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Send to friendManaging preparedness of casual teaching staff for the biology practical
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When multiple tutors/demonstrators are used in a subject, students receive a significant range in answers/instructions/degrees of help. Depending on the assistance they receive, their results for the laboratory practical, answers for the tutorial questions and/or perceptions of key concepts required for summative assessment may be positively or negatively affected. We need to optimise the preparedness of casual teaching staff in large tutorial or practical biology classes to ensure all students receive fair and high quality assistance.
Often casual or sessional staff arrive on the job just before the class is to commence and in many circumstances these staff still have outstanding questions themselves or misunderstandings of important aspects required for the current class. That is, they are not adequately prepared. To ensure that these staff members did not go out into the class and disseminate false answers or misconceptions to the students (which may negatively affect the students' assessment), a 15 minute tutor meeting was initiated before every practical/tutorial. These meetings were compulsory, but in order to optimise staff attendance, these 15 minutes were included in their pay periods.
These meetings allowed staff to compare answers for set questions, discuss understanding of key concepts, raise any questions that were still outstanding and discuss methodology for practical activities/experiments in that day's practical/tutorial. Each meeting was run by a head tutor that was decided upon by the subject's lecturer/coordinator and the lecturer/coordinator would also attend this meeting when possible.
The 15 minute tutor meeting increased the confidence and performance of younger and/or less experienced casual staff where they could learn from techniques used by the older/more experienced staff members in a mentoring fashion during these meetings. This allowed for growth of the younger staff who would be replacing the 'older' staff in the near future. Furthermore it increased the preparedness of casual staff before the commencement of the practical/tutorial to optimise student learning and minimise dissemination of false or misconceived material. This reduced the pressure placed upon the head tutor, for they now had more confidence/trust in their tutoring team to do the job well (e.g. they did not need to correct other tutors' mistakes with students). Student satisfaction also increased due to fewer instances of conflicting responses from different tutors on the same problem and a more professional attitude seen in the tutors.
