Supporting and Advising Students

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Supporting and Advising Students

Kate Day
INTRODUCTION
For most demonstrators 'supporting and advising
students' constitutes the main substance of their
work what they informally and continuously do
as practical classes proceed. For tutors, on the other
hand, who are characteristically concerned with
teaching groups of students, the provision of
support and advice is more of a supplementary
and not necessarily anticipated activity.
Accordingly, this chapter is mainly intended for
tutors, although demonstrators will doubtless find
aspects of direct interest to them too.
There are several reasons why as a part-time teacher
you are likely to get involved in supporting and
advising students whether during class time or
on a more individual basis.

Tutorial teaching is intended to be interactive

and entails helping students explore their
understanding and consolidate their mastery,
not just of the course content, but also of the
skills required to carry out the tasks appropriate
to particular academic disciplines.

First year undergraduates are finding their feet

in an unfamiliar environment. They may take
some time to appreciate university and
departmental procedures, or what is expected
of them as learners and how they should go
about studying.

Tutorials and practical classes provide points

of regular contact between teaching staff and
students, and students often perceive tutors or
demonstrators as particularly approachable
and able to be of assistance.

The contexts within which teachers in different

departments work vary in a number of respects
for example, in how well documented the course
is, whether tutorials and practicals are expected to
follow a set pattern, and the students' attitudes and
Tutoring and Demonstrating: A Handbook

competencies. These departmental differences,

combined with variations in teaching styles and
preferences, will clearly affect the approach any one
part-time teacher takes to supporting and advising
students.
What is certain is that tutors and demonstrators are
much better placed to provide guidance than they
sometimes appreciate. They have a grasp of the
key concepts and basic skills in their discipline, and
will have accumulated, though not necessarily
consciously, a store of useful information both about
the subject and about studying. It is true that their
own experiences as academically successful
students may be rather different from some of the
people they are now teaching and which may make
them hesitant to offer advice. Nor will they want
to be prescriptive about specific approaches to
learning and study methods, since individuals need
to develop systems suited to their own aspirations
and ways of working. But tutors and demonstrators
usually do have a better idea than many
undergraduates how to avoid getting into
difficulties, to cope with those that arise, to seek
further information or to access additional
resources.
More problematic for part-time teachers, whose
priority commitments lie elsewhere, is setting fair
and sensible limits on what assistance is given and
how much time it takes up. Establishing and
maintaining an appropriate balance is particularly
hard for those who are new to the job or who
especially enjoy helping students. While the
demands of students for attention tend to fluctuate
over the course of the academic year, according to
the pressures exerted by coursework, tests and
exams for example, other kinds of difficulties can
be around at any time. 1 Moreover, teachers
sometimes have to be pro-active and explicitly
encourage students to consult with them, because
of the general reluctance of students to impose. But

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if students' needs are potentially open-ended, tutors'

and demonstrators' responsibilities are not, and do
not extend to trying to meet every eventuality.
There are many other staff and services within the
university, as well as fellow students, who can often
be more appropriate sources of advice and support.
The rest of this chapter provides some ideas about:

what can be done, within the tutorial setting in

particular, to make things clearer for students
and thereby assist their progress as learners (see
chapter 5 for the demonstrator's role in the
practical setting);
how tutors and demonstrators can work with
students and give guidance in one-to-one
consultations.

MAKING THINGS CLEARER

Once at university, undergraduates take on a new
responsibility for managing their own studying.
Whilst there are lectures and tutorials, assigned
work and library resources to help them, whether
they grasp the opportunities and realise their
potential depends on their motivation, previous
experience and how readily they develop strategies
for coping with the requirements of a different
environment. To succeed, students also need to be
cued into the demands and expectations of
particular subjects. This more specific orientation
might concern, for example, the conventions for
organising and presenting work and can be done
partly through course documentation, but not
entirely. Accordingly tutors are likely to lighten
their consultation load if they create opportunities
in tutorials (whether directly or whilst focusing on
other areas of work) for encouraging students'
appreciation of what they should be trying to
achieve and the means whereby progress can be
made. What follows are some suggestions about
the general and the more specific aspects of
supporting students in gearing themselves up for
effective learning.

