This was the second meeting in the series with lecturers using innovative principles and tools of tutoring during project meetings with students.
As emphasised by the director of the International Cooperation Centre, Dr inż. Dorota Piotrowska, TUL Prof., and the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, Adrianna Kozłowska, MA, the intention of close cooperation between these units at the final stage of the Masters of Didactics project is to develop a university model of tutoring to be used in teaching and in other educational initiatives and projects carried out at TUL.
Co-tutoring
The key idea of tutoring is a personalised and holistic approach in building a 'master-student' relationship. When thinking about the introduction of tutoring on a university-wide scale, it is important, on the one hand, to look at the structure of Lodz University of Technology as broadly as possible and, on the other hand, to focus on the specifics and needs of individual units and faculties. Therefore, the meeting was attended by their representatives, i.e. participants in the "Masters of Didactics" project.
Director Adrianna Kozłowska, MA, proposed, as part of the joining of forces initiative between the International Cooperation Centre and the Centre for Teaching and Learning TUL, the creation of two tutoring groups. The first, expert group would be related to the specific study areas and would be well-versed in their study programmes (academic/scientific tutoring), while the second, support group (pastoral tutoring) would cooperate with the tutors and with the student organisations operating at the Faculty (e.g. student government, research clubs, etc.). In this way, expert knowledge would be combined with the tutoring method itself.
Masterful benefits
The knowledge and experience gained in training is reflected in additional initiatives undertaken by TUL staff. Trained and experienced academics participate in numerous international and national conferences, webinars and meetings under the name 'Teaching-Café' as well as other events related to the improvement of teaching methods. These activities demonstrate that the project will have positive, long-term effects.
Within the 'Masters of Didactics' project, 75 lecturers from Lodz University of Technology have completed foreign training at renowned universities, such as University College London (UK), Aarhus University (Denmark), University of Ghent (Belgium), University of Groningen (Netherlands) and University of Oslo (Norway). By the end of 2023, 18 tutors will have completed the 'Advanced Programme on Teaching and Tutoring' training.