Tutor Feedback: Responses from Learning Assistants
Compiled/Analyzed by Dennis Chowenhill, Acting Tutor Coordinator
Fall 2010
QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES
[The following data were gathered from Learning Assistants (LAs) during the fall term 2010. All the
questions to which they responded are included in this tally. The wordings of the responses are quoted
verbatim, except for minor spelling revisions. The responses from Fire Technology LAs and online LAs
are separated and labeled, for identification. Bob Buell of the Fire Academy has been developing the use of
LAs in field exercises so that his LAs have an unusually broad range of activities and responsibilities as
they work with students. The online tutors are part of a pilot project that is examining online tutorials.]
1. Describe what you do in the classroom as a Learning Assistant. Be as specific as possible so
that the reader of this will be able to “see you at your work.”
Foster the English abilities of students and get personal to give them the info they need.
I am an LA for Art and my job entails clarifying what assignments are being done, assisting
students that need it, and offer suggestions on how to improve their works.
I help students in a drawing class learn how to draw. Most of it is clarifying the teacher’s
explanations and sharing ‚tricks of the trade‛ when needed.
I help students with their exercises when the teacher gives them something to do. Whenever a
student needs help with anything, I’m there. I also erase the board for the teacher, so it
doesn’t take time for her to do so.
Assist the teacher with handouts and instructions, go around during group work or while
they’re (students) are working on tasks to help them with their progress.
Go to every class and sit in on group work. Available for questions and discussions throughout
class.
I answer student’s questions. I explain to students how to complete their homework.
[Fire Tech]:
I am a set of eyes and ears. I am there anticipating if something was to go wrong.
I assist students with manipulative skills and some book work for the Fire Tech program. Help
them understand the ‚why‛ aspect.
Help Fire Academy students develop necessary skills and education to become successful in
training drills.
Help and assist the instructors and students with their skills at the tower.
[online]:
Receive emails from students who seek help with online homework assistance. I discuss the
problems and show the steps on how to solve them.
I read or answer questions online through Blackboard.
2. Describe the training, or guidance, that you have received from the instructor for whom you
are working.
Nothing. My professor helps me, but nothing aside from that.
We discuss things after class now and then. Much of the work is self-explanatory.
Guidelines for classroom assignments, the instructor’s expectations, the students that need the
most help.
I just follow as she does, and she sets a great positive example.
My instructor has very little and simple requirements. We are to identify those students that
are struggling with the work and assist them, attempting to apply the correct/required skills
being taught.
How to describe to students how to figure out their work.
He showed me which students had lower grades in order for me to assist them.
[Fire Tech]
I have attended the Chabot Fire Academy and Capt. Buell also teaches us the ways of dealing
with a student with a learning disability.
Capt. Buell is always available to give guidance when there is something that is unclear. He is
excellent at helping someone understand a concept.
How to address different learning needs of individuals with various learning styles.
I went through the academy last hear and that has prepared me to help future academies.
[online]
Make sure not to answer the questions directly but to demonstrate how to get them.
Through emails, whenever I have a question he is able to answer and figure out the best
solution.
3. What makes you feel successful in your work as a Learning Assistant?
When I see that the students understand how to complete their homework.
When the students feel accomplished.
When class starts and my students greet me warmly and in a casual/friendly manner. That
makes my day.
Each time a student understands something I explain to them is like a little gift.
Building a comfortable enough relationship with students so they ask for help if needed and
seeing students pass.
If someone is still eager to continue learning the subject, regardless of their final grade.
When students improve, classroom improvements, etc.
[Fire Tech]
When a student graduates and he tells me thank you for all your help. I know its personal from
the way they say it.
To see tutees successful in drills we practice.
My patience.
When I can at least help one student understand the material/skill if it is unclear.
[online]
When students comment back thanking me for the help.
The students come to me for questions and I am able to answer them. The students leave with a
better understanding.
4. Is it a common experience for you to feel successful working as a Learning Assistant?
_7_ I feel that my work gets results at every class session.
_7_ I feel that my work gets results fairly often, but not all the time.
___ I feel that my work gets results only occasionally.
___ I can’t really see the results of my work, but it seems to be helping some students.
___ I never really see the results of my work.
5. When you feel that you are getting results from your work with students, what are some of
those positive results? How is your work affecting the students in terms of their learning or
confidence or comfort in the classroom?
