Tutoring during the pandemic: mentoring tutors’ formative experiences using digital and digital multimodal texts

Abstract

ABSTRACT This survey-design study examined how 228 middle school preservice teachers perceived the implementation of digital and digital multimodal texts during course-required, mentored, tutoring sessions delivered in face-to-face and online settings prior to, during and toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tutors were able to recognize that texts could be used to elicit affective responses from their students, and had the potential to differentiate their lessons in accordance with learners’ needs, but the technology challenges they faced seemed insurmountable to some. Given their lack of teaching experience, tutors struggled to determine the appropriateness of the resources and they held distinct perceptions of the accomplishments and challenges related to their tutoring sessions. Mentor responsiveness exhibited by honouring tutors’ adaptive expertise can be seen as an important aspect of fostering tutors’ confidence. Focusing on the role of the mentor in preservice teachers’ tutoring field placements is a suggested area for future research.