Tutorials

Tutorials

By Garth Baker

Tutorials are considered important at University. They are usually compulsory and essential for terms. But despite the importance placed on them by different departments, tuts are frequently unbeneficial to the student.

The major cause of tuts being a waste of time is the people in them. This is providing, of course, that the subject is interesting and deep enough for discussion. At university level it should be. But no matter what the subject is, it is up to the people in the tuts to make them worthwhile.

However, the people, be they tutor or student, usually lower the tuts worth through over-participation or under participation.

Over participation on the tutors part, is by being extremely aggressive when expounding and idea or criticising something. This results in the other tut members becoming intimidated to the point of silence. Sure, free discussion on alternatives is fine, but acceptance of others ideas, and expecially the acceptance of their right to state their view, is of prime importance.

Students can also over-participate in a tut by expounding their views on every subject all the time. They may be worth hearing, but so are the opinions of every other person. But nobody-can get a dialogue going because of this dominating monologue.

At the other extreme from dominating over participation is the apathetic under participation.

Once again this can be on the tutors part or can be done by the student. A good example of a tutors apathy, and so non participation is on page five of the 12 July Salient, in the geog. article. This boredom towards one's own subject by the tutor is appalling. Supposedly the university should be throbbing with intellectual keeness, but instead tutors are only there for the money, or the security. The politest thing to be said of these people is that a Muldoon cutback in Education should cut them out.

Under participation by the students can decrease a tuts benefit too. Students that can't be bothered to think, read, state their mind (even if it is that they don't want to be there) are a dead weight to the tutorial. Ideally a shot of idealism is needed by them, or some pluravit capsules, so that they do become involved in the tut.

So generally, too much or too little participation by tutorial members greatly detracts from the tut's benefits to subject understanding. Yet, tuts are still considered important for a students assessment. This anomoly can be overcome two ways. The first is the lessoning of the tutorials importance in gaining terms or a final grade. The second, and the most important way, is by people who are members of a tutorial group, to take an objective view on their involvement in the tut and then to do something about it.