When they tell me that they understand, and get better.
They seem to work harder when their flaw in writing is shown, so they can improve.
When students can explain something to me after I explain it them, then I feel like did
something. I’m an LA for French, so when they talk with me, it builds their confidence when
responding in class.
Students say thank you. I think students like knowing that they can approach their peers for
help.
This is subject to change. At times it is measured in the student’s achievement. Other times, it
is measured in the student’s attitude towards the subject or the student’s comfort level with
the subject. Hopefully my work is encouraging students to be curious about drawing and to
not give up this skill simply because they are ‚not artists.‛
The class seems more comfortable with me in class. They see me during class and outside.
[Fire Tech]
When the student meets time on a test and I know I had something to do with getting them
there.
Students learn skills and become confident in their own ability to execute them.
I see students grasping information and see them achieve passing scores/times.
They pass the skills successfully under time with little or no errors.
[online]
I hope that when they get positive results from the homework, it translates into positive test
scores and comprehension of the work.
They are able to answer questions back and connect information learn how to find info
themselves and answer other students questions.
6. When you feel frustrated with your work as a Learning Assistant, what are those
frustrations?
When I don’t have an immediate answer.
When a student needs constant reminder to work.
When my students ruin their work, even after many attempts at correcting and embellishing
their work (many many times).
I don’t really feel frustrated in the class.
Feeling like students still don’t understand the material.
My moments of frustration usually center around attitude. If a student clearly has no intention
of improving and is only staying in class for the units. Unlike for tutors, students do not go to
LAs. We come to them. Sometimes, a student continually undermines their own efforts and
gives up before they even start. Some of this is expected in drawing, but if it continues it can
be frustrating.
Students aren’t prepared—reading, homework.
[Fire Tech]
A student challenges what I say. I tell them read your book or ask your peers.
Students who clearly lack drive and don’t put in the same amount of effort in their
development as I do.
When a student does not open themselves up for our input/help.
When I come across a student that gives you feeling that I can’t help them because I’m just a
Learning Assistant.
[online]
Students ask me for information they can only get from the instructor: Grades, when things are
due, and quizzes not posted.
That the students still don’t understand how to do the problem. It is harder to demonstrate
online rather than in person.
7. In what ways have you, personally, benefitted from your experience as a Learning Assistant?
I feel more confident working with large groups.
Getting to be more comfortable in the classroom environment.
Being the teacher instead of the student was a great turning of the tables.
I’ve learned/relearned many things being in the class and it helps me by telling them the
Material
I’ve learned a lot about my level of patience and my self-confidence.
Where to start! In many ways I’ve learned a lot more about communicating with and
understanding people. My moments of frustration taught me patience, and, yes, even
humility. My own drawing skills have certainly improved. I think that LAing is possibly
more educational than being a student.
I feel that I have helped students earn their grade and realized their potential.
[Fire Tech]
It really takes the questions out of my mind that I want to become a firefighter and that I want
to teach as well.
Review of material and mastery of concepts.
It’s reinforcing everything I’ve learned making me more confident.
It keeps me up to date on the skills/material that I may have forgotten since I went through the
academy.
[online]
I am reviewing the same problems for myself, therefore I get more experience doing the
problems too.
8. How big a factor is it for you as a Learning Assistant to be benefitted personally from the
work?
_5_ It is one of the most important aspects of the work for me.
_6_ I like benefitting from the work personally, but that is not what motivates me most.
_2_ I don’t think much about the benefits to me personally.
9. Would you recommend to any of your friends that they try working as a Learning Assistant?
_12_ Yes.
__1_ No.
Why?
(Yes)
While there are some beneficial things for themselves, it also helps that they help out others.
That is experience that is hard to find.
Because they can learn more and it is a great experience to help others.
It is an experience for leaders.
It’s a great experience that not many people get today.
Because it’s a different perspective. After being a student, it’s almost like learning again from
the standpoint of the teacher without actually being the teacher.
I think that taking up the responsibility of LAing is an opportunity to learn about others and
oneself. In colonial times, all grades in graduate school were in one room. The older students
were put in charge of the younger grades, and everyone benefitted from this. This is an aspect
that has been lost over the years in most learning institutions. LAs and tutors have the
opportunity to experience this again, and I think that everyone should experience this at least
once in their lifetime.
