Peer Tutoring
Background and History
Butler University's Peer Tutoring Program began in 1988 with
tutors primarily serving a small community of motivated writers on
a self-referral basis. By 1993, the tutors were accepting
appointments, walk-in and professor referrals, and tutoring over
500 students per semester. By the 1997-98 term, the peer tutors
were conducting over 1,500 tutoring sessions. In addition to the
one-to-one conferencing, the tutors were presenting classroom
workshops on different aspects of the writing process and
university-wide workshops. The Peer Tutoring Program also was
developing handouts and reference materials to serve the student
writers of Butler. Community contacts were initiated in 1993 with a
workshop for the Greater Indianapolis Literacy Project and the
establishment of a monthly writing workshop for adult learners. The
new writers' group published its first volume, Writing our Lives,
in September 1994; a second volume followed in 1996. The Writers'
Studio received the Greater Indianapolis Literacy League Community
Partner of the Year Award in 1997. In addition, tutors and director
presented a paper on establishing and maintaining community
outreach at the National Peer Tutoring Conference in 1993, as well
as director presentations and attendance at professional
composition conferences.
What We Do
The Tutoring Program addresses the writing needs of Butler
students across the cirriculum. It provides evaluation and
assistance with every stage of the writing process. The Writers'
Studio is a place where student writers of all levels and concerns
can share ideas and shape their writing. From its inception, the
Peer Tutoring Program has focused on creating an environment where
writers can talk about their work. The Studio remains
student-centered, less about materials and aids, than the
one-to-one experience of writing. No one pedagogy or learning
philosophy dictates the day-to-day operation of Peer Tutoring. The
tutor's goal is to recognize and accomodate the individual and
often idiosyncratic nature of the writing process.
Peer Tutoring is based on two interrelated concepts,
collaborative learning and writing as a recursive process.
Collaborative learning requires students to assume an active role
in their education. Students begin to understand the importance of
informed dialogue as a central means of working through ideas
rather than academic pursuits becoming a solitary exercise. The
tutor and the student learn to participate in a cooperative rather
than competitive intellectual endeavor, a way of thinking and
learning which they will be required to do when they leave
Butler.