RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
the initiative and may well be the
person to open doors and ensure
busy people find time to contribute.’
Where personal tutoring has a senior
manager champion, therefore, it is
possible to introduce policies and
practices to ensure a high standard of
support. For example, at the University of
South Wales, the pro-vice chancellor, Dr
Ben Calvert, led the development and
introduction of an immersive six weeks of
induction for new students where all staff
developed coaching skills and all
incoming students were ‘coached’ as a
part of their higher education induction 1 .
However, the portfolios we reviewed also
evidence the challenges that are
generated when there is a lack of this kind
of leadership or understanding of the
exigencies of personal tutoring and
academic advising, where colleagues
cannot see the point of prioritising
personal tutor support, are half-hearted in
their approach or are antagonistic towards
it. In particular, it is critical that senior
managers stress the importance of
effective personal tutoring to support
online learning and teaching activities
where students are working remotely and
may lose any sense of belonging to a
programme or institution.
3. ‘develop teacher motivation for teaching
(appointment criteria, career structures,
reward and recognition, engineering
more engaging teaching experiences,
with a focus on values and orientations.’
There is also evidence from the portfolios
that a ubiquitous challenge faced by
colleagues attempting to enhance the
student experience of personal tutoring is
the ambiguity they often face on the part of
their colleagues’ engagement with this
role. The recommendation is a clear one:
introduce reward and recognition policies
to support good personal tutoring including
building it into selection and promotion
systems. As Barton argues,
Given the importance of the personal
tutoring role and its potential for
impact on the student experience,
institutions should recognise
Personal Tutors in staff rewards and
recognition schemes in order to raise
the profile and significance of the
role. Staff need to feel valued; they
need reward and encouragement
and ultimately for their role to
recognised and rewarded (Barton,
2020: 16).
4. develop (local) communities of practice
(creating facilitative environments for
teachers with a focus on the social
context).’
As Cambridge et al. (2005: 1) argue,
perhaps more importantly now than ever,
…organizations, workgroups, teams,
and individuals must work together in
new ways. Interorganizational
collaboration is increasingly
important. Communities of practice
provide a new model for connecting
people in the spirit of learning,
knowledge sharing, and collaboration
as well as individual, group, and
organisational development.
1
See
https://celt.southwales.ac.uk/developing/pac/
(accessed 27.05.2020)
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