The Department of English at Stellenbosch University currently has over 30 tutors of first-year English students, with a small percentage of those also tutoring second-year English studies. The majority of tutorial classes in first year English studies are lead by English tutors.
The tutors are all required to have earned their undergraduate degrees, and must be at the level of postgraduate study. Junior tutors are usually Honours students or postgraduate students who have not taught before. Senior tutors are usually students engaged in pursuing their MA or PhD degrees, or their post-doctoral studies, although this is rare. Junior-level tutors are allocated one tutorial group to teach for the academic year, although in some cases exceptions are made, particularly when a tutor also holds a teaching diploma. Senior tutors typically have more than one group. Some of the department’s lecturers/staff members also make up a minor percentage of the tutoring program.
Applicants for tutoring posts are selected on the basis of their undergraduate or postgraduate academic performance and recommendation by English department staff members, and the selection process also includes an initial interview with the coordinator of the tutor program to assess the suitability of the applicant regarding their motivation, career vision, work ethic, sense of team work ethics, individual goal-orientation and sense of professionalism. Once selected, tutors must undergo the department’s training and orientation program for tutors, which takes place at the beginning of the academic year, before lectures commence. After the first three weeks of classes, tutors are again required to meet, on an individual basis, with the tutor program coordinator to discuss class progress and personal adjustment/compatibility.
The tasks of the department’s tutors include the responsibility of the larger portion of first-year teaching, with the tutors as the prominent figures in the small-group teaching. The tutors are responsible for the grading of all assignments submitted in the classroom, including class exercises and essays. In some cases, individual tutors may be asked to assist in the marking of term test scripts, under the guidance of a lecturer. All tutors partake in essay moderation sessions, mid-year assessment and the end-of-year final marks moderation. All tutors are also available for consultations with their students.
The tutors meet once a week with a resource coordinator, to prepare for classes and to discuss lesson plans, and exchange ideas. Tutors also present their own lesson plans at these meetings, working within the resource coordinator’s framework and vision. In addition to the resource meetings, all tutors also attend a general meeting every week, led by the tutor program coordinator/s. In general meetings, administrative and pedagogical issues are discussed, and tutors have the opportunity of making their individual contributions to the tutoring program through suggestions and ideas.
Tutors are responsible for the pedagogical consistency of their classes, maintaining the intellectual vision of the department, monitoring student behavior, attendance and progress, and enforcing controlled discipline, such as excluding students who do not attend class regularly. Tutors are to adhere to lesson plans and ideas as discussed and imparted in resource meetings, but also to do so in a manner that is compatible with their unique manner of teaching, keeping in line with the required professionalism and decorum the university expects its teachers to display, and ensuring that the necessary learning outcomes are met. Tutors are evaluated on their performance by their students at the end of each semester.
Numerous tutors also weigh in extra duties, most notably senior tutors. A senior tutor can be selected to assist the coordinator of tutors in administrative duties and the spreading of information and depending on expertise, various tutors can volunteer to be implemented elsewhere, such as the maintenance of the tutor website or the running of the English Society. Certain tutors are also involved in the university’s crucial Early Assessment Program, offering mentorship to at-risk students as of the first term through specially allocated classes described by the tutors as Academic Assistance (AA). Some tutors also operate in the university’s Writing Laboratory, acting as trained consultants to students facing difficulties with academic writing.
The department’s tutors typically receive highly positive feedback from their students, and feature as a key component to the management of first year English Studies. There is a noted degree of professionalism, involvement and intellectual agency among the English Department tutors and the success of the tutor program can be attributed to this. Many of the tutors lean towards teaching careers, and some have already pursued other outlets, such as teaching at other universities and at language schools catering for foreign language learners. The English Department relies heavily on its tutor program, and therefore has a pool of tutors that is necessarily larger than those of other departments in the university, owing to the large numbers of students English tutors work with.
The tutors are all required to have earned their undergraduate degrees, and must be at the level of postgraduate study. Junior tutors are usually Honours students or postgraduate students who have not taught before. Senior tutors are usually students engaged in pursuing their MA or PhD degrees, or their post-doctoral studies, although this is rare. Junior-level tutors are allocated one tutorial group to teach for the academic year, although in some cases exceptions are made, particularly when a tutor also holds a teaching diploma. Senior tutors typically have more than one group. Some of the department’s lecturers/staff members also make up a minor percentage of the tutoring program.
Applicants for tutoring posts are selected on the basis of their undergraduate or postgraduate academic performance and recommendation by English department staff members, and the selection process also includes an initial interview with the coordinator of the tutor program to assess the suitability of the applicant regarding their motivation, career vision, work ethic, sense of team work ethics, individual goal-orientation and sense of professionalism. Once selected, tutors must undergo the department’s training and orientation program for tutors, which takes place at the beginning of the academic year, before lectures commence. After the first three weeks of classes, tutors are again required to meet, on an individual basis, with the tutor program coordinator to discuss class progress and personal adjustment/compatibility.
The tasks of the department’s tutors include the responsibility of the larger portion of first-year teaching, with the tutors as the prominent figures in the small-group teaching. The tutors are responsible for the grading of all assignments submitted in the classroom, including class exercises and essays. In some cases, individual tutors may be asked to assist in the marking of term test scripts, under the guidance of a lecturer. All tutors partake in essay moderation sessions, mid-year assessment and the end-of-year final marks moderation. All tutors are also available for consultations with their students.
The tutors meet once a week with a resource coordinator, to prepare for classes and to discuss lesson plans, and exchange ideas. Tutors also present their own lesson plans at these meetings, working within the resource coordinator’s framework and vision. In addition to the resource meetings, all tutors also attend a general meeting every week, led by the tutor program coordinator/s. In general meetings, administrative and pedagogical issues are discussed, and tutors have the opportunity of making their individual contributions to the tutoring program through suggestions and ideas.
Tutors are responsible for the pedagogical consistency of their classes, maintaining the intellectual vision of the department, monitoring student behavior, attendance and progress, and enforcing controlled discipline, such as excluding students who do not attend class regularly. Tutors are to adhere to lesson plans and ideas as discussed and imparted in resource meetings, but also to do so in a manner that is compatible with their unique manner of teaching, keeping in line with the required professionalism and decorum the university expects its teachers to display, and ensuring that the necessary learning outcomes are met. Tutors are evaluated on their performance by their students at the end of each semester.
Numerous tutors also weigh in extra duties, most notably senior tutors. A senior tutor can be selected to assist the coordinator of tutors in administrative duties and the spreading of information and depending on expertise, various tutors can volunteer to be implemented elsewhere, such as the maintenance of the tutor website or the running of the English Society. Certain tutors are also involved in the university’s crucial Early Assessment Program, offering mentorship to at-risk students as of the first term through specially allocated classes described by the tutors as Academic Assistance (AA). Some tutors also operate in the university’s Writing Laboratory, acting as trained consultants to students facing difficulties with academic writing.
The department’s tutors typically receive highly positive feedback from their students, and feature as a key component to the management of first year English Studies. There is a noted degree of professionalism, involvement and intellectual agency among the English Department tutors and the success of the tutor program can be attributed to this. Many of the tutors lean towards teaching careers, and some have already pursued other outlets, such as teaching at other universities and at language schools catering for foreign language learners. The English Department relies heavily on its tutor program, and therefore has a pool of tutors that is necessarily larger than those of other departments in the university, owing to the large numbers of students English tutors work with.
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