Case Study

Due Date: See syllabus
Peer Review: See syllabus

3(min)-5 double-spaced full pages (min for an A)

Assignment Goal: The goal of this assignment is for students to relate their tutoring work within the larger context of both this course and their philosophy of pedagogy.

Assignment Description: Begin your case study by introducing yourself, and then articulating your tutoring philosophy. Introduce the texts you'll be drawing upon and how they inform your main principles of tutoring. You might draw upon the texts and readings by mentioning up front the major ideas you plan to cite, who wrote them, and what texts they're from. However you decide to convey this information to the reader, you will then relate how your ideas fit into your larger philosophy of pedagogy. You will state that philosophy and then explain how your tutoring work is an extension of that philosophy.

In some ways, your thesis statement is a combination of two philosophies: your 'tutoring' philosophy (with strategies drawn from Tutoring Writing, Active Voice, Rose, Perl, etc) and your 'pedagogical' philosophy (with your ideas drawn from Robinson, Savage Inequalities, etc).

For your thesis statement, consider: what is tutoring? what does it do? why does it matter? Your answers to these questions could help you form your tutoring philosophy. You'll want to ultimately be able to explain the different principles of your philosophy to your readers.When you consider your principals of tutoring, consider what theories/strategies/texts they come from. That will give you an idea about how to connect your tutoring principals to the intellectual foundations of your larger pedagogical principals.

Develop examples of how your tutoring experience has helped you enact your philosophy. Let your work with students demonstrate and illustrate different principles of your philosophy. In each example, give details about your work with students: what were the challenges, and how did you overcome them? How did you approach your work with students? How did you find out what worked and what didn't? Supplement your discussion with regular references to course texts.

The "case study" aspect of this assignment asks you to show your tutoring principals (the foundation of your tutoring philosophy) at work in your interactions with students while tutoring.

In final part of your essay, consider some of the more philosophical discussions we've had about the context of tutoring. What are your reflections upon the role of tutoring in education? What are your broader reflections about the role of education itself? How do you see your work as a teacher within the larger trends in education we've discussed in class? And in the larger questions of pedagogical philosophy? You might allude to some of these ideas in the 'case study' paragraphs, but this is where you will develop them in full.