The Demands of Academic Study

The general aspect involves students firstly, in
recognising that academic work is meant to be
intellectually challenging and, secondly, having
access to an appropriate repertoire of study
strategies and skills.
Stressing the need for real effort and commitment,
coupled with indicating ways in which over time
academic tasks can be mastered, has several

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Supporting and Advising Students

beneficial effects. If uncertainty about how best to

proceed is accepted by students as normal rather
than exceptional, they will be more inclined to target
and tackle study problems rather than attribute
them to their own lack of ability. They may also
adopt more realistic time scales for improving their
knowledge and skills, rather than seeking magicbullet solutions. It is the case that while the
demands of managing a new personal and social
life may on occasions interfere with students'
academic progress, most quickly recover their
equilibrium.
Guidance materials. Study skills guides abound:
most book shops keep a selection in stock, and they
are to be found in many libraries too. Chapter 12,
Sources and Resources, lists some recommended titles
which may well be available in your own
institution. By dipping into these publications
students can be helped to develop productive ways
of going about their academic work. But if students
are struggling with their studies, they can easily
become overwhelmed by reading study skills
manuals cover-to-cover or misled by thinking there
are sets of fail-safe rules to follow. Clearly if tutors
are able to look through some of these guides
themselves, it will both stimulate their own
thoughts about effective studying and make it easier
to point students in suitable directions.
Workshops. Another possibility is for students to
attend any study skills workshops that may be
offered within the university on such topics as
effective reading, making the most of tutorials, notetaking, writing essays or preparing for exams.
Tips and hints. Although general purpose study
skills guides and workshops are valuable resources,
they are not geared to delivering finely grained
guidance, and research studies confirm the limited
value of study skills advice isolated from specific
subject or course settings. It is therefore worth
tutors considering what kinds of guidance would
be most helpful to their students. A useful startingpoint is the list of handy hints given in figure 1,
provided care is taken by tutors to adapt the list to
their students' particular needs.
To what extent would the handy hints given in
figure 1 be appropriate advice for your students?
Which of these hints would you want to modify,
or perhaps leave out altogether? And what new
hints would it be important to add?

Tutoring and Demonstrating: A Handbook

Supporting and Advising Students

Chapter 7

essay lists, and so on, so that you know what

is available in written form to students (who
wont always be as thorough);

EFFECTIVE STUDYING HANDY HINTS?

Split large and challenging academic tasks into

more manageable chunks.

Plan backwards from deadlines, so that you

know when as well as what you need to get
done.

Be realistic about how much you can achieve

and build in some flexibility.

Schedule in recreation time, take breaks and

know when it is okay not to be working.

Think about when and where you work best,

and allocate prime tasks to prime time.

Give yourself rewards for tasks completed

rather than for time spent.

Keep an appropriate balance between work,

other commitments and play.

Develop a sense of what proportion of time and

effort to give to various parts of a task.

Engage in active debate with the materials you

are studying.

Be systematic in the organisation of lecture and

other notes, and consolidate materials.

Allow sufficient time to critically review and edit

work produced for assessment.

Become proficient in information, library,

computer, numeric, linguistic or any other skills
which are going to be useful to you.

Figure 1

The tutorial group. Finally, bear in mind that the

tutorial itself is also an excellent setting for exploring
study strategies and skills. Students can increase
their appreciation of how they can support and
learn from one another by, for example, sharing their
varied approaches to similar academic tasks,
working together on joint presentations, or giving
feedback. Tutors, too, can comment within the
group on common strengths and weaknesses in
students' oral and written work.

Procedures and Requirements

Alongside the general demands of academic study
are the more specific procedures, expectations, and
requirements associated with a particular course.
In thinking about what guidance students might
need, a first step is for tutors to become wellacquainted with the course themselves. You might
do this by, for example:

getting hold of and reading the course

documentation course booklet, handouts,

Tutoring and Demonstrating: A Handbook

finding out from the course leader and other

tutors about departmental practices and
conventions, any changes made to course
content or process, how tutorials fit with the
rest of the course, and what guidance is given
for their conduct;

taking a good look at and arranging for access

to any set or recommended books for the
course, checking out library holdings of books,
periodicals and past exam papers;

clarifying with course staff anything you are

unsure about or mystified by, regarding either
your own responsibilities or what students are
supposed to do;

making sure you know who can be relied on to

provide additional information as required
tutors need their own support networks
securely in place too!

