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Working One-on-One with Students
Assisting students one-on-one, whether it be in office hours, tutoring sessions, or independent study courses, requires that you pay special attention to building rapport, motivation, flexibility, diagnostic skills, listening actively, and developing a repertoire of teaching skills to accommodate students' different learning styles.
Office Hours
The university teacher's office is an important extension of the classroom. This is one of the few places where the sense of impersonality at the university can be broken. Working individually during office hours can be a source of satisfaction both to the student and teacher. Most faculty and TAs have office hours, but students are not necessarily required to come in during those times. Usually office hours are scheduled before the quarter begins and announced to the students during the first week.
One alternative is to check with students about convenient office hour times before scheduling them. Some faculty ask the TAs who work with them to schedule office hours during times that alternate with theirs, thus increasing the number of office hours that one or the other will be available to meet with students. While the number of office hours you decide to hold per week will depend upon the policies and usual practices of your department--or, for TAs, the expectations of your supervising professor--two hours twice a week probably will be sufficient.
Some students are reluctant to come to office hours because their school experience tells them that going to the office is either a punishment or an admission of failure. Freshmen and sophomores are not used to personal contact at the university and may need more urging. A comment on a paper (e.g., "Please see me about this.") brings about a 75% response. One way to get students to visit during office hours is to frequently let them know that they are welcome. Invite them individually. In class, tell your students that you care about their learning and remind them of when your office hours are scheduled. Some instructors make at least one office visit a course requirement. Others find that posting answers to quiz or homework problems on or around their office doors can be an effective means of attracting students to office hours. However, federal law prohibits the public posting of students' names, grades, and other student records.
While in general, not as many students may take advantage of office hours, on occasion you may encounter students who are overly dependent on you either for assistance with course material or for companionship and counsel. It may be necessary to set limits with students. You might try encouraging them to tackle assignments on their own before coming to you for help, or explain to them that you have limited time to spend with each student and must, therefore, restrict the frequency and duration of office visits.
Once in your office, it is sometimes challenging to determine what problem the student is having. If the student's problems are general--she dislikes the textbook, he is overwhelmed by the lecture material, she panics when given a test, he is not comfortable with the format for written assignments, she has never used a computer, he has never been in a chemistry lab before--you can provide general advice on study skills, lab methods, or campus survival techniques. See Tutoring for suggestions on how best to help students learn in this one-on-one environment.
If a student's problems seem too large for instructors to deal with, or if the problems are personal in nature, it is best to make a referral. A number of support services for learning are provided at each of Ohio State's campuses. Some serve the entire Ohio State student population, such as the Walter E. Dennis Learning Center (Columbus campus), the Philip A. Heath Center for Teaching and Learning (Lima campus), the Conard Learning Center (Mansfield campus), and the University Writing Center (multiple campuses). Some are more specific, such as the Student Athlete Support Services Office (Columbus campus), the Office for Disability Services, and the Office of Minority Affairs Tutoring Program. These programs offer services to help students improve study and writing skills, assist them with learning disabilities or psychological anxieties connected with learning, and provide tutoring in specific subject areas. Instructors should follow up on a referral by asking students whether the services helped. This shows that they continue to be interested in the students, and also can help instructors to gain information on services that may help them advise others in the future.
Tutoring
Most student problems will center on course content. Helping a student break a problem into a series of small, easily solved steps is usually more effective than trying to get the student to make one giant intellectual leap. Instructors should avoid simply providing a student with the answer, or explaining the entire process or concept followed by a statement such as, "See, it's really simple--do you understand it now?". By implementing the following suggestions, instructors can help students with the process of learning.
- Request that students state the question, process, or problem
in their own
words; then, ask for other examples or applications. Instructors can try to
determine what the student already understands and how she or he
learned that.
This knowledge can be used as the basis for dealing with
problematic material.
Personalizing the material--helping students understand how specific
knowledge is useful in non-academic settings--can increase
students'
motivation and also may reveal that they already understand more than they
thought they did.
- Help students apply general concepts and techniques to the specific problem. For example, if a student can solve simple equations, the instructor can help break down the complex equations that are causing problems into a series of smaller, more familiar, equations. If the student understands the meaning of the novel or picture but is having trouble making a coherent argument, instructors can help the student list his or her points and then determine the best way to arrange them into an essay. If the student can perform the experiment correctly but does not understand its significance, instructors can help the student relate the physical changes observed in the lab to the theoretical material in the textbook or lecture notes. If the student understands the lecture material but is baffled by the text, she or he can be asked to "translate" the reading material into everyday English.
- Encourage students to state in their own words how the concepts and techniques provide the solution to the problem. Students often have difficulty moving from general knowledge to specific situations and from specific situations to general principles. Usually the problem comes from a lack of practice; often it is lack of familiarity with the discipline's specialized vocabulary. It is important that instructors carefully explain any unusual words. Once students are able to explain a process in their own words, they can be helped to "translate" their answer into academic language. Students who know how to put their own ideas into academic language may have an easier time "unraveling" the next problem they encounter.
- Give students a similar problem requiring the same concept or technique for its solution and encourage them to practice solving other similar problems. The goal is to avoid having students successfully solve one problem only to go home and discover that they have not mastered the material sufficiently to work on their own. Experiences like this can cause students to lose faith in their instructor's ability to teach and their ability to learn.
Throughout this process, it is important to keep in mind that a positive approach will help students learn. Acknowledging what they already know, focusing on their ability to learn more, and praising them for each advance they make are keys to advancing their learning.
Tutoring provides an exciting opportunity to assist each student in the learning process. Many students are unsure of their ability to do academic work. They may view academic work as mysterious and difficult. It is important to accept this feeling and demonstrate in interactions with students that what they are learning will be useful to them. Leaving each student who comes for extra help with some feeling of mastery, however large or small, can have lasting effects.
Independent Study Courses
Teaching students within the context of an independent study requires some unique strategies. Generally, this type of course requires students to work autonomously on a scholarly activity such as a research project. The instructor's responsibility is to keep the students on task. These courses may also be developed in cases where students have a special interest in a topic for which no course is offered. It is important that students who take an independent study have enough maturity to help identify the content's scope and depth. Therefore, this type of course is usually taken by more senior undergraduate or graduate students.
To create a productive learning experience, it is important to create the course together. On the syllabus, some instructors will help set the tone for the course with comments such as
"This course is a joint venture between the two of us. Your job is to drive and navigate. My job is to watch for potholes and keep you headed in the general direction of successful completion."
"I will expect that you take the initiative to develop your own project design."
"If you run into problems, come to our meetings with a couple of possible solutions for the problem."
A contract signed both by the instructor and the student can decrease or eliminate any confusion about how the course will be run. Provide a preliminary list of assignments to students taking an independent study. Ask your students to determine the independent study's course calendar on their own; then, work together with the students both to review the calendar and make final decisions on due dates. On the contract, list the tasks that must be accomplished, as well as assignments, deadlines, and expectations for workload and academic conduct. The following example assignments could be created in any discipline.
Read five journal articles you think are important to your project.
Write a one-page critique on each article.
Create an annotated bibliography that includes at least three new articles.
Keep a journal of activities (hand it to me in our meetings each week).
Attend a seminar on ________.
Write a summary of weekly accomplishments.
Meeting weekly, and perhaps even more frequently near the end of the academic term, will provide students with adequate time to talk about their progress, ask questions, and discuss readings.
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