A TRAINING PATH FOR UNIVERSITY TUTORS. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PADUA (ITALY)

This contribution discusses the importance of training practices for tutors in higher education (HE). Tutorial actions in HE can support the students' educational pathway and respond to the important need for educational accompaniment during the university experience, which has been valued at a European level since the Bologna process (1999). In the educational field, tutoring actions are developed within practices of "facilitation" (of learning, communication, relationships, and cognitive facilitation), "mediation" (with the various university figures and resources), and "supervision" of the students' pathway ([1], [2], [3]). These functions involve different actions and practices, including assessment, support, orientation, and role-modelling dynamics, as well as interpersonal and relational aspects, such as support, trust, personal connections, active listening. Tutoring could be recognised as part of the university teaching-learning process and is a fundamental strategy to foster student retention, academic success and professional goals’ fulfilment ([4], [5], [6], [7], [2], [8]). In Italy, university tutoring was established by Law n. 341 (1990) [9], which states that each university must create and regulate a tutoring activity aimed at guiding and assisting students throughout their studies, making them active participants in the educational process and removing obstacles to their course attendance. This includes initiatives that address the needs, aptitudes and requirements of individual students. To develop a university tutoring activity in line with the characteristics described above, it is important to assess and consider skills, experiences, and characteristics of the tutors during the selection phase. This will help identify the most suitable profiles for the objectives to be pursued in the tutoring service. Then, the selection should be followed by specific training procedures that will allow tutors to develop knowledge and skills that help them to operate at their best. Training activities should subsequently be reviewed and improved over time to meet the needs of stakeholders ([6], [7], [10], [11], [12]). Based on the stimuli proposed by national and international literature on the topic, and recognizing the importance of training for tutoring activities, research was conducted at the University of Padua. The research aimed at exploring the characteristics and outcomes of the training held between September and November 2022 for peer tutors (students enrolled in years subsequent to the first one and specifically selected for the role). Tutor’s opinions and experience were collected before the training (expectations, training needs) and after (satisfaction and assessment of the training). The data collected allow us to confirm the essential role of training in ensuring a fruitful tutoring action, providing positive feedback from those who participated and were trained on a variety of topics, both specific (with respect to the service where they work) and transversal (communication skills, public speaking, problem solving, etc.).