You can then consider what needs to be

communicated to students at appropriate points in
the tutorial sequence, which might involve either
reminding them of written information or
providing it anew. Below are some of the
possibilities, which you could adapt and add to with
suggestions of your own:

requirements governing tutorial attendance,

how and when to notify a tutor of unavoidable
absence, and guidelines for tutors contacting
personal tutors;

expectations of the amount of time and effort

students should put into preparing for tutorials
and how they can get the most out of
participating;

course expectations for the presentation and

submission of written work, and extension
policies and procedures;

the circumstances in which students should

make contact with a tutor and how to do this
e.g. buttonholing the tutor before or after a
tutorial, leaving a note in the tutor's pigeonhole,
calling by at a set time, phoning or using e-mail.

ADVISING STUDENTS ONE-TO-ONE

Despite the efforts made in classes to prevent
difficulties arising, students will still sometimes
present themselves or otherwise come to a teacher's
attention, and need to be dealt with individually.

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It may be simply a matter of giving students the

right information, getting them to think through the
repercussions of their own actions, offering
reassurance or guiding them in an appropriate
direction. But some students may have difficulty
in pinpointing what is bothering them or going
wrong, since they often lack a framework or
vocabulary for thinking about and discussing their
studying. They may need diagnostic help: to
identify or disentangle problems, to put these in
perspective, and to decide what is most important
to try and sort out first. They may also need help
in searching out their positive assets those
strengths, achievements and existing skills on which
they can build.
Diagnostic help initially involves listening
attentively and acting very much as a sounding
board. The aim is to appreciate more readily the
student's own concerns and to avoid giving a stock
response. If a student finds it hard to articulate a
problem, he or she will need encouragement to say
more about how they go about studying or
whatever is the issue. Starting with questions which
focus on who, what, when, where and how tends to be
a more productive way of discovering what is
happening, rather than the kind of why questions
that can make someone feel put on the spot. By
encouraging students to separate out the facts from
surrounding perceptions and feelings, they can be
helped to reassess the nature of their difficulties and,
hopefully, cut them down to size.

Supporting and Advising Students

In some cases, however, it will become evident that

a matter lies outside the responsibility or the
competence of a teacher to deal with, and
considering whether to refer a student to someone
else is as much in the student's as the teacher's
interest.2 Students may need to be referred to other
academic staff (e.g. the course leader, other lecturers
or the personal tutor) or to support services (e.g.
counselling and advice services run by the
university or student bodies).

CONFIDENTIALITY
Alongside setting limits on the extent of their
involvement, part-time teachers like their full-time
counterparts need to be aware of the thorny issue
of confidentiality. As a general rule students'
privacy must be respected, and considerable care
taken to keep confidences. When it is felt that others
ought to be consulted or alerted to a student's
difficulties, the teacher should inform the student
and get his or her agreement before proceeding
further. Another aspect of protecting students'
interests and maintaining a professional stance is
to avoid getting too friendly with students or
gossiping and grousing, which can be divisive and
unsettling for all concerned. It is unwise for tutors
or demonstrators to get drawn into discussions
about individual members of staff or to be other
than as supportive as they can about the course and
their department.

to instil confidence without promising an

elusive quick-fix;

to offer support, but not open-ended assistance;

However, when an issue does arise that needs

bringing to someone else's attention, such as a
difficulty with the course or the department which
the students generally are experiencing, there need
be no inhibitons about broaching it, tactfully but
assertively. For tutors and demonstrators are a vital
two-way bridge between the undergraduate
students and the academic staff involved in a
course.

to clarify with the student their respective roles

in tackling the problem(s).

REFERENCES

In circumstances where improving matters is less

straightforward and not amenable to speedy
resolution, the tutor or demonstrator should aim:

The student has to shoulder the major responsibility

for change, but can be greatly helped to appreciate
where the difficulties lie, how best to move
forwards, what resources can be drawn upon, and
when reasonable progress has been made. Students
who have put a determined effort into improving
their academic work sometimes find it hard to
gauge when enough is enough, and will need to be
cautioned about making demands upon themselves
which are unrealistically high.

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1.

For a good indication of the main areas within which

students may benefit from assistance, see Race, P. and
Brown, S. (1993) 500 Tips for Tutors. London: Kogan Page.
The section headings are General Study Skills, Starting
Off and Working Together, Lectures and Written Work,
Learning Resources, Various Kinds of Assessment, Life
Skills.

2.

For a helpful discussion of role boundaries and when to

decide to refer students, see Earwaker, J. (1992). Helping
and Supporting Students. Milton Keynes: Society for
Research in Higher Education & Open University Press,
pp. 78-85.

Tutoring and Demonstrating: A Handbook