Selecting and training Junior Tutor: A fruitful programme at the University of Padova

The university tutor In Italy offers a variety of services to help students with their orientation and general academic efforts, to facilitate their active participation in the learning process, and to overcome any obstacles that could hinder their academic success. Tutoring also aims to reduce and, if possible, to prevent dropouts and study interruptions by helping students to make wise decisions about their course of studies and by giving them support and encouragement during difficult study phases. Based on an Anglo-Saxon model, the University of Padova launched its peer tutoring service in 2001. The junior tutor, or peer tutor, as it is defined by that university, is a graduate, post-graduate or Ph.D student who has been selected and trained to facilitate freshmen as they embark on their university journey and throughout their course of studies and, in particular, when their progression is slow or difficult. Typically, the tutor is a student with an excellent academic record. This work intends to closely examine the procedure by which the tutor is selected and trained at the University of Padova. The selection process generally takes place in July, and training workshops are held at the beginning September. As they train, tutors learn more specific in-depth details about all aspects of university life and the faculty as well as basic cognitive and motivational principles linked to learning and tutorship. This study is part of a two-year research (still in progress) funded by the University of Padova (STPD08HANE_005) to support students with learning difficulties.