Students often confuse the services offered by tutors and coaches, especially when tutoring and coaching are housed under the same umbrella, as they are at many institutions. A tutor may work with a student who struggles to improve, despite close attention to the tutor's content and instruction, because issues of self-management are the more significant cause of low performance. A coach may find a student wants help understanding course content and is not initially receptive to the coaching approach. 

At any institution that offers both services, coaches and tutors should be well-versed in how each role operates – tutoring being content-specific, and coaching being learning and self-management focused – and where the boundaries lie between them. In this way both coaches and tutors can help students understand where to go for which needs, and can drive the use of complimentary services. When a student pushing through a tough course can benefit from the sharp content focus of tutoring AND the self-examination and empowering problem solving of coaching, learning and success become even more possible.

Coaches, hold your boundaries firmly when students ask for content-specific support. Direct them to tutoring – but first, take advantage of the opportunity to help students understand the role of their choices, especially if they think their trouble is all about the difficulty of the material:

• What do you do during class to take in and process information being delivered?

• How do you approach studying this content?

• Which aspect of the course assessment do you find most difficult, and why do you think that is?

• How much time do you spend each week learning this content outside of class?

• What topics are the most confusing, and what have you done so far to get help understanding them?

Hone your skills with LifeBound this winter and spring! 

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