Fact Sheet

FACT SHEET: GENERAL TUTORING, SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION & EMBEDDED TUTORING

All Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leaders, Embedded Tutors (ET) and General Tutors support student learning. However, the purpose of SI and General Tutoring leads to a different approach for serving students, while Embedded Tutoring is a combination of both approaches. The chart below compares some differences in the positions.

 

IMPLEMENTATION	GENERAL TUTORING	SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION (SI)	EMBEDDED TUTORING (ET)
Target Audience	Identifies and helps any student who requests additional assistance in general course topics with a trained peer tutor in the Tutoring Center.	Identifies *historically difficult courses, providing group workshops with an SI Leader who has successfully completed the class and is assigned to a specific section of the course.	Identifies historically difficult courses, providing group workshops and/or helps individual students with an ET who has successfully completed the class and is assigned to a specific section of the course.
Subject Mastery	Provides academic tutoring by a general tutor who is knowledgeable in specific course subjects.	Provides SI workshops by an SI Leader who is also present in class lectures with students. Preferably, the SI Leader has **successfully taken the course with the same instructor.	Provides academic tutoring by an embedded tutor who is also present in class lectures with students. Preferably, the ET has successfully taken the course with the same instructor.
Scheduling Process	General Tutors work with students on a walk-in basis.	SI Leaders set specific workshop times that are available to students on a voluntary basis.	ET’s are available for individual appointments and they set specific workshop times that are available to students on a voluntary basis.
Focus	Tutoring focuses on content and internalization of course content.	SI focuses on learning/study strategies and internalization of course content.	Embedded Tutoring focuses on content, learning/study strategies and internalization of course content.
Training	General Tutors are trained in best practices for tutoring, collaborative learning and study techniques.	SI Leaders are trained in collaborative learning and study techniques.	Embedded Tutors are trained in best practices for one-on-one tutoring, collaborative learning and study techniques.
Goal	Tutoring primarily promotes independent learning and individual confidence.	SI primarily promotes student interaction and mutual support between classmates.	Embedded Tutoring promotes independent learning, individual confidence, student interaction and mutual support between classmates.
Goal	The goal of tutoring is to facilitate student success and improve understanding of academic content.	The goal of the SI Program is to help students improve their academic performance and improve graduation/retention rates in historically difficult courses.	The goal of Embedded Tutoring is to facilitate student success, improve understanding of academic course content and improve graduation/retention rates in historically difficult courses.

*Historically difficult courses are those that have empirically identified as having a DFW rate of 25% or more, consistently for at least 3 semesters.

**Successfully taken course means with a grade of B or better.