It’s gratifying to see students do well and establish relationships with them.
[Fire Tech]
It’s a good way to reach out to students struggling or not.
I believe that to learn, do, and teach a subject is to master it.
It’s reinforcing everything I’ve learned making me more confident.
To help assist future academies because my academy did not have LAs and I know
it would’ve helped.
(No)
[from an online LA]: The tactics throughs us everywhere and there is no place for us. Most of
the tactics are pointless and not helpful for my working with the students.
10. If you could change anything about the Learning Assistant program, what would the
change(s) be?
Nothing. (2 respondents)
The classes that need learning assistances.
There is no specific instructor for Art LAs. If there were one, that would be nice. Currently Art
LAs enroll in a generic 1B course that are not relevant to their work.
To have more hours to be available to students, possibly drop-in hours.
The time for classes and the paperwork. It’s easy to confuse the job with tutoring, but it’s not
quite the same.
Since everything is still under construction, it’s difficult to suggest anything. Perhaps utilizing
Blackboard [in a face-to-face class] more would help. Encouraging questions and answers
online may increase the feedback to work from. Definitely put up a list of class dates under
Course Materials. LAs are like nomadic tutors. We can’t generalize our experiences or
establish overall work method. So, the only places we can pool our resources and feedback is
in class and online.
I do not gain anything from Tutor 1A! Make the class beneficial!
[Fire Tech]
More subject specific training.
A raise, and pay 2x a month.
[online]
A separate LA office or tutoring room. Increase technology to help communication for online
LAs (video, chat, etc . . .)
Different kind of training, not at all with the tutors. We are completely different and do not fit
into the program as we are just shoved in.
ANALYSIS/OBSERVATIONS
Question 1
Though there is a wide variety of activity in the work of LAs, the responses to this question
about what they do indicate that most of their work involves interacting directly with students
one-to-one or in small groups, and giving immediate ‚point of need‛ assistance. There are also
instances of LAs going beyond this, assessing the needs of the students with whom they work
and offering assistance broader in scope: ‚Offer suggestions on how to improve their works,‛
‚sharing ‘tricks of the trade,’‛ ‚anticipating if something was wrong.‛
Question 2
The training and guidance that instructors provide their LAs might be the area where practices
differ the most. The range is from ‚Nothing. My professor helps me, but nothing aside from
that‛ and ‚I just follow what she does, and she sets a good example‛ to routine LA-instructor
discussions about students’ learning needs and classroom procedures/expectations. The LAs
seem comfortable with this, which might be expected: they have taken the course for which
they are tutoring, and they know the classroom environment of that course and the instructor’s
expectations. Each has also been selected by the instructor, who feels confident that the LA will
work well in the classroom. If LAs were assigned to instructors whom they did not know, or
whose classes they have not taken, the training would likely have to be more extensive and
formal, for both the instructor and the LA. It also makes sense that the training needs will be
significantly different for an LA who is mainly assisting students with small group discussions
in a classroom and an LA who is assisting students in field work where complex equipment is
part of the work. This diversity in itself recommends that LAs routinely be asked about their
satisfaction with the training and guidance that they receive.
Questions 3, 4, and 5
These questions all ask how LAs feel about their work and accomplishments as tutors, and the
responses are all positive (though note a negative response, below, to Question 9). It is
noteworthy that they measure their work primarily in terms of student behaviors and successes.
Question 6
Most of the work frustrations that LAs feel stem from students’ performance—students not
engaging in study, not improving, not understanding. Two responses (‚When I don’t have an
immediate answer‛ and ‚Students ask me for information they can only get from the instructor.
Grades, when things are due, and quizzes not posted [online]‛) express frustration at not
having resources students ask for, which reflects confusion among students about the LA’s role.
This is a concern for instructors to handle which can be addressed, for instance, by the
preparation of instructors asking for LAs.
Question 7
There are two categories of ways that LAs perceive themselves as benefitting from their work:
personal development, for instance in terms of increased confidence and communication skills,
and learning more deeply the subject they are tutoring.
