Getting Our Tutors Back on Track: An Examination of the Perceptions of Small Group Instruction and Engagement Strategies and the Professional Development Required

Research has shown that teachers and tutors are facing what they are calling the COVID-19 slide, a decline in achievement gains made during the previous school year and school closures due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. There is not only a loss of learning, but also a substantial impact on children’s development. Teachers and tutors are now facing such prolific deficits that they are trying to find solutions to provide more assistance for those struggling students. One solution is tutoring.

This literature review offers information on the increased need for tutoring programs over the past few years and discusses the need for customized professional development webinars in the areas of classroom management and small group teaching strategies for professional tutors in order to increase their level of efficacy. The history and impact of tutoring programs and successful tutoring programs are explored as well as the current demand for tutoring and the deficiencies in the area of professional development available to tutors.

As part of the proposed program, teachers and tutors were presented with a pre-survey to obtain their perceptions of the effective components of professional development. A webinar on classroom management techniques and a webinar on small group teaching strategies that will increase student engagement were offered along with a post-survey to evaluate the effective components of the professional development webinars the tutors’ experienced. The data revealed that the webinars included more than just the participants’ top three components from the pre-survey and also included strategies that would benefit their practice.