Ways of implementing guidance

In addition to official courses, a supervising teacher encounters students in individual guidance meetings arranged in advance and in more informal situations. In this case the focus is on seeing the student, responding to the student’s possible needs and referring the student to the correct place in situations where they need other support.

Individual guidance should be focused on situations in which group-based guidance is not adequate or suitable for the student’s situation. For example, addressing sensitive matters related to the student should take place in an individual guidance session.

In some degree programmes, individual meetings are a required part of the studies. This means that students may not have a clear objective or need that could be examined at the guidance meeting. In this case, your can ask the student general questions about their studies and use the guidance cards (pdf).

A supervising teacher can help students feel like part of a community. A supervising teacher can also guide students to such courses or events where the students have the opportunity to integrate into the study community.

Group-based guidance can have many advances in comparison to individual guidance. It enables, better than individual guidance, things such as supporting communality, enhancing integration into the science and study community, and receiving help from fellow students. From the perspective of the University’s resources, group-based guidance is often more effective. Getting to know their supervising teacher in a group setting can also later on lower a student’s threshold for seeking individual guidance.

One central benefit of group-based guidance is the peer support the student provide for each other. Students can give each other beneficial tips and perspectives for studying and being a student. It is often a valuable experience for students to notice that many others face challenges similar to theirs and that challenges can be discussed and others can help them see the challenges from a new perspective. Things such as time management, studying skills, exam preparations and fears related to graduation, which are all themes related to everyday student life, can be discussed in group-based guidance.

Before starting group-based guidance sessions, a supervising teacher should consider how to promote the communality and grouping of students. It is important that during the starting meeting of group-based guidance, things such as group’s practices, rules, and principles of respectful interaction are gone over with the students. When the supervisor and students treat each other in a respectful and encouraging manner, the group feels safe for everyone. 

How to support communality among students?

• Increase interaction gradually. Start by coming up with low-threshold conversation exercises and use, if necessary, online conversations.
• It is a good idea to discuss feeling nervous with the students. Being nervous is a natural reaction to being in a new situation and meeting new people, but in special situations you can instruct students to contact you in order to get support.
• Always decide the possible small groups in advance. Do not let the student decide the groups; in this way, you ensure that no student feels excluded.

How to create a safe and positive atmosphere in group-based guidance?

• Together, discuss the principles of a safe space and fostering a positive environment. You can use  for example your faculty's principles or the Guidance Corner's principles as a basis for the discussion.
• Tell the students about the type of participation you expect from them and how you want them to act within the group.
• Ensure that everyone is aware of the group’s routines and rules. Shared rules increase awareness of how to act within the group. You can also agree on the routines and rules in cooperation with the students at the start of the group-based guidance.
• Leave time and space for the students’ questions. When possible, utilise anonymous online platforms for submitting questions.
• Remember that your own actions and interaction are an example for the students.

Tutoring is an important part of guidance especially for new students, and at its best, collaboration between peer tutors and teachers effectively supports students’ attachment to the student and academic community. However, new students also have their responsibilities, for example, in looking for information. Tutors should not be saddled with too many guidance responsibilities. The role of tutors does not extend throughout studies. Instead, the role of staff in guidance increases after the initial stage. With support from guidance, students are also expected to learn self-direction.

Peer tutors are tasked with welcoming new students and providing guidance. Tutors show new students where the facilities and services relevant to them are located, how to access them, how to register for courses and examinations, and what digital tools are used at the University. The tutors of international students also help new students adapt to a new culture and get to grips with day-to-day practices.

The joint tutor training organised by the University focuses particularly on group guidance skills, equality and diversity, as well as on key individuals, organisations and services. In addition, faculties train tutors, among other things, in their own practices, the planning of tutoring and reporting on it. Teachers providing guidance should take part, in one way or another, in faculty tutor training or the orientation week programme in order to introduce themselves to both peer tutors and new students.

Tutoring is organised twice a year, at the beginning of the autumn and spring terms. Tutors are senior students from the same faculty (usually the same degree programme). Tutors are paid a fee for tutoring and earn five credits for their first tutoring stint at the University of Helsinki.

Written by study psychologists Anu Lehtinen and Jasmin Kurkaa-Kivelä

Source used as background material:

Vehviläinen, S. 2014. Ohjaustyön opas: yhteistyössä kohti toimijuutta. Gaudeamus, Helsinki.