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The personal touch personal tutoring and the impact on retention
- 1. The Personal Touch - Personal tutoring and the impact on retention Dr David Grey York St John University UKAT Research Committee Dave Lochtie University of Derby Students Union UKAT Professional Development Committee
- 2. Objectives The goals for this session are to consider • Why personal tutoring is receiving renewed attention in the sector • The key benefits of, and challenges for, personal tutoring • How personal tutoring can impact student retention and success as part of a package of interventions • What we can learn from other educational systems
- 3. Personal Tutoring and Retention There is no magic ‘silver bullet’ for retention Personal tutoring is not it! Few studies have demonstrated significant scalar impact of any one particular activity, including personal tutoring, on retention (Webb 2017) Personal tutoring does have a clear and demonstrable impact on the outcomes for, and retention of, individual students Resilience, persistence and success are more directly relevant to students than retention Personal tutoring can support all of these
- 4. Personal Tutoring in Context Personal Tutoring • Core activity linking student, curriculum and student services • Integral to student progression/achievement & institutional success (Wootton 2006) • Significant input into supporting first year students and their transition to HE • Largely unique to UK Higher Education • Historically, little similar in Europe • US – though faculty advising exists, it is often supported by qualified, professional, advisors who provide proactive intervention • Some Australian universities introducing personal tutors (Cappa 2009) • UK institutional policies tend to (hybrids of) Earwaker’s (1992) professional model • Personal tutors provide academic support, academic and personal development; pastoral support left to other professionals Many institutions revisiting personal tutoring in light of TEF academic support metric - personal tutoring has direct impact on this question in NSS/TEF
- 5. Students are human – so are tutors Humans • want to be accepted and valued as individuals • behaviour often driven by fear, (false) assumptions and biases How do doubters rationalise withdrawal? • e.g. It’s too challenging, I can’t do it [Fear] • Imposter Syndrome e.g. I’m stupid. Everyone else in the class gets it and I don’t [False Assumption] Tutor behaviour can impact on students in a positive or negative way • Tutors experience fears about tutoring and make assumption about tutees • Tutoring can promote resilience and help students overcome fears and false assumptions
- 6. How Do We Support (and Retain) Students? CONSIDER • underlying fears, assumptions and concerns ADVISE • guide and explain RESPOND • positively and appropriately to the individual ENHANCE • encourage personal development • challenges fear, question assumptions • build resilience, promote resourcefulness C A R E Caring implies a supportive relationship – where and how do we develop that relationship?
- 7. What Works – A Model Effective Practice What Works (Thomas 2012) emphasised belonging and the importance of relationships (staff-student, peer-peer, learning communities) in the academic sphere What Works 2 (Thomas 2017) stresses need for proactive, personalised, interventions that are mainstream, ongoing, monitored & followed up coupled with an holistic approach Which aspects of this model can personal tutoring impact?Taken from Thomas (2017) What Works 2 Supporting student success : strategies for institutional change - Final Report
- 8. Benefits of Personal Tutoring Personal tutors can • Sustain a proactive, rather than reactive, individual relationship with tutees • Provide the context for ongoing, structured, personalised interactions • Facilitate a sense of belonging – to discipline and institution • Be a stabilising force for students • Cultivate an academic mindset and analytical skills outside the classroom (Lindsay 2011) • Support the acquisition of graduate attributes • Be a powerful advocate of, and signpost to, important support networks on campus
- 9. What Can We Learn from the US? NACADA has researched approaches to advising over many years • developmental, appreciative, proactive, coaching, teaching • advising is a profession, underpinned by qualifications Developmental advising (Crookston 1972, O’Banion 1994) • Focused on growth and learning, career and life goals • Supports growth mindsets (Dweck 2008) and resilience Proactive advising (Glennen 1975) • Showed a significant impact on retention but not replicated in later studies • Naturally suited to supporting students who don’t know they need help Rise of learning analytics fits with a proactive, developmental approach • Help tutors identify students needing interventions, and facilitating those interventions UK sector generally heading towards • Developmental, proactive, professional model • Increased use of data and learning analytics to identify students needing interventions
- 10. Personal Tutoring & Student Support Higher Education has changed, our approach to supporting students has not • Personal tutoring, student support services, and the interfaces between them are fundamentally the same as they were 50 years ago Development of student resilience linked to persistence and success (McIntosh & Shaw, 2017) • Personal tutoring and peer support central to promoting resilience • Are tutors and tutorial/support systems conducive to cultivating resilience? New models of student support needed to support student development and success in the face of contemporary student issues • Personal tutoring significant in every stage of the student journey
- 11. Challenges for Personal Tutoring Wheeler & Birtle (1993), Thomas (2006), surveys and anecdotal evidence from sector identify challenges as: • Staff confidence/competence • Lack of training • Variability of student experience of tutoring • Impact on workloads • Lack of institutional/individual recognition of value of tutoring and reward/recognition for staff • Identified as a recommendation in What Works 2 • Lack of evaluation and coordination of tutoring These have been acknowledged in the literature for at least 25 years • What are we doing as a sector to address them?
