AQPC

Authors :
Rozanne Goldman, Professional, Dawson College
Carole Reed, English teacher, Dawson College

Suzanne failed her first physics quiz. She claims to understand the concepts, but becomes "bogged down" in problem-solving. She has trouble understanding the steps and knowing when to apply the formulas. Hoping that extra help will make a difference, she has registered as a tutee in the Peer Tutoring program.

Peer Tutoring is a true Student Service—students helping students through student funds. Everyone's a winner. Tutees benefit from tutorials which cost them only $2.00 per hour. They receive help in comprehending course content, reading texts, reviewing material, organizing papers and preparing for tests. As successful students, hired tutors serve as role models as well as instructors; at the same time, tutors hone their own skills. Tutors enjoy many benefits: their academic achievements are recognized, they are compensated financially, and they improve their communication skills and gain entrepreneurial experience by tutoring others. What tutors consider important is the satisfaction derived in making a positive difference in another person's life. The College is an automatic winner: class work is supplemented and, hopefully, retention is increased.

Services Offered

Triage is the first important step; many of the students who claim they need a tutor actually could benefit from other services we provide. Once needs are assessed, services are provided. Because the Peer Teaching course described below serves the need for English tutors and our Centre de Langue Écrit et Orale offers tutoring in French, the PeerTutoring Program can focus on providing services for the Sciences, Technologies and compulsory Social Sciences—Western Civilization, Economics, Psychology and the methodologies. In addition, we provide language tutors for Spanish and German. Tutors are recruited through ads in our Daily Bulletin and through teacher referrals.

Administration of the Program

Both tutors and tutees must fill in application forms which require the signature of the teacher. Tutees are matched with tutors, usually immediately, or, at most, within twenty-four hours. Prospective tutees are asked to contact their teachers to sign the form and indicate the problem area. There's a good rationale for this step; It not only helps us target potential problems in some classes, especially when we examine the statistics, but also promotes communication between student and teacher. In fact, in some cases, when the tutee contacts the teacher for the signature, the problem is identified and solved right away; here is an ideal opportunity for student / teacher interaction. In these instances students need not hire a tutor at all because of teacher intervention. In addition, since teachers become more aware of problems students are facing, they can modify their teaching methodology and/or curriculum.

Tutor Training

Dawson College has no common meeting block; therefore, we have no official tutor-training classes for tutors of subject areas. We have, however, prepared a training cassette entitled So you want to Be a Tutor which demonstrates tutoring techniques and Dawson College regulations through skits and simulations. All prospective tutors must view and return the video before they are officially hired. Our proposed tutor-training course will include the following curriculum content: the philosophy of peer tutoring; tutoring techniques, which include assessing the problem, improving listening skills, gauging comprehension level, using body language, modeling, eliciting response, showing respect and sensitivity, reinforcing learning and verbalizing; knowledge of content area, which includes use of text, notes and simulation exercises; study skills; the tutor as role model; cheating and plagiarism policies; administrative instruction for record-keeping and accounting. Graduates of the proposed Peer Tutoring course would receive an official certificate from Dawson College.

Our training program also provides an excellent opportunity for Learning Centre professionals to expand our teaching of learning skills to our students through our tutors. We teach tutors to advise their tutees to preview text material before the lecture and anticipate questions. We emphasize the importance of being active listeners in class and taking a good set of notes. Students learn to read the text book effectively and coordinate the material with the lecture. In the sciences and technologies, students develop problem analysis and problem-solving strategies. All students benefit from information on test preparation and test taking.

Advantages

There are obvious benefits to Peer Tutoring. Student tutors relate well to their tutees as they talk the same language. Tutors often have more time and patience; moreover, they strengthen their own skills while tutoring. Even though the tutors are paid only minimum wage, they don't have to flip burgers and wear funny hats. At the same time, our tutors are learning important managerial skills. They must set up and maintain appointments, remember materials and complete administrative forms. All tutors are responsible for writing up work summaries for each session and keeping track of hours for reimbursement.

Ideally, we should have tutors in all subject areas, at all levels, always available. Everyone should always show up on time and be prepared. All the tutors should be able to solve all the tutees' problems all the time and every tutee should pass. However, in real life, problems do occur.

Concerns

In certain disciplines, notably Accounting II, Physics: Electricity and Magnetism, and Organic Chemistry II, there are very few tutors available because these courses are often offered in the last semester when potential tutors have graduated. Some students request tutors for Guitar, Drama, Art History or other subjects for which we do not provide tutors. Obviously, tutoring centres must decide how far to expand their services; with each new subject area comes increased costs and administrative time.

