In cases where learners live within a reasonable distance of the institution, face-to-face tutorials offer a supportive setting for learners to engage with the learning content with their peers and collaboratively build their knowledge. All of the synchronous learning activities discussed above are commonly used in face-to-face tutorials. In all of these activities, the tutor’s role as mediator is crucial in ensuring that the process goes smoothly, and that the learning goals are kept in sight at all times.
The most important skills in a tutor’s ‘box of tricks’ for leading tutorials are the following:
- Asking questions: instead of telling learners what you think they need to know, ask them questions. Prepare your questions carefully so that you start from learners’ experience or existing knowledge and gradually build up towards new knowledge.
- Summarising: in any group discussion, it is important to stop from time to time and summarise the key points that have been covered. This will help learners to stay on track and not get sidetracked by little details.
- Paraphrasing what participants say: when learners contribute to discussions, you can show that you are listening actively by paraphrasing (saying the same thing in different words) what they say, and asking them to confirm that you have understood them correctly. This is also a good way of identifying any misconceptions that learners might have, or re-stating important points for the benefit of the whole class.
- Keeping the discussion on track: in any group discussion, there is bound to be the odd moment where someone starts going down little roads that are not relevant to the topic at hand. It is your responsibility to gently, but firmly, bring the discussion back on track.