Developing our material. Developing our tutors

Revising the School’s philosophy and economics tutoring material and developing our tutors both involve a continuous effort to maintain relevance and high standards.

Developing our material

Recent attention is focusing on Philosophy Parts 5-9. Following an updated Part 6 at the end of last year, Part 7 has now been completely revised and work is proceeding with Parts 8 and 9. 

“The purpose, as always when reviewing material, is to keep it up to date and fresh”, explains Senior Tutor, Donald Lambie.

“For example, the term on Knowledge and Freedom gives an opportunity to address the issue of how social media influences people’s access to information.  From Part 7 onwards Meditation is more at the heart of the material to help people as much as possible with that.”

In the same way, Service is being integrated into the material as it is being revised, which Mr Lambie describes as “a fairly long-term process”.

Developing our tutors

As a school operating on the principle of ‘Learn and Teach’, how we develop students for tutoring has always been critically important.

A variety of approaches has been tried over the years. Mr MacLaren  relied on extensive and rigorous reporting from tutors as his main way of developing tutors. Later we had training days or weekends for tutors to meet.  The advent of Zoom has made possible more regular meetings for tutors of early part Philosophy and Economics from all over the UK.

Mr Lambie has met twice in the past year with tutors in the Measure and Intermediate level (London ‘M Stream’) – see Spotlight feature (below).

In addition, at a local level, there may be meetings of tutors and a range of training including role playing and peer assessment.

The Development Group will continue to review current initiatives and seek to share best practices.

Spotlight: M/I Tutor meetings Tutors in the middle part of the School – ‘M’ and ‘I’ Levels, (or ‘M’ Stream in London) - are now meeting online together twice a year with Mr Lambie.  According to organiser of the meetings, Diane Piper, Branch Leader, Scotland, the sharing of ideas and experiences among tutors and the opportunity for direct interaction with the School leader have been especially appreciated and useful. “There was a sharing in the pleasure of tutoring students at this level and also an awareness of the challenges”, she said. Two of the tutors taking part were Lyndon Walters and Judith Watkins, both from the North East branch. They said they had found it helpful to hear Mr Lambie's views on the larger perspective of the School and to receive his guidance on how to help students and groups with their development. “The suggestions with regard to helping students with their meditation were particularly appreciated,” said Lyndon. Judith agreed, adding: “It's always a great support to meet with tutors from other branches, to hear of their successes, and to share ideas.” “Although we have only met twice so far, the meetings have a real sense of coming together and some cross-UK communication and support between the group,” said Diane Piper. The next meeting is planned for November 2023.

 

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