Although we tried a computer software program to match tutees with tutors, there were too many glitches, and we lack technical support at the college to set up and maintain the constant changes to the program. When we try the computer-matching route again, we need to consider all the variables—subject, level, available times, names and phone numbers. However, there are human factors involved which can't be programmed. Who would work well together? Which Math Tutor is least busy and more likely to accept another tutee? For religious reasons, a female math tutee may only work with a female tutor. A tutee's language skills are weak; can we find a Psychology tutor who can work on Psychology concepts and language at the same time? While we're waiting for a new and improved computer program, we're matching in our low-tech method, manually.

Time Commitment

Even though our tutoring program is relatively inexpensive, it's costly in time: We need to interview and hire tutors, sign the tutor-training videos in and out, enter tutors on computer, match tutors and tutees, enter the matches in a book for cross-reference purposes and post the matches on a bulletin board. The paperwork is overwhelming: both tutors and tutees fill in Application forms; tutors must collect the tutee contributions of $2.00 and fill in receipts; tutors complete a Work Summary form for each session to describe the task accomplished; tutors must submit completed Hiring Requisition forms and Student Timesheets to the College in order to get paid. All these forms must be processed and replenished on a regular basis. When tutors make errors, they must be contacted to make corrections. All these administrative procedures are time-consuming.

Contact with teachers is an essential component of the Peer Tutoring program and a valuable investment of time. We schedule personal and class visits with the faculty and are available for on-going consultation. We also attend faculty Council meetings to participate in academic planning discussions and promote our services

We spend a considerable amount of time dealing with tutor-tutee relationships. The most frequent complaints concern no-shows, lateness and incompatibility. We need to defuse the stressed student who needs a tutor now before the Physics test at 1:00 today! We must also accommodate special demands such as, "I need a tutor to teach me Chemistry in Greek!"

Evaluation

Despite the size of our building, we have a space shortage. Tutoring sessions are scattered all over; therefore, the program is difficult to monitor and evaluate. Forced to rely on the honour system, we have occasionally had to discipline students for being late, missing appointments or scamming the system.

However, the benefits of the program far outweigh the problems. Throughout informal evaluation surveys, tutees have lauded the program, saying, “I finally understand my Economics. My tutor explained it so clearly," or "I went from 40% to 80% in Spanish" or “Now I know how to do these Physics problems with the help of my tutor." With a new, improved tutoring system in the works, we hope to have better data collection to compile statistics on numbers of tutors and tutees and distribution through the disciplines.

The system works because of all the effort made by so many people—the Learning Centre staff, the teachers, the tutors and the administration who support us. This is often the first job for many students and provides that important "foot in the door" in the employment field. The tutors experience pride in being needed, valued and respected by their peers and honoured by the College. In addition to their positions as tutors, they serve as role models by sharing their tips for success with their tutees. Whether they are teaching note-taking skills, problem-solving or memory techniques, these tutors witness the fact that their intervention may lead to success and that their behaviors are worthy of emulation. These are students helping students, learning while earning.

Peer Teaching: Learning While Teaching

This recruitment letter, which we mail to about 300 students who have achieved 80% or higher in two previous English courses in June and in December, results in an enrollment of 42 students per semester, or, from the fifth to the fourteenth week of classes, 42 free tutoring hours per week for the Dawson College Learning Centre. In addition, the Learning Centre gains trained student tutors who can be hired in future semesters. Students gain a wealth of experience and, not insignificant, an understanding of teaching and learning that empowers them to take charge of their own education.

The course is team–taught during the first four weeks. In weeks one and two, Learning Centre professionals work with the English teacher to go over rules and procedures and follow up with role-playing exercises. Weeks three and four constitute an intensive course in grammar and in techniques to tutor foreign language and learning disabled students. After this, the class splits into two workshops with about half the class attending once a week during one scheduled class time and the other half during the second scheduled class time. The remaining two hours class time is reallocated as follows: one hour of tutoring scheduled in the Learning Centre at the same time each week but not necessarily during scheduled class time, and one hour of administrative work in the Learning Centre at a time convenient to the tutor. During weekly workshops student tutors raise questions directly related to tutoring. In addition, tutors have available to them the expertise of the Learning Centre professionals and Learning Centre materials, including books, magazines, handouts, computer software, book marked web sites, and materials to help foreign language students pass university entrance exams.

The English teacher runs the classes and workshops, grades quizzes and reports, and consults with tutors about tutee writing problems. Learning Centre professionals have the administrative headache of matching tutors to tutees based on mutually convenient times and of finding new tutees to replace those that drop out of the program. In addition they observe the tutoring, are available for consultation and troubleshooting, and grade Learning Centre files and tutee assessments.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the course, as listed in the course outline, are as follows:

• to understand a functional grammar vocabulary

To achieve this objective, students are given a “Quick and Dirty Grammar Quiz,” fifty multiple choice questions that test all elements of sentence structure. The test is quick because they have two weeks to complete it any way they can, by consulting with English teachers, with each other, or with texts in the Learning Centre, and it’s dirty because the answer that sounds correct is invariably wrong. Students who rely on their ear or upon internalized syntax cannot successfully complete the quiz; they must master the rules. The quiz, worth 10% of the grade, is reviewed during the third week of class.

