By now, you've (hopefully) completed all your observations and had a solid amount of solo sessions. You may have also already had a "difficult sessions" staff meeting to talk about stressed students during midterms and the upcoming finals week. Here, we'll go into a little more depth about the different types of difficult tutoring situations you can run into.Â
Environment
Noise distractions
Technology issues
Attention drains
Temperament
Shyness
Discomfort
Lacking confidence
Unregulated emotions
Emotions, whatever they are, influencing the session and experience
Communication
Language barriers
Misunderstandings
Undefined expectations about...
What the student needs, wants, or how they behave
What you can, will, and are able to do
What do you see?
Low frustration tolerance
Immobilization, hopelessness, freezing up
"I'll never get it", "I'm stuck"
What can you do?
Determine what the student does know and discuss that - show them that they have some foundation
Begin from what they know and build, in small steps, toward increasingly complex material
Offer continual support
Reinforce success consistently
What do you see?
Disorientation/disorganization
Helpless feeling about the class - "I'm thinking of dropping the class"
"I just don't know what my professor wants"
"I worked really hard on this assignment and I got a D"
What can you do?
The same thing as blocking, but give structure and order to the session
Spend time calming the student down and helping them organize their materials so they can see their work more clearly
What do you see?
Global concern about their homework and little specificity about what to do
Enthusiasm about being with a tutor, but passive
High (often inappropriate) level of expectation of the session
Evasion or inability to concentrate on concrete tasks
Talk of limited time, long-range goals versus immediate tasks
What can you do?
Lay out expectations clearly at the beginning of the session
Explain counter-productive nature of being overeager
Return focus again and again to specific tasks
Involve student continually with questions
Explain active participation in the learning process, especially if the student has limited time
What do you see?
Variations of sullenness/hositility/passivity/boredom
Disinterest in class/work/tutor
Defensive posture (arms crossed, leaned back, avoiding eye contact)
Anger or frustration without an apparent cause
What can you do?
Allow small amount of time for student to "vent"
Spend first session (at least) on building relationship and trust
Be pragmatic, yet understanding
Establish your credability/indicate pass successes in similar situations
What do you see?
Noninvolvement/inattention
Boredom
Little discussion initiated/few questions
Repeated "I don't know"
What can you do?
Empathize
Ask questions
Challenge
Attempt to build a relationship and mobilize the student
Utilize as many mobilizing techniques as possible - questions, problems, mini-task to be accomplished by your next session or by the student's next class
Reinforce all activities and successes
What do you see?
Thinking/talking about everything but the task at hand
Disengagement from the task
Vague vs focused comments about the task at hand
Nonspecific comments of tutor's skill, course content, and so on
What can you do?
Focus the student on specific tasks; involve them continually with questions, problems
If evasion continues, you should ask (in a non-threatening way) why the student has come for tutoring and what they expect from you
"What can we get done this session?"
"My biggest concern is your success in this class; how, specifically, can I help you with that?"
What do you see?
Just want the confirmation of attending a session
Resisting conversations
Just want to leave
Negative attitude
What can you do?
Engage the student through questions
"What do you mean by ...?"
"What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses of your assignment?"
"What part of the assignment is giving you a hard time?"
Give an example from your life about a similar situation
What do you see?
Not have the language to explain their thoughts
Very quiet or not talk much
Think that if they don't speak, tutors will do the work for them
Waits for tutor to do all the work
What can you do?
Ask questions and use wait time
Repeat your statement/question using different words
If there is a language barrier, find another tutor who speaks the same language
Be patient!
If they want you do to the work for them, refer them to QSC's policies
What do you see?
Distressed behavior
Fidgeting
Irritable
Lack of self control
Inability to focus and concentrate
What you can do?
Take a moment and ask if they are ok
Ask how things are with the quarter, home, work, etc.
Ask them what would be the most helpful in the session
Check in with them - do they have a support network? How are they coping with stress?
You have power - trust your intuition, be aware of your boundaries, and take care of yourself.
You have backup - we have your back, the situation may not be an issue for someone else, ask for what you need
You have Laura's support - if any kind of bad situation arises, let Laura know immediately. That way, she can back you up with the proper knowledge of the situation.
If you need help, but cannot explicitly say so, ask Laura, Emma, a lead, or another experienced tutor for the red folder. We will discretely help you with the situation.
Q1 - Week 9 - Check in with your mentor 1
Share a difficult session or student interaction. What made it difficult? How did you manage it? Looking back, what did you learn? In what ways, perhaps beyond what is listed, can a tutoring session or student interaction be difficult? What makes you nervous to deal with and how can your mentor support you? (If you haven't had a particularly difficult situation yet, ask your mentor about a difficult situation that they can recall and ask how they dealt with it?)