By: Brian Dobias
Whether you are in a school setting or community agency, the debate surrounding
the selection of potential tutors is always, should students be selected based on
subject knowledge, or on their ability to teach? Of course, a case can be made for
either side of this debate, but in the end, effective peer tutors really need to be
proficient at both the instructional skills and subject knowledge.
Over the years, as I’ve observed peer mentors working with students on various
subjects. I was also able to see that some tutors were clearly more popular than
others. It seemed that most of the tutors were equally proficient in subject
knowledge, so my initial thought was that the popular tutors simply socialized
more than the others. I later came to realize that this was not the case. The tutors
that were most requested as a source of academic assistance possessed two
qualities not always evident in the other peer tutors.
The first quality was that they possessed an interpersonal skill set that allowed them
to be more approachable. During training sessions, we always emphasized the need
for tutors to make their tutees feel comfortable enough to be willing to admit that
they didn’t understand some of the material or problems. The second quality the
tutors seemed to possess was an ability to explain material in a clear and logical
manner that made the subject matter easy to understand and follow. This was a
quality that we specifically evaluated during the tutor selection process during the
group interviews. An activity that we found quite helpful to use for this task was
an activity called “Draw!” The activity was not only useful in the selection
process, we also revisited it during our training sessions.
Draw!
Activity Goals: To enhance awareness of instructional skills and the importance of listening.
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Drawing Handouts, blank sheets of paper & pencils
Preparation:
Create and copy several simple drawing using geometric shapes. (See example
below).
Line up chairs in pairs, back to back.
Directions:
Explain that this activity is to help demonstrate the challenges of effective communication.
Have the group sit in pairs, on chairs, with their backs to each other.
Hand out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil to one person in each pair. Make
sure there is a hard surface on which the person can write, such as a book.
Give a copy of one of the handouts to the other person. Make sure each pair has
a different handout.
The task of the person with the handout is to describe the shape verbally so the
other person can draw it exactly as it appears on the handout. The person drawing cannot ask questions or speak in any way. Neither person can look at the other person’s paper.
After several minutes, instruct everyone to stop. They may then look at their
drawings and compare with the original handout.
Processing Questions:
How accurate were your drawings?
What was challenging about this?
How helpful would it have been if the drawer could have interacted verbally with
the other person?
How does this demonstrate the difficulties we may experience in communicating
with others?
Do you ever make assumptions about what you think the other person is saying
and you are incorrect?
What does this demonstrate that we may do differently to improve our communications with others? (For example, to be as specific as we can when we
are trying to relay information, to ask questions if we are not clear about what the
other person is saying, asking clarifying questions is an important aspect of
effective listening)
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