• to learn how to pre-test to determine areas of weakness and how to post-test to measure learning
• to learn techniques to assist students who speak English as a second language or who have learning disabilities.

To this end, role-playing exercises in the first four weeks of class familiarize students with various types of language, learning and behavioral problems, and introduce them to the integrated learning approach favored by the Learning Centre. The “tutees” are fed questions to confuse or trap the “tutor.” During “The First Phone Call,” for example, the tutor acting the part of the “Vietnamese tutee” is instructed to say, “I don’t understand you.” “Can you come to my home to tutor me?” and “Can you help me with my homework?” The hoped-for answers are “Sorry,—I—will—speak—more —slowly.” “No, all tutoring is done in the Learning Centre.” and “No, the Learning Centre is not a revision and editing service. However, I can help you to understand what you need to do to complete an assignment and to outline a possible response. I can also look over corrected work with you and explain why you lost marks and how you can improve your next essay.”

In addition, tutors are introduced to a range of materials that can serve as diagnostic tools. Students must conduct diagnostic testing within the first two tutorials and then submit a report describing their diagnostic procedures and the results of their testing. This report then serves as the basis of a six week program.

• to develop techniques to help a tutee develop, outline and revise an essay
• to review research conventions
• to help a tutee read and study from textbooks
• to help a tutee read critically and to understand literary conventions and rhetorical forms
• To assist the tutee to develop time-management, studying and test-taking strategies

All of these areas are covered in depth during the workshops conducted from weeks five through fourteen using units in the Peer Teaching Manual and materials from the Learning Centre. The Peer Teaching Manual includes information about how to diagnose, select or create appropriate materials and design a program for a tutee, what areas to focus on when working with foreign language and learning disabled tutees, and how to teach grammar, paragraph and essay structure, research skills, reading skills, study skills, pronunciation and listening skills.

Procedures

Students tutors are responsible for contacting their tutees, maintaining tutee files, and ensuring that confidential tutee assessments, worth 10% of the tutor’s grade, are completed and deposited in a padlocked wooden box. In addition, regardless of why the tutee has been referred to the Learning Centre or has requested a tutor, all tutees must do some independent writing in each tutorial because in this way tutees have the opportunity to receive on-going one-on-one feedback about their writing, something that may not be possible in their crowded English classes.

Despite the care taken to orient students to Learning Centre procedures, every semester some student will come up with a new, unexpected way to break or confuse the rules, which incidents are incorporated into the next semester’s manual and role-playing exercises. A page in the manual entitled “How to Get a Really Low Mark in Peer Teaching” includes entries like the following:

• If you can’t reach your tutee after telephoning once or twice, give up. Say nothing to the Learning Centre professional overseeing your tutoring until you are asked why you haven’t been tutoring, or until the tutee shows up at the Learning Centre complaining that s/he hasn’t been contacted by a tutor.
• Don't have your tutee write paragraphs and essays. It's easier to give grammar exercises and reading comprehension quizzes with multiple choice questions. Learning Centre professionals and the tutee’s English teacher will be able to tell a lot from seeing a book filled with A, B, C's.
• Remove your tutee’s exercise book from the blue file folder just before it is marked during the last week of classes without notifying anyone. Forget to return it. Then no one will know what you've done in your tutoring and you’ll lose 10% of your grade.

Evaluation

A key component of the program is staff observation of student tutors, worth 20% of the grade. Discreet observation starts after the second tutorial. Marks are awarded on the basis of four carefully described categories worth 5% each: administration (professional behaviour), academic (program preparation and teaching techniques), communication (tone, clarity, body language, patience), and creativity (materials and techniques devised for the tutee, adaptability to tutee needs).

The oral component, worth 10%, is an opportunity for tutors to share materials or approaches that have worked well for them or to bring up specific problems that have arisen.

While not all of our graduates go on to teaching careers, many get summer jobs or teaching assistantships in foreign countries on the basis of their Peer Teaching Certificates. And all tutors learn to take charge of their own education; they discover that they have been their own teachers their entire life. As one former tutor wrote in his final report:

It wasn’t until I discovered that the best tutors are, in fact, the most eager and open students that I began to accept my role in the pedagogical hierarchy—I was an essential piece of the puzzle, one of the thousands of wonderful men and women who have devoted their lives to the quenching of people’s thirst for knowledge. This was not an epiphany that came to me immediately. This is probably not an epiphany that would have come to me at all if it weren’t for my student, who later turned out to be my greatest teacher as well. (Sacha Vais)

These are students helping students: learning while teaching.