What is our Philosophy?
Our Mission:
The Tutoring Services Team at AATC is committed to empowering undergraduate student employees (Tutors, Tutor Leadership, and Student Admin Staff) with the skills and outlook necessary to support their peers in co-creating a brave learning space. We aim to create a space where student clients and student employees can bring their authentic selves and participate in the learning opportunities they value. We believe that providing these opportunities for each and every Aggie enables us to foster motivated, self-directed learners who leave our tutoring spaces and our program more confident than when they entered.
The Big 3:
At the AATC, we pride ourselves in providing tutoring services that are engaging and tutee-led. In order to do this, our tutors utilize the Big 3. The Big 3 is a structured around three literature-supported strategies for engaged learning:
- Teach by Asking Questions
- Practice Problems
- Positive Reinforcement
Providing Inclusive Services:
- Introduce yourself with your name and pronouns and invite your tutee to do the same! By using someone's correct pronouns, we strive to make them feel respected and included in our tutoring spaces.
- Avoid using phrases like "easy", or "simple." Although we don't have bad intentions when using such phrases, this words can come across as discouraging for someone who is still grappling with a topic.
- Positive Reinforcement (Big 3). Coming to tutoring can be intimidating; we want to ensure that we are doing all that we can to create a comfortable learning environment. Remember the compliment sandwich!
- Use appropriate language for group settings. We want to aim to avoid addressing large groups of people with phrases such as "you guys". This term can be exclusive for some individuals in a group. Instead, try to use phrases such as "everyone" or "you all/y'all" instead!
Tutoring Policies:
- We want to ensure that we never help tutees on any graded assignments!
- You can ask your tutee before-hand if the assignment is graded. If it is, you can adjust the problem or come up with a similar problem that covers the same concept!