- 12. Conclusions Personal tutoring has the potential to impact student success and retention, but • Institutions need to demonstrate to staff that tutoring is a valued, and a valuable, part of their role as academics • Better (or some!) training is required for personal tutors - build staff confidence and capacity • Evaluation and reflective practice by tutors is vital, leading to research which demonstrates impact • Personal tutoring is only part of the story • needs to be a component in a holistic, ‘whole-institution’ (Thomas 2017) student support system providing ‘multi-faceted interventions’ (Webb 2017) • Tools (dashboards, learning analytics) can help but tutors need to proactively monitor and follow up students • New models of holistic student support needed which focus on proactive development of the personal characteristics that lead to persistence
- 13. UKAT Annual Conference Relevant Literature
- 14. Sources Cappa, C. (2009). Personal tutors for first year law students: Adding to the pressure or lightening the load? In Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference. Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved from http://fyhe.com.au/past_papers/papers09/content/pdf/2E.pdf Crookston, B. B. (1972). A developmental view of academic advising as teaching. Journal of College Student Personnel Dobinson-Harrington, A. (2006). Personal tutor encounters: Understanding the experience. Nursing Standard. 20(50), 35-42. Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: the new psychology of success, 2008 Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed. New York: Ballantine Books. Glennen, R. E. (1975). Intrusive college counseling. College Student Journal. Gubby, L., & McNab. N. (2013). Personal tutoring from the perspective of the tutor. Capture 4(1), 7–18. Hart, N. (1996). The role of the personal tutor in a college of further education: A comparison of skills used by personal tutors and by student counsellors when working with students in distress. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling,24(1), 83–96. Lindsay, S. (2011). Do students in UK Higher Education Institutions need personal tutors? Learning at City Journal, 1(1), 40–45. Retrieved from http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1263/ Lowenstein, M. (2005). If advising is teaching, what do advisors teach? NACADA Journal, 25(2), 65–73. Retrieved from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/portals/0/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/documents/25-2-Lowenstein-pp65-73.pdf McCary, J., Johnstone D. B., Valentine H., & Berry H. (2011). A comparative evaluation of the roles of student advisor and personal tutor in relation to undergraduate student retention. Cambridge, UK: Anglia Ruskin University.
