Roles and Responsibilities of a Tutor/Trainer Karen Husband October 2011.
I am currently employed as an Employability Skill’s Trainer for Scout-Enterprises, and we form part of a network of providers for the New Work Programme in Gwynedd. My main role is to help people who are long term unemployed to get back into sustainable work by helping them to overcome barriers and participate in training and work placements.My main role as trainer/tutor is to plan lessons appropriate to the learners needs and to prepare appropriate material and recourses for each session. Also to provide support, guidance and one to one help to any learner in accordance with the teacher trainer cycle, and to undergo regular assessments not only of the sessions but of my own delivery to enable me to provide better support of learners and continuous reviews of my own professional development to be able to provide up to date teaching methods and information.
It is my responsibility within my role as trainer/tutor to be fully aware of the requirements of the learners. An induction is held for all customers to ensure that they are provided with all the requirements in regard to Health and Safety, (making them aware of fire regulations and first aid facilities. Data protection, (making them aware of there rights to see information about them, as well as the sharing of said information with other organisations and employer’s) and various other requirements of the programme they are on in regards to harassment and bullying, grievance and complaints and facilities available and use of said facilities. Soft skills and basic literacy and numeracy assessments are used to assist in the planning and design of sessions to ensure that they are delivered at an appropriate level in line with the individual needs of the learners.As well as determining the level the learners are working towards.
It is important to remain as flexible as possible in the delivery of the sessions to be able to, respond to/answer, any, issues/questions raised as calmly as possible, as well as be able to self criticise in regards to any issues/questions that you don’t know the answer to (that if unsure would find out for next session) To try not to be receptive to criticism or respond inappropriately. And to always supply relevant learning materials in line with the session content.I also need to ensure that the language needs of each individual are met in line with Equal Opportunity guidelines, (relevant to an organisation such as ourselves who are delivering to a bi-lingual community), and that there is no discrimination on any level of the delivery or content. Steps must be taken to ensure that the standards and regulations of the organisation are met as well as those of the learners. Further responsibilities are to set an example to learners by dressing appropriately, respecting learner’s boundaries and being careful not to offend, and respect the confidentiality of learners as well as the security of work.
Setting boundaries by establishing ground rules at the start of each session (usually achieved by letting the group decide there own ground rules) enabling effective session/environment management. The Teaching/Training Cycle plays an integral part in the role of trainer/tutor. Preparation is required to establish lesson plans for the session and also any materials that may be required. Identifying the needs of the learners prior to preparing enables me to personalise and tailor the session to the Group.
Designing the session allows me to ensure that materials used for the session are clear, concise and accurate and easily used by learners in the session and any impairments of the learner are considered, (someone with bad eyesight may need printouts in a larger format) you may detect that a learner may require extra support or have to be referred to someone else, so know your boundaries. Also sessions should be designed incorporating the different learning styles of participants.A good resource for this is Kolb & Fry model of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. We all have different learning styles and many of us use more than one style, so it is important to use a variety of techniques when delivering sessions.
[pic] D Kolb Theory In my role as trainer/tutor I need to ensure that the structure and content of the sessions keep the learners interested and is aimed at the learner’s level, whilst adhering to the content required.The learning outcomes, aims and objectives need to be covered in an appropriate manner such as length of session, recourses and assessment methods. The delivery of the session should be flexible whilst staying focussed and must engage the learner’s. This can be achieved by incorporating things like the three major learning styles, Aural (hearing), Visual (seeing), and Kinaesthetic (doing) which assist in enabling all learners to participate fully.
Creating a motivating learning environment is important, helping the learners get the most out of the session.Evaluation is needed as it is important to continually asses the learner’s skill’s, knowledge, and learning throughout the sessions this can be achieved by the use of informal learning checks or more formal exams or tests, or by question and answer sessions or discussion groups. And as a trainer/tutor I need to continually evaluate delivery and content of the sessions so that I can respond to what could be done better not only in regards to session content but on delivery and performance and also within the training cycle as a whole.In summary the role, responsibilities and boundaries of a tutor/trainer in the lifelong learning sector are constantly evolving thing’s and cannot to any great degree be restrained under just one label, Environments and learners individual circumstances suggest that the approach to these subjects should be flexible and adaptable whilst remaining within the requirements and protocols of a given organisation and role. ReferencesThe core of Kolb's four-stage model is a simple description of the learning cycle which shows how experience is translated through reflection into concepts, which in turn are used as guides for active experimentation and the choice of new experiences. Kolb refers to these four stages as: concrete experience (CE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC) and active experimentation (AE).
They follow each other in a cycle. (Figure 1).The cycle may be entered at any point, but the stages should be followed in sequence. The learning cycle thus provides feedback, which is the basis for new action and evaluation of the consequences of that action. Learners should go through the cycle several times, so it may best be thought of as a spiral of cycles.
In brief Kolb conceptualizes the process of action research as "a spiral of action and research consisting of four major moments: plan, act, observe and reflect
