Testing tuts

Due to the fact that I had missed one of my tutorials on Monday I took it upon my diligent self to attend a make-up tutorial. Actually my friend forced me to join the tutorial so I did and was both impressed and concerned about the style of tutoring. In my usual tutorial, there is a definite structure and our group is usually divided into two teams and we spend most of the time debating different points. Our tutor is strict but not to the point of extremity. She allows enough freedom to make everyone comfortable with one another but there allows no chance for the session to flip over into the unruly power of the students and we are certainly never allowed to leave early. In the tutorial I attended today, there seemed o be a lack of respect toward the tutor from some students and others did not participate at all while only a small few engaged in the discussion. The students managed to sway form the topic at every possible chance and it was evident that the tutorial was under the control of the students and not the tutor. I did get good information from attending this tutorial but afterwards I had to express my interest at the difference in the two tutorials. One of the students replied that although it may seem a little unruly, they love the way it is conducted. Their tutor fully believes that he should not have to contribute if his tutlings do not. It is the policy at Rhodes that tutorials are not another lecture but rather a discussion group where the tutor merely acts as a facilitator. So in this tutors opinion, he is only the facilitator and if the tutlings feel that they are confident enough not to contribute, whether that is the case or not, it is their decision. It is a good and important policy because I realised that a lot of the tutors spoon feed students, which just adds to the worrying statistic that this year’s students are some of the dumbest universities have seen, but more about that in another post.