Tutor Training
Since 2016, the HUMEDU has facilitated ongoing tutor training and development program, specifically designed to support EDTAs and ED tutors involved in the plus tutorial program.
Training sessions are run throughout the year, and address a range of topics to equip tutors and EDTA’S to design materials, as well as facilitate blended and online Plus Tuts, aligned to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. Topics covered include: Introduction to UDL Principles, cultural responsive teaching and learning, strategies for student engagement, pedagogies of vulnerability, translanguaging in the classroom, providing effective feedback, and assessment practices.
Humanities Faculty Training
Since 2011, a successful training programme for first-time tutors has been established by the Humanities EDU. This programme takes place twice a year, at the start of each semester when new tutors are employed by Departments to facilitate undergraduate course tutorials. The training takes place in the first week of the semester so that tutors have undergone training prior to their first tutorial in departments.
The goals for these workshops are, broadly, to:
- Acknowledge the important role of tutors in teaching and learning in the Humanities Faculty;
- Work with new tutors to develop their skills in facilitating student learning in tutorial groups;
- Develop awareness of the knowledge and skills needed for assessment of undergraduate students.
The first half of the workshop introduces the role of a tutor, and provides some guidelines for good tutoring, and what to do when a tutor runs into difficulties. The sessions use role-playing scenarios and draw on students’ own experiences of being tutored in order to generate some practical advice for first-time tutors.
The second half of the workshop covers academic writing and how to provide feedback to students, and discussing the issue of plagiarism and how to respond to it. There are also sessions focussing on psychosocial issues which are facilitated by Student Wellness.