This assignment discusses the roles and responsibilities of a tutor in the lifelong learning sector. It highlights the main criteria required to be a good tutor within the education environment and the limitations for this role. The assignment will give clear views on the categories and standards in which tutors have to demonstrate abilities these include:
Knowledge and understanding
Planning, teaching and class management
Monitoring and assessment
Record keeping
Knowledge and understanding:
Tutors must be confident in the subject knowledge they are going to teach. This has to be the specialised subject you are qualified in.
Planning, teaching and class management:
Planning and designing of a lesson is a crucial and the? teaching cycle concept need to be followed. These are: the aims & rationale, plan lesson & expected outcome, delivery of lesson, assess learning against outcomes, feedback & evaluation.
Zaf – you must be careful with how you express your thoughts. Also – although you have now mentioned the Aims and Rationale – it is still not really clear why these are so important in relation to each learner group.
The objectives of the lesson and its outcome must be visualised before the subject is taught, and it must be appropriate for the group. Learner’s needs are not to be ignored, and a Tutor must focus on the issues of equality and diversity in the classroom, and every child matters (ECM). ƒ¼
In the delivering of the lesson, a tutor needs to take into account the different backgrounds, learning needs, and disabilities of the learners, additional material should be made available to all individuals when required.ƒ¼
The presentation and execution of the lesson plays a key role in learner’s learning, as each individual have different ways of learning. ƒ¼The resources used in the lesson, for example, PowerPoint, Flip Chart, and Wipe Board should be fully utilised. Visual, auditory and practical learning styles ensure the learner to have equal opportunities in learning. Tutorials and quizzes get the student interested and their attention? in the lesson therefore should be part of the lessons. Varying types of lesson plans can generate interest for the learners; and create an opportunity to assess the learners understanding of the subject.
Reflections of the lesson during the following week will enable the tutor to get a sense of what students have learned and if methods are effective. ƒ¼
Monitoring and Assessment
The initial interview and assessment is the start of Learner / tutor relationship. The Tutor will begin to learn what motivates the learners to be a part of this specific course. ƒ¼ The course and level needs to be matched with the students’ abilities and the pervious skill and knowledge of the subject. The learner’s ability should be assessed, in literacy, language and numeracy skills that may be applicable. This will help identify the strengths and weakness of the learner. ƒ¼
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The Initial assessment is also used to inform the development of learning plans. ƒ¼The feedback from the assignments will also help evaluate the success of the lessons. It is very important to make sure that the learners enrolling for courses fully understand what is required from them. ƒ¼It is a two way system where the tutor understands the learner, and the learner understands whether the course they are embarking on is the right one for them. ƒ¼ƒ¼
Assessing the students learning against outcomes, feedback and evaluation of the lesson is important; a tutor could tailor their next delivery in line with the feedback received from the students. ƒ¼Lessons including practical activities, tutorials, and quizzes are good way to monitor learner’s progress throughout the course. ƒ¼
Tutors are committed to raise the standard of learners to achieve better results. Assessment is the way to ensure the learner’s progress is on track, help should be provided as soon as the tutor realises the learner is having difficulties. ƒ¼ Marking is one form of monitoring an assessment, the day to day monitoring allows a tutor to recognise when the students are having difficulties with the concepts a tutor can then address these difficulties. ƒ¼The assessments of learners must be continually monitored to analyse the progress they are making, and keep the learners informed, the feedback should be provided. ƒ¼
Record Keeping:
The administrative responsibilities of the tutor is to keep a register for of the student’s attendance; records of achievement and profiles. These are the main reasons for keeping records:
To monitor and plan ahead; (session plan) ƒ¼
To inform internal and external examining bodies; ƒ¼
To demonstrate that the procedures are being properly followed; ƒ¼
To check the attendance of the students; (legal requirement) ƒ¼
To track student’s progress and needs for extra support, this is to provide evidence for funding bodies. ƒ¼
In the view of, (Gravells & Simpson, pg.21. 2010)
“All relevant information should be documented in the form of a plan, usually called an individual learning plan (ILP), this is also known as action plan”. ƒ¼
They note that the following are good practice when completing an ILP.
Involve your learners, encourage them to discuss their learning and support needs.
Refer to the results of initial and diagnostic assessments, and learning styles tests.
Make sure they are individual to each learner; there is no one size fits all.
Express and communicate learning targets both verbally and in writing. ƒ¼ƒ¼
Limitations:
There are limitations to what a tutor can do; tutors should not provide counselling or financial advice, for examples, housing benefits, income support etc. They should refer learners to an appropriate organisation who deals with this kind of issues. ƒ¼
The limited time and resources available to tutor have to be considered. The cost of buying additional material makes it harder to help the students in further support in the lessons.
As a tutor, there are professional limitations in place such as not to providing your phone number; the purpose of these is to protect tutors from inappropriate contact. ƒ¼
Conclusion:
It is clear that tutors have lots of other responsibilities other than just preparing and teaching. ƒ¼Tutors need to make sure every learner needs are catered for, when planning, preparing and delivering the lesson. ƒ¼ All the records are regularly checked, kept to date, and are available to for examining and funding bodies. Resources needed for the lesson are available to enable students to participate. ƒ¼
In the view of (Tummons, 2007 pg.17),
“Much of the work done by the tutor has to do with learning and teaching: preparing learning resource; liaising with external examiners; marking assignment and recording the results. Then there are many things that do not really seem to be related to learning and teaching at all, such as taking part in marketing and publicity activities, which also come as part of the tutor’s role, as it is very crucial to secure recruitment for the following year”. ƒ¼
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