Questions 8 and 9
Of 13 respondents, 38% regard personal reward as of primary importance, and 46% enjoy
personal benefits but do not regard them as their main motivation. Two of the respondents
(15%) don’t think much about personal benefits. Despite this, in responding to Question 9,
regarding why they would recommend LA work to other students, nearly all the responses
reflect the importance of personal satisfaction and reward (‚It is a great experience to help
others,‛ ‚It’s a great experience that not many people get today,‛ ‚It’s an experience for
leaders‛).
In response to Question 9, an online LA observed, ‚The tactics throughs us everywhere and
there is no place for us. Most of the tactics are pointless and not helpful for my working with
the students.‛ ‚Tactics‛ seems to be a reference to the training that the LA received, either in
Tutor Training 1A or the individual training from the instructor for whom the LA worked.
This is another indication that it is important for trainers to discuss with tutors the work,
frustrations, and training needs of tuturs, and that these discussions take place while a term is
in progress, rather than only at the beginning or end of it.
Question 10
Four respondents expressed the need for different training, one of them requesting a Tutor
Training 1B for his discipline (Art). One respondent wants the Tutor Training 1A class to be
more ‚beneficial‛ to him as an LA. These responses recommend more dialogue with LAs about
their training needs, discussions that can be held in Tutor Training 1A and 1B classes. Four of
the respondents request different work conditions, in all cases, desiring more contact with the
students.
There are two notable negative responses to Question 10. An online LA expresses an interest in
‚different kind of training not at all with the tutors. We are completely different and do not fit
into the program as we are just shoved in.‛ Since the online tutor program is still in its pilot
phase, this is an opportune time to consider this LAs request. At the same time, Tutorial staff
need to consider carefully the common ground—in terms of policy, goals, standards, and
practice—among tutors of all disciplines and modalities. A review of the documents describing
tutor responsibilities will indicate that all tutors should be appreciating their common ground
and the advantages of cross training, in terms of teaching modalities. Another tutor (not online)
comments, ‚I do not gain anything from Tutor 1A! Make this class beneficial!‛ This is another
indication that discussions in the Tutor Training 1A class should solicit from tutors their
responses and suggestions for the class. The comment from this student, the most negative
regarding training, it should be noted, requests improvements in the Tutor 1A class, not a
removal of it. The student seems interested in receiving training that he or she will find more
relevant to the tutors’ work.
CONCLUSIONS
The negative comments from tutors in this survey, though coming from only two tutors, merit
consideration of the Tutorial staff, as they all call for more attention to the quality of their
training. It is encouraging that no comments surfaced in this survey that indicated that the
work environment was dissatisfactory to LAs. When asked about their frustrations, the LAs
referred to their frustrations with students who seem unresponsive to their tutoring. Those
LAs who reported that they receive very little individual training from the instructors with
whom they work were satisfied that they were receiving as much individual training as they
needed. As my comments to those responses (Question 2, above) indicate, it is likely that
having recently taken the courses for which they tutor, with the same instructors, the LAs began
their assignments with a good understanding of the work they would be doing.
The tensions that were expressed by online tutors strongly indicate that they need to
understand the tutorial program better and to be made more a part of the tutor community.
When the pilots began for this term, it was noted that ideally online tutors would be recruited
from the staff of tutors who already have experience in the program. This was not possible, so
the online tutors began with little sense of the program and almost no contact with the
community, aside from the few class meetings of Tutor Training 1A. Much valuable
information could be gathered by recruiting experienced face-to-face tutors to do online
tutoring. They would likely have useful suggestions to make about their special needs as online
tutors, and how their work as online tutors parallels or conflicts with the work they have done
as face-to-face tutors.
The responses to this questionnaire, considered with the responses from the same term, from
the instructors using LAs (Responses from instructors: Assessment of Learning Assistants, Fall 2010,
Chowenhill), emphasize the complex effects that LAs have on the learning of the students
whom they assist, and the likelihood that these effects will never be well measured or reflected
in quantitative studies. The response of an Art (Drawing) LA to Question 5, regarding positive
results that LAs can perceive in their work, reflects some of this complexity:
At times it is measured in the student’s achievement. Other times, it is measured in the
student’s attitude towards the subject or the student’s comfort level with the subject.
Hopefully my work is encouraging students to be curious about drawing and to not give
up this skill simply because they are ‚not artists.‛
Reports from the students themselves, in their own words, might bring the college closer to an
understanding and appreciation of the benefits students are receiving from the assistance of
LAs.