- 15. Sources McIntosh, E., & Shaw, J. (2017). Student Resilience. Retrieved from http://www.unite- group.co.uk/sites/default/files/2017-05/student-resilience.pdf O’Banion, T. (1994). An academic advising model. NaCADA Journal, 14(2), 10–16. Owen, M. (2002). Sometimes you feel you’re in niche time: The personal tutor system, a case study. Active Learning in Higher Education, 3(1), 7–23. Ralston, N., & Hoffshire, M. (2016). An individualized approach to student transition: Developing a success coaching model. In R. Citron, J.C. Samuel, & J.M. Hinson (Eds.), Accelerated Opportunity Education Models and Practices (pp. 34- 50). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Stephen, D. E., O’Connell, P., & Hall, M. (2008). ‘Going the extra mile’, ‘fire-fighting’, or laissez-faire? Re-evaluating personal tutoring relationships within mass higher education. Teaching in Higher Education 13(4), 449–460. Thomas, L. (2012a). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change. Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 100. Thomas, L. (2012b). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change. Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Thomas, L., Hill, M., Mahony, J. O., & Chambers, J. (2017). Supporting student success : strategies for institutional change - Final Report. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/download/what-works-2-summary-and-full-report Thomas, L., & Hixenbaugh, P. (2006). Personal tutoring in higher education. Trentham. Webb, O., Wyness, L., & Cotton, D. (2017). Enhancing access, retention, attainment and progression in higher education. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/enhancing_access_retention_attainment_and_progression_in_hi gher_education_1.pdf Wootton, S. (2006). Changing practice in tutorial provision within post-compulsory education. In L. Thomas & P. Hixenbaugh (Eds.), Personal tutoring in higher education (pp. 115–125). Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham
Hinweis der Redaktion
- UKAT is the first allied group of NACADA (the Global Community for Academic Advising) to be established outside North America. Founded in 2015 responding to a perceived need for a forum for discussion, debate and the exchange of ideas on current issues in personal tutoring and academic advising. Colleagues from across the HE and FE systems believed that there was a lack of opportunities for professional development in this area, which they felt was given a low priority in many institutions. We believe strongly that effective advising and personal tutoring is essential for student success, and aim to bring together those engaged in this vital area of student support. As a young association, UKAT is very much a ‘work in progress’, we have formed two committees to drive the group forward one focusing on research (chaired by David Grey) and another on Professional Development (chaired by Dave Lochtie). In early 2016, UKAT ran a pilot survey open to all 164 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) to gain some initial insight into personal tutoring and academic advising practices in the UK. This was very much a preliminary survey of personal tutoring in the UK, which we plan upon building on with future research. There were 47 respondents representing 32 different HEIs: 55% were personal tutors (faculty advisors), 21% were professional support staff working in student welfare and support services (professional, but not necessarily academic, advisors), and 21% were institutional managers (those individuals working in HE who have knowledge of the cirriculum but main responsibilities fall outside of that role). The findings of this survey were combined with the available literature and have shaped our work since including elements of this presentation. Further information here - http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/Comparing-Personal-Tutoring-in-the-UK-and-Academic-Advising-in-the-US.aspx
- We all have examples of students for whom the intervention of a personal tutor has made a profound difference to the outcomes for that student, but there is a lack of research evidence in the UK to demonstrate even this impact of tutoring on retention Best demonstration of impact is Ormond Simpson’s ‘Rescuing the Personal tutor: lessons in costs and benefits’ (2006) example of OU scrapping PT’s in 1990’s then reintroducing a few years later at a cost of over £1 million
- Personal tutoring is unique to the UK and is historically based in the in loco parentis model of moral tutors at Oxford and Cambridge. If the UK were the only education system that used personal tutoring, then personal tutoring could be seen merely as an interesting artefact of the UK context. Elsewhere in the world, e.g. in the US, many of the functions of personal tutors are provided or supplemented by qualified professional advisors. Often, but not always, this is implemented as professional consultations which don’t provide the opportunity to develop a meaningful, supportive, pedagogic relationship with the student. Even though the US system makes extensive use of professional advisors, there still exists the role of Faculty Advisor in many institutions, which is akin to the role of a personal tutor in the UK. Issues of student transition, retention and engagement have been a focus for research and debate in the US, UK and Australia for many years. Much work on transition and retention has been undertaken in Australia by Sally Kift and colleagues. Historically, Australian universities have not had a personal tutoring system but there has been a small but growing interest in some Australian institutions for introducing personal tutors (e.g. Cappa 2009) as a way to better support student retention and success. So, although personal tutoring is largely unique to the UK, similar systems do exist elsewhere, and the fact that they are now being introduced in some systems suggests that personal tutoring is not merely a quirk of the UK HE system but does have an intrinsic value in supporting student success. Earwaker (1992) identifies three models of personal tutoring – pastoral, professional and curriculum integrated. An analysis of the personal tutoring policies of UK HEI’s would suggest that many of their personal tutoring systems are tending towards (hybrids of) Earwaker’s professional and curriculum models. A national survey of personal tutoring which UKAT conducted identified the five key activities that personal tutors deal with as pastoral issues, student success, academic skill development, employability and personal development planning.
