Personal Tutor Profile: Samantha Holloway, School of Medicine
9 November 2020
Tell us a little about yourself, what School you’re a Senior Personal Tutor in and how long have you been involved with Personal Tutoring?
I’m based within the Centre for Medical Education, School of Medicine. I’m the Programme Director for the Masters in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair and I’m also a Tutor on the Medical Undergraduate programme. I have been a Personal Tutor for 8 years and Senior Personal Tutor for Postgraduate taught programmes since 2016.
What’s been the most rewarding thing about being a Personal Tutor so far?
Knowing you’ve been able to make a difference in a student’s development. Being able to support students through their studies and seeing them Graduate is very rewarding!
What’s been the biggest realisation for you in terms of the impact a Personal Tutor can have on students?
How powerful the Personal Tutee-Personal Tutor relationship can be in instilling confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy in a student if managed well
What advice would you impart to colleagues new to Personal Tutoring?
Personal Tutoring is a two-way process where the student should feel empowered to engage with the process but they may need time to feel comfortable with the Tutee-Tutor relationship. Therefore it’s important to set boundaries, manage expectation and build a rapport to foster an environment of trust and respect. Personal Tutoring is not just giving advice and ‘rescuing’ struggling students
What 5 things would you recommend as good practice for all Personal Tutors?
- Know your students and their programme of study
- Listening should be the main feature of Personal Tutoring interactions
- Be mindful of student concerns and foster an environment that allows students to talk about the challenges they are concerned about
- Facilitate reflective practice to support students to identify what’s going well and what isn’t so they can set realistic goals
- Seek support from colleagues
A new Personal Tutoring Online Resource is now live and available to all Personal Tutors, Senior Personal Tutors and those that help support the Personal Tutoring System.
The package consists of:
• A refreshed Personal Tutoring Online Resource
• A bank of Scenario-based Case Studies
• Personal Tutoring at a Distance Podcast Series
• Personal Tutoring at a Distance – thematic video resources