The Course
Introduction
The introductory training serves as a foundation for tutors in their role. It provides core didactic principles, including defining and understanding the role of a tutor, shaping the relationship with students, introducing learning processes and how to support them, creating a productive learning atmosphere, and becoming familiar with a range of didactic methods.
Practice
When leading tutorials, questions and challenges may arise that you cannot or do not wish to resolve on your own. In such cases, exchange and an external perspective are helpful. Both new and experienced tutors are invited to present their concerns in order to find solutions together. Typical challenges and questions that tutors encounter include, for example:
- “How do I deal with disruptions in tutorials?”
- “What can I do if nobody participates or only a few students engage?”
- “How should I respond if my professional competence is questioned?”
- “What should I do if there are significant differences in students’ levels of knowledge?”
- “How can I assess fairly?”
- “Is my approach appropriate?”
Following the guided method of “Collegial Practice Consultation,” you will exchange experiences from your tutorials, work on specific problem cases, and develop strategies for (teaching) situations in which you may still feel uncertain.
Collegial practice consultation is also valuable for those who have had only positive experiences so far: on the one hand, you take on the role of consultant; on the other hand, you develop possible strategies for dealing with situations that may arise in the future.
Workshops
In the two-hour workshops, you can deepen your knowledge of leading tutorials. The range of workshops is broad and available in both German and English. You may choose from the full range and select three workshops that best suit your needs and interests.
Conclusion
Teaching does not end with planning and delivering courses. An equally important component is reflection after completing a course. This includes reconsidering teaching methods, defining learning objectives, and evaluating communication with students. It is also advisable to regularly reassess the use of digital tools. To deepen this reflection process, peer exchange provides an effective format.
The Tutor Qualification Programme follows the principle of “learning with and from each other.” At the end of the semester, tutors have the opportunity to reflect on their teaching in a protected setting and exchange with peers. In digital meetings, tutors from JLU engage with tutors from Philipps University of Marburg, share experiences, compare teaching methods, and discuss their didactic approaches in order to learn from one another and further develop their skills.