Training for Personal Tutors
Personal Tutoring is an important element in enabling students new to the University to settle in to their studies and to have an initial point of contact for any personal, academic or other matters that might impact upon their student experience.
A one day training course “Personal Tutoring” is available to staff with Personal Tutoring responsibilities and is facilitated by staff from Student Support, the Guild of Students, the Careers Advisory Service and Registry. It is designed to complement the information in this toolkit and provide a basic skills training for Personal Tutoring.
The course explores the scope of the personal tutor’s role and expectations of it. Elements of the personal tutor's role are discussed including boundaries, confidentiality, referral, case recording and resources available to support for personal tutors in their role.
Departments should ensure that staff with a responsibility for providing personal support to students have attended this course.
Student Support Services also run a broad range of short “Bite-size” courses which are relevant to personal tutors such as:
- Introduction to Student Support: what services are available?
- Cultural Awareness
- Living with hearing loss
- When a student wants to leave University - what to do
- An outline of Specific Learning Difficulties (SpDL)
- This student worries me: what to do
- Confidentiality: what are the issues when supporting a student?
- An overview of visual impairments and the impact of sight loss
- Inclusive curriculum or integrated learning: what’s so important?
- A basic introduction to Autistic Spectrum Disorder
- Brief review of legislation, its impact on HEI services and associated responsibilities
- When it’s hard to help difficult cases
- Sharing good practice forum - Disability
- Mental health matters
For further information please contact staff.dev@aber.ac.uk or visit the web site to book onto a relevant course.
External Links
The Higher Education Academy website has useful information, resources and examples of good practice on personal tutoring.
The Centre for Recording Achievement has a section of its web site aimed at supporting the training of personal tutors who are required to offer personal development planning (PDP) opportunities to their students. They are intended to be helpful to educational and staff developers and trainers for use within workshops, but may also be directly useful as stand-alone materials for staff undertaking the PDP tutor role.
Resources
You may also find the following resources useful in your role as personal tutor:
Books
Bullock, K., Wikeley, F. (2004) Whose Learning: The Role of the Personal Tutor? Maidenhead, Open University Press.
Neville, L. (2007) The personal tutor's handbook. Basingstoke, Palgrave.
Thomas, L., Hixenbaugh, P. (ed.) (2006) Personal tutoring in higher education. Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham. (available to borrow from CDSAP)
Wheeler, S, Birtle, J. (1993) A handbook for personal tutors. Buckingham, Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
Articles
Myers, J. (2008) Is personal tutoring sustainable? Comparing the trajectory of the personal tutor with that of the residential warden. Teaching in Higher Education, 13 (5), 607-611.
Owen, M. (2002) Sometimes You Feel You’re in Niche Time: The Personal Tutor System, a Case Study. Active Learning in Higher Education, 3 (1), 7 - 23.
Stephen, D., O'Connell, P., Hall, M. (2008) 'Going the extra mile', 'fire-fighting', or laissez-faire? Re-evaluating personal tutoring relationships within mass higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 13 (4), 449-460 (12).
Wilcox, P., Winn, S., Fyvie Gauld, M. (2005) “It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people”: the role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 30 (6), 707-722(16).