- Both students and tutors are human; their attitudes and behaviours are driven by these basic human needs. That’s not to say that any of us actively consider or treat students as being sub-human but in supporting students we need to consider them as human beings and how their human needs and characteristic are impacting their behaviours Tutors experience fears and make assumptions about the students they supports, which can drive the behaviour of those tutors. Tutors behaviours can impact on students in a positive or negative way. Tutors may be more comfortable in providing academic advice or signposting than in providing pastoral support (Hart, 1996; Stephen, O’Connell, & Hall, 2008)
- Everyone involved with students has a responsibility to CARE Personal tutoring is about building supportive, individual relationships with students – i.e. it’s the ‘personal’
- The What Works project (2012) identified belonging as being at the heart of student retention and success, with the academic sphere being the most important place for nurturing the engagement which creates belonging. Belonging results from meaningful interactions between staff and students; developing knowledge, confidence and identity as HE learners; supportive peer relations; an experience which is relevant to interests and future goals. Personal tutoring (individual and group based) can help address each of these aspects of belonging. What Works also emphasised the need for high-quality institutional data and the monitoring of student behaviour What Works 2 (2017) followed up the original work and identified that a holistic, whole institution approach is required, that interventions for retention and success need to be proactive, mainstream (available to all, not bolt-ons), ongoing (not a one-off) and that individual student engagement needs to be monitored and followed up. What Works 2 identified this model of effective practice for student retention and success – which of these dimensions does personal tutoring naturally address? (the pink ones – but possibly collaborative and evidence-informed too)
- The personalised, one-to-one support that personal tutors can provide is often the only opportunity students have in an HEI for long-term, structured ,individual support
- NACADA, the global community for academic advising, was founded in the US in 1977 and now has over 13,000 members around the world. NACADA promotes and supports academic advising in HE to enhance the educational development of students, and has been supporting scholarly enquiry into advising practices for 40 years. NACADA has identified a number of distinct approaches to academic advising, including developmental and proactive advising, both of which are particularly pertinent to the way personal tutoring is practiced in the UK In the US, is a profession in it’s own right, heavily supported by MA/PhD level qualifications in advising theory. Developmental Advising 'Developmental academic advising is the use of interactive teaching, counseling, and administrative strategies to assist students to achieve specific learning, developmental, career, and life goals. These goals are set by students in partnership with advisors and are used to guide all interactions between advisor and student.‘Creamer, D. G. & Creamer, E. G. (1994). Practicing Developmental Advising: Theoretical Contexts and Functional Applications. NACADA Journal 14(2), 17-24 ‘a systematic process based on close student-advisor relationship intended to aid students in achieving educational, career, and personal goals through the utilization of the full range of institutional and community resources’ Winston, Jr. R. B., Enders, S. C., & Miller, T. K. (Eds.) (March 1982). Developmental approaches to academic advising. New Directions for Student Services , 17. Terminology Academic advising in the US is broadly synonymous with personal tutoring in the UK Proactive Advising Help advisors reach out to students. Proactive approaches incorporate intervention strategies mandating advising contacts for students who otherwise might not seek advising Despite the lack of documented impact on retention, this approach fits well with the What Works 2 recommendations for proactive approaches Success Coaching Over the years the field has developed and produced sub-fields such as Success Coaching which has become increasingly important in college student success as almost a sub-field of advising. Over the past decade or so, institutions including Tulane University, Rutgers University, the University of New Orleans, the University of South Carolina and the University of Cincinnati have all established coaching programs. Assessments from these programs indicate that students who participate in such a program are more likely to have higher grade point averages and persist than their peers. Learning Analytics What Works also emphasised the need for high-quality institutional data and the monitoring of student behaviour. Learning analytics and student engagement monitoring systems have been in use in the US longer than in the UK, but such systems are now starting to become commonplace as institutions recognise the value of monitoring students, and the value of their data in helping identify students who would benefit from interventions Significant training needed to help tutors to use and interpret the data from learning analytics systems effectively, and to help students understand and interpret this data in meaningful ways
