Issue 2 Winter 2000 Welcome to the 2nd edition of the - School of ...

Student Viewpoint on Staff DevelopmentAsked to write an article about tutor training sessions from a student’s stance I was at firstunsure that I was the right person for the task. However, having participated in three trainingsessions and attended the PBL forum in September of this year (as a student voice amongstthe sea of tutors) I suppose I have qualification enough!It would be misleading to say that students only go to PBL training sessions in order tofurther good PBL tutoring. A financial incentive and the prospect of free lunches and coffeegoes a long way towards luring us away from the wards and lecture theatres! However, Iwould like to think that we are not (all) so mercenary: there are many other aspects of thesessions which are enjoyable. Most of us are not afraid to speak our minds about PBL, andhere we are provided with the perfect forum to do so. Once the role-playing is completed weare given the opportunity to discuss PBL with a whole room full of potential tutors. What awonderful chance to teach our teachers about some of the qualities that we would like them tohave! The fact that the audience invariably appears to be engaged and genuinely interested inwhat we have to say is particularly rewarding. On top of this the sessions are good fun andthe mock-tutorials usually reinforce our medical knowledge – and even teach us somethingnew at times!As with anything, PBL tutor training has a number of areas in which there is room forcriticism. An unavoidable occurrence, since this is a voluntary activity, is that only the mostoutspoken students are present. This results in unrealistically articulated and vociferousmock discussion., not usually requiring much input from the tutor. Perhaps a follow up tothese sessions could be to give potential tutors the opportunity to tutor a “real” PBL sessionalongside the group’s usual tutor, allowing them to encounter situations which they may findmore challenging. Also, “refresher courses” for current tutors may be of use. Perhaps theyalready exist, but some tutors do not always give the impression that they recall all of theskills taught at the training courses!I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend the PBL forum, which was something of an eyeopenerfor all students involved! We were given an insight into the mechanics of running aPBL tutorial and the sort of problems that tutors face. We were invited to share our ownexperiences and ideas with the tutors, much as we would in a training session. The wholeevent was interesting, but to me the most intriguing aspect of the afternoon was the disparityin the approach to PBL that seemed to exist between Years 1&2 and Years 3-5 Tutors. Goingthrough the medical course I have noticed the difference in tutoring styles between theyears, the former being more directive than the latter, but always assumed this was due tostudents’ increasing familiarity with the PBL framework. However, the forum has made mequestion this assumption. The majority of Years 1&2 tutors seemed to be confident in theirrole whilst the Years 3-5 tutors were less so, yet in my experience the approaches that eachadopts to PBL tuition have both positive and negative aspects. I felt that there was a need tomerge the two approaches and encourage communication between tutors of all years.Perhaps tutors should learn how to manage discussion groups of students from all yeargroups; if the PBL approach should not differ between years why should there be a differencein tutoring?Alice Shiner4th Year Medical Student