Matching Pairs Tutoring Difficult ScenariosOnline version The tutor is able to recognize potentially difficult situations that may arise in tutoring and call-upon learned strategies to control the situation with authority and sensitivity in order to foster a positive learning environment and effective working relationship with the tutee. This may include situations such as an unprepared tutee; a tutee who is late and/or misses appointments; a tutee who does not take responsibility for her/his learning; a tutee who “blames” others; a tutee who is manipulative; a tutee who demands an inappropriate level of assistance; a tutee who is experiencing personal, family or financial issues; a tutee who is aggressive; a tutee who is very shy and uncommunicative; etc. by Heather Carroll 1 A student has been seeing you for a political science course. It has been difficult to get the student to take a position on issues, and he has typically asked you what you thought when you took the course. In today’s appointment, you plan to review a position paper for the course. The student arrives without the expected draft. He says that you are very good at explaining the material and asks you to talk through the major issues so that he can understand them better. You are frustrated. 2 The student arrives at the tutoring session complaining that she has tried everything but nothing works. She says she studies all the time but is still not getting good grades on the tests and made a D on the last exam. She comments that she is not sure she knows what the professor wants. 3 In the first session, the student indicated, “I’ll never get it!”, was very quiet, and said he didn’t even know what questions to ask. In the second session, you began making some progress reviewing previous material, and the student left with some pieces to continue to work on. Now, in the third session, the student has arrived indicating that he tried working on the material but is stuck and will never learn it. 4 Two weeks remain in the semester when a student make an appointment to see you. At the end of the session, he explains that he has failed the last two exams and needs to make an A on the final in order to pass the course. The student would like to schedule a 2-hour appointment with you every day for the next two weeks to get caught up on the assignment. He tells you that he must pass this course to move to the next course, and he is already behind. He knows that you can help him pass the course. 5 In your first appointment with a new student, you began by having the student explain the struggles she faced in the course. You then suggested several strategies that you could work on during the session, but after each option, she explained that she has already tried it and it does not work. You finally agree on an approach. In the next session, the student comes without implementing the suggested changes and says she just didn’t try it. 6 You have met with a student a few times, and each session seems to get off track. In each session, you start talking about an unrelated topic. At first, you thought it would be good to build a relationship with the student. Now you are concerned that you are not accomplishing much. You just met with the student for the 3rd time and have your next appointment schedule in two days. 7 The student arrives at the tutoring session on time. He has a math homework set that is due the next day. He tells the tutor that is is so glad that he learned about tutoring because he didn’t know what to do before. Now he wants the tutor to work through all the homework problems so he can submit the homework tomorrow. Make sure that the student is holding the pencil as you work together. Indicate that you will provide support, but the student will complete the work. Get the student involved and active as much as possible in the session, perhaps by creating a comparison-and-contrast chart. Keep the student active through questioning, content organizations strategies, and problem-solving.. Have the student explain exactly what she is doing when she is studying for the course exams. Complete an exam analysis with the student and determine the source of the material that was missed on the exam. Create a study plan with the student so he can begin to identify tasks to accomplish outside the tutoring session Show the student how you have implemented changes in similar situations (even in your current courses); model sound study habits. Start the session by asking the student questions that you know can be easily answered - open-ended questions that do not have right or wrong answers.
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