- Higher education is going through an extensive period of change – fess, widening participation, NSS, teaching excellence (TEF), etc. Our approaches to teaching and learning are more student-led, more active, and better informed by research. The nature of students and the issues they present have changed, and it is widely acknowledged that mental health issues are prevalent and on the rise amongst the (younger) student population. However, in the face of these changes, the role of personal tutors and the student support services provided by institutions, and the interfaces between them, remain fundamentally the same as they were 50 years ago. How well equipped are these systems to deal with the kind of students and student issues they need to address today? The issue of student resilience has been given much prominence of late, and the development of student resilience has been positively linked to increased student persistence and success (McIntosh & Shaw 2017). The literature shows that resilience is not a fixed characteristic, but can be developed. Personal tutors and academic advisors have an integral role to play in cultivating resilience. Alongside peer support, personal tutors are central to helping students through the transitions encountered during their student journey, and to building the ability to persevere in the face of adversity. But are our existing personal tutoring and support systems designed to promote the conditions that help develop resilience and persistence? Do personal tutors perceive this as an integral part of their role? Do tutors and institutions understand the issues around resilience sufficiently well to construct academic environments, tutorial and student support systems that are conducive to the cultivation of resilience? In such environments, the personal tutor has a significant role to play at every stage of the student journey, and not just in supporting transition and ‘settling in’ to university
- Few tutors are ever trained to be personal tutors – it is just assumed that they naturally know how to do the role from being immersed in the HE environment. As a result many staff lack confidence (and sometimes competence) to perform the role effectively; when confronted with difficult issues there is a temptation to refer issues on to avoid having to deal with the problem. The personal tutoring role can have an impact on staff workloads, even where it is accounted for in workload models. Those staff who are not comfortable or confident in the role tend to do very little, and their students tend to seek out support from those staff known to be good at being a personal tutoring, thus increasing their workload beyond their allotted capacity. Generally, staff involvement in personal tutoring is not valued or rewarded in the majority of UK HE institutions, so where is the incentive for staff to carry out the role well? These challenges have existed and been acknowledged in the literature for almost 25 years, but still remain as challenges now with little done to address them? Given the relevance of personal tutoring to TEF metrics and its potential for improving student development, progression and attainment, what are we doing as a sector and within our institutions to address these challenges and take personal tutoring seriously? Some of the issues identified as challenges for personal tutoring (e.g. the lack of recognition of the value of the role, or recognition/reward for staff contribution) have been echoed as recommendations from What Works/What Works 2. For instance, What Works 2 explicitly recommends that institutions provide ‘structures to recognise, develop and reward staff engagement’ When UKAT surveyed its members about personal tutoring, many of these issues were reported by respondents, including particularly the lack of training, and not feeling valued or supported by their institution in carrying out the role of a personal tutor Norespondents indicated that the personal tutoring role is recognized in the promotion criteria for faculty. The literature suggests that often tutoring is not included in timetables or the time allocated can be insufficient, causing tutors to work beyond their contract often at the expense of highly valued research (Dobinson-Harrington, 2006; Gubby & McNab, 2013; Hart, 1996; Owen, 2002). What will happen if we do not address issues? Almost all of UKAT's respondents stated all students have personal tutors so if they have a poor experience this may profoundly affect NSS and TEF. The literature suggests some students may be unaware they have a personal tutor (McCary, Johnstone, Valentine, and Berry, 2011) or how that tutor can help them (Gubby and McNab, 2013) and may find the personal tutoring process hurried and disappointing (Dobinson-Harrington, 2006) becoming discouraged from seeking support from a tutor that they perceive to be too busy (Owen, 2002).
- MORE COMMENTS ON VALUE PLACED ON TUTORING AND GIVEN THE SAME PROMINENCE AS PERFORMANCE IN TEACHING AND RESEARCH More academic research is required to demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of personal tutoring in supporting student success – the UK evidence base is lacking. As an organisation UKAT are seeking to address this by pushing related research further and encouraging sharing of best practice via professional development that meets the needs of tutors in modern HE. We feel, based up on our surveys and the literature available, that in order for excellence in personal tutoring to be achieved its perceived importance amongst University leadership must be at a comparable level with teaching and research. If the field can be supported and developed in these ways it can make a real contribution to retention, resilience and persistence as part of a holistic model of support.