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The Role and Impact of Extended Essay Tutors in Academic Development
The extended essay (EE) is a prominent type of evaluation in the IB Diploma Programme. Generally beginning in the spring of their penultimate year, students are tasked with conducting sustained, self-directed research on a topic of their choice under the guidance of a tutor. Successful completion of this task can lead to the satisfaction of the challenging criteria that forms the basis of the IB diploma program, but more importantly, it acts as a key component in nurturing the necessary academic tools students will need to acquire and enhance in university education and future careers. As Gopinathan and Quah conclude, “This is the raison d’être of the IB and a necessary condition of its identity.”
To support students in achieving their full potential in their EE journey, tutors play a crucial role. Being alongside the learners throughout the highs and lows, the tutors work to help students gradually develop skills and methodologies as they advance in their research. They must also dispel any feelings of fear and the unknown when it comes to academic writing for the students, addressing any lack of confidence, and importantly, providing clear and detailed feedback. To further understand how well tutors today seem to play this academic role, the paper aims to explore the relationship between different tutoring modes and academic development in a single-sex international school in South-East Asia.
A tutor is defined as a person who provides extra academic help to those in need. Throughout the entire process of the Extended Essay, a tutor plays an important role in introducing the research methodology and its application to a student. However, to date, extended essay tutors have not been identified and recognized officially as part of the education delivery system in secondary schools across the world offering IB programs. This paper explores the responsibilities and activities of the extended essay tutors in the full implementation of the International Baccalaureate in public secondary schools. It also analyzes the administrative arrangements of EE and supporters in delivering the program. The experience of the SWA-ONWA Model School is used as a case for the investigation, while evidence from other International Baccalaureate (IB) schools in Nigeria is brought on board in order to establish parallels with the SWA-ONWA experience.
By working with a tutor, the academic experience of the students is enriched as they are able to make informed choices on the topics for investigation due to the awareness created through the discussions they have with their tutors. They are assisted in generating questions or drawing conclusions that are within the limit of the word count, encouraged to engage in authentic research rather than just reporting in their own words what others know about the subject. They also get regular feedback on their progress, where a strong tutor/student relationship is built as the tutor guides the student through the stages of the research process, comments, raises questions, and helps the students cope with the difficulties that may arise during the research process, supervisor discussions, and finalization of the full draft.
Students face a series of challenges when producing their extended essay. These include data collection, organization of product, reflection and integration of provided theory, development of critical thinking, and achievement of incisive conclusions in the area of exploration. A common problem is the student’s perception of a ‘lack of knowledge’. The guiding tutorial should help the student to overcome doubts and work on the areas implying higher levels of difficulty. The role of the tutor becomes especially important in these moments, in which their effort in formative assessment becomes an essential resource. This assessment neither affects the student’s grade nor is based exclusively on the final product. In essence, this formative assessment enriches the learning process with useful information, motivating students to successfully achieve the demands throughout the development of the study.
The interaction between tutor and student is critical in the search for real criteria and questions that help the development of a scientific work. The way in which the tutor structures collaboration influences the extent of student learning. The teacher must be involved, participating in discussions, guiding, giving feedback, and supporting the student. The accomplishment of the IB EE means transforming mentoring into a plan and a systematic task to integrate all the necessary criteria. This work demands the elaboration of a specific education plan, adapted to the specific personal, cognitive, cultural, and motivational characteristics.
In 1981, CASIE began a program of tutor training in the Diploma. The aim of this training model was to introduce teachers to the published material about the EE and the skills they would need as teachers of the EE to their students. The program was and is, to this day, a simulation model through which the tutors at CASIE themselves go through the three mandatory faculty seminars about the EE as a student would during the process of choosing, developing, dwelling into, and evaluating the work. They do what the students must do; then discuss the impact of the various exercises and tasks on the students as well as feedback, evaluation, final assessment, and standing up in defense of the paper. After the seminar, the tutor is in a position to understand and address the needs of the candidate before they have any understanding of what the essay is, and it appears that the EE is a thundering train appearing from around a very close blind curve indeed to many students.
The trainer model seeks to get the teachers in touch with their veteran extemporaneous paper presentation skills, the direct analog of the EE. An examination of EE presentations made by students who have developed their papers for two months in the context of a school with high standards and a school-internal mentor, put these student presentations on par with papers that are heard at professional conferences when judged according to specific criteria. The student presenters were able to stand up and not read their work, state their point within a minute to the audience, direct the entire talk to the topic of the EE, emphasize the points most salient to their specific approach and methodology as developed during their months of deliberation and scientific endeavor. These standards are indeed high, but diplomates sit in the audience and provide not just the audience but also the assessors of the final paper. If high schools in the United States and even the American universities that educate these IB students would get on board and compete for these future students by providing the students with the same environment for advanced level academic development and scientifically skilled mentorship, the year XIII cohort would become the best increasing subgroup of students at US Treasure funded institutions. The tutor model has some indirect advantages specifically related to job creation as Professional Development of the faculty is a necessity.
In conclusion, the practical dilemmas arising in the tutor-student partnership highlight the complexities of the process of preparation for a research task as demanding as the IB extended essay. The skill involved would seem to belie its prevalence, as both academic courses of research and formal research methods pedagogy remain uncommon within the school curriculum. In fact, while historical practice has encouraged an ‘apprenticeship’ method of transmission of research practice and knowledge from academic mentor to student, the complexities of the tutor-student relationship are often taken for granted.
In order to make mentoring within an extended essay program work, an administrative system of mutual support that acknowledges tutor expertise and provides an emotional “safety net” for both mission and students is essential. Furthermore, policies and procedures must continually evolve in order to meet these expressed needs of the school community. Within the environment of wider educational change that is the current mission of the school, the development of a skilled cohort of research mentors will clearly be a priority. Future directions for academic support of extended essay study might include peer review within tutor groups, and addressing the tensions between a teacher’s pedagogical role and their mentoring support.
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