Laura Symons
Super Tutors: Cross-Training and Multiple Roles for Success
Over the history of tutoring in higher education, many different formats for organizing tutoring programs
have been tried, most often involving groups of tutors defined by a skill set or discipline working in
isolation from tutors for other skills sets and disciplines. Often, the training and supervision of these tutors
would also be separate. With the emergence of Learning Centers, a more holistic model has become
possible to bring groups of tutors together in one administrative structure. Cross training tutors can provide
a win-win situation for the tutors, tutees, and your center. Whether they are called “Super Tutors,”
“Academic Coaches” or “Peer Mentors,” or all three, tutors who are given the opportunity to play a variety
of roles in the learning center will give you much more “bang for your buck” and be better employees.
In a time of cutbacks and dwindling budgets combined with heightened expectations for services, learning
center directors can use all the help we can get to make our tutoring programs efficient and cost effective.
Cross-trained tutors can provide this help. Training tutors to help students in many subjects as well as
providing basic learning assistance: reading, writing, and study skills, and time and stress management for
example, will allow more flexibility in the staff. If office management, public relations, computer, and
clerical skills are added to the mix, professional staff time can be better used in team and program building
and to do outreach on campus and in the community.
Of the many possibilities for tutors and their training, the following three models can provide some
perspectives on different ways to approach learning support in your center: Super Tutors, Peer Mentors,
and Academic Coaches. Super Tutors are students or professional tutors trained to help students in two or
more disciplines among humanities, math, and sciences. Peer Mentors are tutors who receive additional,
special training to provide learning assistance to at-risk student populations, primarily of traditional age.
Academic Coaches are trained to work primarily though not exclusively with non-traditional students,
especially adults returning to college.
I have heard teachers say that because they know how to teach, they can teach anything—just give them the
book and they can take it from there. To a great degree, the same is true of tutors. For the best teaching,
however, you want the expert, the person you know has expertise in and a passion for the material. Tutors,
especially, peer tutors need to have had recent exposure to the material they are helping the student to learn.
But tutors are not teachers and should not be expected to have the grasp of the subject a teacher has. The
teacher delivers content. The tutor facilitates a process. So, a super tutor can be trained how to help the
student find their own way into the material. Rita Smilkstein (We’re Born to Learn) has done a lot of work
on brain-centered learning and how to help students learn how they best learn. This kind of
information/training can really help a tutor to become flexible and adaptable.
When hiring your super tutor, request a transcript and discuss what subjects he or she would feel
comfortable working with. This is especially important for the advanced students who apply to be peer
tutors as they will often have a course with a high grade that they feel (often rightly so) that they know little
about. It’s best to work in their comfort zone at least to a certain extent.
Super Tutors can also be trained to do administrative work. If you have a walk-in center and there are slow
times, you can have a list of projects that can be worked on by the tutor with no one to tutor. This has
numerous benefits. The tutor who works at the reception desk, does filing, PR, research and development
for your website, writes a newsletter, or keeps records or even the books will not be bored or feel like he or
she is wasting the college’s money by sitting around studying or doing nothing. Even more important is the
sense of belonging and being part of a team that comes with everyone multi-tasking together.
Super Tutors receive cross-training. They are prepared to tutor two or more subjects, they are trained to
work with several kinds of students, e.g., beginning and advanced, international students, and students with
learning disabilities. They can be further trained to work as Mentors and Academic Coaches. It almost
goes without saying that it’s important to train the tutors to certification standards, e.g. through NTA or
Laura Symons
CRLA. It can be very useful to have the veteran Super Tutors involved in hiring, training, in workshops for
classes, and creating materials for training and tutoring.
A great way to begin the career of your Super Tutor is as an apprentice. The format for an Apprentice
Program is similar to a peer tutor program. The apprentice is a first-year student who has advanced
placement or has scored high on entrance or placement tests. These tutors are hired and trained along with
other tutors. The big difference is that they observe tutoring (for three hours a week) for most of the first
semester and gradually begin to tutor under the observation of the tutor with whom they have been paired.
Then, second semester, they become full-fledged tutors. This provides meaningful work for first-semester
students-- a retention tool as well as a way to insure a steady supply of great Super Tutors. Apprenticeship
programs are especially useful in the community-college setting where the tutor staff turnover is especially
high. You may want to consider having the training and observation semester be on a volunteer basis. The
students who are willing to give their time or feel the education they get to be sufficient pay, are the Super
Tutors who will be the loyal, team players you want in your center.
Tutors facilitate a process in a subject. Academic Coaches/Mentors tutor learning itself. A coach/mentor
tutors learning efficiency. One of the challenges for college students is developing learning and study skills
for college level achievement while taking courses and leading usually-complicated lives. The
coach/mentor helps the student with his or her particular needs, including tutoring reading, writing, study,
and test-taking skills, along with time and stress management. Students meet with coaches/mentors
regularly, on a one-to-one basis, setting goals for the semester and developing the skills to achieve those
goals in the most efficient manner. Coaches provide skills training based on the needs of each individual
student and refer students to subject-matter tutors and other support services when needed. There are a
variety of places to start in working with a student. The coach helps the student understand that his/her
education is his/her responsibility. However, it is also important that the student come to understand that
that does not mean that the student must do everything by himself or herself. Depending on a one’s
learning style, collaborative learning may be the most efficient choice for the individual.
Super Tutors who coach or mentor find themselves to be better, more efficient students. It is work that
instills loyalty to the process and the team in both the provider and the recipient. The respect you show
your staff by the high standards you set will be passed on to the students they work with. Thinking outside
of the box of one subject, one function per person, can make your center easier to run and a better place to
work.