One-on-one Consultations
Faculty met with students one-on-one (in or out of class).
About
Individual meetings between faculty and students are at the original center of the college learning experience. They offer highly tailored instruction, but also provide opportunities for collegial relationships to develop. This double benefit can reinforce to both the faculty and the student what the essence of college is about: freely exploring ideas in close proximity to expert guidance. The challenge of those meetings being time consuming might be addressed by students being required to come to office hours 2-3 times per semester. This does not take extra time for the faculty member, who is already required to offer that hour.
The original study's data and analysis for "One-on-one Consultations" can be found on this link.
What Faculty Have To Say
Strengths (7)
- High level of personalization
- Students can ask the questions they most need to have answered
- Can tailor answers to suit the individual, to provide follow up clarifications, and to check for understanding
- Helps improve student papers and projects
- Helps faculty monitor student (and class) progress
- Helps build stronger faculty/student relationships
- Can open a safe space for marginalized students
Weaknesses (3)
- Extrememely time consuming
- Can build dependence on teacher opinions
- Content gets repeated
Pedagogy Usage
Bucknell faculty was asked their best estimate for how often in the semester they used One-on-one Consultations and the average class time it took.
Average Duration: 21 min (mode=15)
Remote Suggestions
Survey of Bucknell students say that they really apprectiated these personal sessions, both for community building, relationships, and content. Prepare for your meetings in the usual way. * Have some sort of schedule process * request that they sign up in advance * set a time limit. Have clearly stated topics or questions in advance that they use to prepare for the meeting. To save time, consider using the Oxbridge model of alternating group tutoring sessions for most commonly asked questions (or posting an FAQ or email) followed by one-on-one sessions. These sessions should be reserved for criticalSt.
Resources for Additional Learning
Articles & Books
- Faculty and student perceptions of the feasibility of individual student–faculty meetings. Perspectives on Medical Education, 1(2), 86–91.