Chapters in Books (Centre for Teaching and Learning)

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Browsing Chapters in Books (Centre for Teaching and Learning) by Author "Burgoyne, Megan"

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    Tutoring is fun: a study investigating tutor motivation
    (AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2009) Burgoyne, Megan; Jansen, Ada; Smit, Carina
    Introduction: In the global higher education context, diminishing resources, growing student numbers, larger class sizes and a pressure on academic staff time, are cited as some of the reasons for the increase in use of tutors in undergraduate education (Park, 2002). The reality of reduced resources often requires departments to fulfil the dual requirement of improving the quality of teaching, while ‘doing more with less’ (Topping, 1996:321). In response to this challenge, tutorial programmes have, in many instances, become a vital part of the academic support structure of undergraduate modules (Barrington, 1999). The tutors who work on these tutorial programmes are usually young graduate students who are enthusiastic, yet have no formal teaching experience (Brailsford, Bartlett-Trafford, Bates & Mead, 2008). Contract university tutors have been characterised as ‘departmental donkeys’ (Park & Ramos, 2002), are often seen to be over-worked and undervalued and often bear the brunt of the undergraduate teaching load (Brailsford et al., 2008). While the range of educational advantages for students participating in tutorial programmes is well researched, the benefits of tutoring, as experienced by the tutors themselves, should not be underestimated. Peer tutoring requires tutors to, for example, re-acquaint themselves with knowledge of their discipline they have already acquired, which may have a positive impact on their own studies (Topping, 1996). Peer tutoring, often promoted by the mantra ‘teach once, learn twice’, is characterised by ‘specific role-taking as tutor or tutee, with high focus on curriculum content and usually also on clear procedures for interaction, in which participants receive generic and/or specific training’ (Topping, 2005:632).