SELECTING AND TRAINING JUNIOR TUTORS: A FRUITFUL PROGRAMME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PADOVA

In Italy, the university tutor offers a series of services for students to help them with their orientation and general academic path, to allow them to participate actively in their education, and to overcome any obstacles that could hinder their successful university participation, inclusive of their individual habits and needs. Another tutor activity is to monitor, to reduce and possibly prevent student dropout and delay, helping them to choose consciously and make them feel supported during any possible critical phase.
The University of Padua has launched the peer tutoring service in 2001, based on an Anglo-Saxon model. The junior tutor, or peer tutor, for the University of Padua, is a graduate, post-graduate or graduate assistant who has the task of facilitating the first year enrolments into the university world and for the consecutive years to support the students in difficulty. Typically, it is a student with a brilliant academic record in his or her last years of university education.
The contribution we are presenting analyses the tutor’s selection and training. The selection of Junior Tutors in Padua takes place in July, and his or her training will take in early September. This tutor training consists of getting to know the university and faculty as well as the basic cognitive and motivational principles of student tutorship.
This study is part of a two-years research (still in progress) funded by the University of Padova (STPD08HANE_005) in support of students with learning difficulties.