done.
But is it?
Quite often, as these portfolios evidence,
the reality is more nuanced and messier
with practices developed from ‘the ground
up’ to meet particular circumstances and
to inform a consultative process so that,
even though a senior management team
may lead on the implementation of a
learning and teaching strategy, the
strategy itself is a result of discussions
that have taken place throughout an
institution, including students. Our
‘portfolio base’ suggests that, whilst
personal tutoring and academic advising
are, once more, being recognised as vital
elements to student success, realisation
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