Purpose: To know the digital competence of rural teachers to carry out the tutoring process with members of the educational community through digital resources (teacher-student, teacher-families and teacher-teaching team). As specific objectives, gender, teaching specialties, interaction between gender*teaching speciality, and significant…

Question-asking is essential for being, knowing and learning. However, classroom research has confirmed that students do not ask questions spontaneously and teachers ask the most questions, mainly low-level ones. The purpose of this qualitative case-study is to investigate question-asking during problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials, a subject…

This paper explores one practitioner's learning development work with PhD students in a changing university context in which managerialism and financial stringency have combined. It questions how learning development practitioners can maintain their professional goals while negotiating issues arising from managerialism, financial stringency,…

Case-based learning formats, in which relevant case information is provided just in time, require teachers to combine their scaffolding role with an information-providing one. The objective of this study is to establish how this combination of roles affects teacher behavior and that, in turn, mediates students' reasoning and problem solving. Data…

Students are considered to be the main "customers" in universities and polytechnics and increasingly they seek to have their needs met. This is one of the main reasons for persistent calls for the improvement of teaching in higher education. Tutors play an important role in the delivery of undergraduate education, although they are often…

From tape recordings of 30 tutorial sessions at the Open University it is concluded that the teacher's role is less than the ideal of facilitator of learning; there is great pressure from students for the teacher to instruct rather than discuss the course material. (MSE)

Until recently, the model of student support operating at Sheffield City Polytechnic (SCP) in England involved pairing each student with a tutor, defining an entitlement of time for the student, specifying a minimum time commitment for which the tutor is required to be available, and leaving it up to the tutor and student to get together as best…

Describes an evaluative study conducted at the Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia) that examined the role of face-to-face tutorials as an optional supplement to other instructional materials at a distance education institution. Attitudes, characteristics, and roles of the tutors are examined, and student attitudes are briefly discussed. (21…

A University of Limburg (Denmark) study investigated the effects of tutor expertise on medical student performance using curricular materials that have high or low levels of structure and that are poorly or well matched to students' levels of prior knowledge. The study found neither expert nor nonexpert tutors compensated for lack of curricular…

A research project examined the effectiveness of using personal tutors/counselors in distance education programs as a means of reducing student attrition. In the experiment, one person integrated the roles of different tutors in different subjects as well as the role of the student advisor in the ordinary distance education system. The main…

A study of 336 staff-led, problem-based tutorial groups in a European university health sciences program found that students who were tutored by subject-matter experts achieved somewhat better and spent more time on self-directed learning. In addition, tutoring skill and content knowledge were important in effective tutoring. (Author/MSE)