Training for Tutoring

When I began teaching, I taught 7th grade literature in Arizona. When I eased into teaching college English, it was freshman comp. I did all right, but it wasn’t great. I taught one class of 22-25 students at a time.

Then, I began tutoring one-on-one as part of my doctoral program. Teaching like this was so much more rewarding! I could upend whatever we were working on to tailor it to THAT student, meeting them wherever they were and building together from that place to reach their goals.

And after that, I returned to the classroom a MUCH better teacher because I was no longer teaching ONE class of twenty-two—I was teaching twenty-two classes of one.

And yet—there are still so many centers or setups that do not teach their student tutors HOW TO TUTOR—these young educators are thrown into the mix without being shown any techniques for navigating their sessions—let alone actually helping their tutee/client. Some will figure it out, yes, but even those skilled few will have gone through so much wasted time and effort, with the result of many deciding education is not for them (and of course it wouldn’t be! Not without proper training!). Why not take the time to invest in these tutors? Train them? Even for two-year schools, like ours, where the student tutor turnover rate is quick (intentionally, since we expect students to graduate in about 2 years), that investment is HUGE! Those student tutors are investments, just as much as anything else in connection with our centers—not a tool to be used. They are PART of that community we serve—and our community is stronger for properly including—and properly training!—them. (I’m not even going into the whole, we need student tutors’ new energies, their excitement, their knowledge of the various classrooms on campuses, etc., etc.)