The Tutor Forum on 12 January 2023 considered the subject of sociability in classes and activities and indeed, outside those settings. Since the experiences of lockdown we recognised the need to focus on the social aspects of learning.
The tutors who attended were asked to consider how they set the ‘tone’ and expectation that their class or activity would be a sociable experience as well as a learning one; how they described the course in the course brochure; what they said to class members before the term started; how they encouraged social aspects of learning during their classes and activities; what, if any, social ‘follow-ups’ they encouraged after sessions/the end of the course.
The following is a record of what the three discussion groups produced in the way of ideas, advice, guidance for other tutors, drawn directly from their own experience as tutors.
We hope that all tutors will find this useful when planning and running their courses/activities.
We would like to thank all those tutors who offered their words of wisdom, built up from personal experiences of tutoring with U3AC.