Tutorials have always been a bit hit and miss with me. They had always been ‘wee chats; in some dressing room or the cafe bar that emerged when a student had a particular issue to deal with. I rarely recorded them and they were only ever held when a student requested one. Last term I decided to change the way in which they were organised. Often our ‘chats’ were unfocused and went off on tangents that were irrelevant to the original goal or reason for the tutorial. Firstly, I scheduled them better, identifying 3 key points during any production. The first was after the first week of rehearsals, then one at the midpoint of thier allocation usually as rehearsals were winding up and they were about to make the transition to the stage. The final (summative) tutorial was after the show had finished and we could reflect on the work they had done. Each ASM, DSM & SM were granted the opportunity to attend on these key points and the option for extra tutorials was also available, if required.These extra tutorials could be requested by the student. This process also gave me an ideal opportunity to personally catch up with how things were going, not just on how the student was, but also at what stage the production was at.
To support the tutorials I created 9 separate ‘pre-tutorial’ forms/questionnaires, one for each role and each keypoint. The idea behind this was to focus the tutorial so we could discuss only the students progress and where I thought they should be. It also gave the student the opportunity to reassess their position and make appropriate changes. This seemed to be welcomed by the students, though a problem quickly arose. Without the necessary time management skills they found it increasingly difficult to produce any sort of qualitative responses to the questionnaires. The amount of paperwork that is required to effectively manage a theatrical production, the questionnaires and the introduction of reflective online journals simply overwhelmed them. Too much paperwork.
How could I improve this situation as the reflective journals and pre-tutorial forms served their educational needs well and the production paperwork was an assessed industry standard? When the students did manage to fill in these forms, I was also impressed by the opinions and reflections expressed in them. Indeed, they were answering the questions in a way which I wished they would do in their reflective journals. To date, these journals have lacked any real deep analytical substance, most being summaries and lists of what they did ‘last week’. I decided to use the pre-tutorial forms as guideline questions that would inform their online blogs. As new reflective practitioners it would give them a loose framework in which to begin the process. It also linked their professional practice directly with the tutorial system and the reflective system. I now check their blogs on Friday afternoons and comment on issues that they may want to consider.
That was only half of the solution. Time management was also an issue that required immediate attention, so I have written in a specific session on managing workloads, with specific focus on paperwork and documentation. This will be delivered in two parts; the first being in 1st year at a foundation level and then continuing in their 2nd specialist year at a more advanced level.
My next goal is to improve on how I record tutorials and why. I find writting down the proceedings to be interuptive to the flow of conversation. I am considering using an mp3 recorder in the future. In the meantime I will continue to log tutorials as I have always done. i.e. in note form.
Learning & Teaching 