On the Implementation of Student-to-Student Tutoring (STST) in Azerbaijan

• Main Author: Saleh Jafarov
• Format: Article
• Language: Azerbaijani
• Published: Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan 2019-12-01
• Series: Azərbaycan Məktəbi
• Subjects: tutors; consolidation; innovation
• Online Access: https://journal.edu.az/files/2019/%E2%84%964/s-Saleh-Jafarov.pdf

The purpose of this research is to identify the benefits of student-to-student academic tutoring and to consider its implementation at a university in Azerbaijan. The international experience of the author gained at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam will contribute to the research. The research will be used as the basis for potential innovation at Azerbaijani universities. The idea is to create a group of teaching assistants (tutors) selected from the top students according to their academic performance and personal characteristics and to organize regular tutorial sessions held by the selected tutors to discuss and consolidate the material previously taught in class by the professors. The process is to be arranged and confirmed by the course lecturers and university administration. It will lead to the deeper involvement of both tutoring and tutored students into the academic environment, help students consolidate their understanding of the material and decrease the burden on lecturers. It will also promote students’ self-study strategies they will feel much more responsible for the level of the knowledge of the material to be presented to the group of peers. The first phase of the research will include investigation of all the stages involved in selecting the students and of the criteria necessary to be selected. Then the grading policy will be analyzed. If there is the chance of the tutoring students being biased towards their fellow students, grading should be conducted only by the professors. The final phase involves surveys conducted among students to measure their needs and the demand for such tutoring sessions. To achieve the goal, the following research question was formulated: What are the benefits of STST and its advantages over traditional teacher-to-student tutoring and why is it important to be practiced in Azerbaijan? It is hoped that the results of this study will can contribute to the debate about STST and to its implementation in Azerbaijan.