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Facilitation Reflection

Alex Gianquitti

As a tutor for five consecutive semesters, I have learned many valuable skills and

strategies for making sure that the students who attend my tutoring sessions are more confident

in themselves by the time they leave. As a tutor, I facilitate multiple tutoring sessions weekly in

the subject of chemistry. It is my job to create an environment where students feel like they can

learn and become more acquainted with the concepts and skills they learn in class. For the

Advanced Facilitation and Consulting Skills​ class, I was required to complete my own

facilitation experience. This allowed me to take on the facilitator role and develop my

interpersonal and facilitation skills from the lens of a tutor.

For my “facilitation experience”, I facilitated a weekly tutoring group in chemistry at the

Academic Enhancement Center. The weekly tutoring group that I chose to reflect on for this

experience was an introduction to chemistry (CHM103) group who all had professor Brittain as

their teacher. In order to prepare for this tutoring group, I had to make sure that I refreshed my

chemistry skills by looking at past notes from the class. While reviewing my notes, I highlighted

things that may seem tricky or confusing, and formulated some practice problems for the

students to work through. As for the goal of the group, it changes with each tutoring session.

However, for this tutoring session, the group’s goal was to review and understand gas laws, gas

law equations, and the Le Chatelier's principle.

Reflecting on the experience, I believe that the session was very successful. Some of the

aspects of the session that went well included answering everyone’s questions, punctuality, and

boosting overall confidence and understanding of the material. I know how important it was to
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answer any lingering questions that the students had, so I made sure at the end of the session we

had time to go over any final questions. I also made sure that everyone was included and had the

chance to express any difficulties with the material. The tutoring session also went according to

my agenda, which made the session run smoothly while catering to everyone's needs. Finally, I

assessed how everyone was feeling at the beginning and the end of the session. Without

hesitation, all the students admitted to feeling a lot more comfortable with the concepts and like

they could complete problems on their own.

On the shadow-side, something that I could have changed was how much I talked versus

how much the students talked. In tutoring, there is a concept called the 70/30 rule which explains

how the students should be doing 70% of the talking and the tutor does 30%. I feel that I could

have utilized this during the “practice problems” phase of the session by having the students

come to the white board and show everyone how they solved the problem. This would also be

beneficial to the students because it would allow them to reinforce the material by teaching and

explaining it to others.

As a facilitator of the weekly tutoring sessions for chemistry, my strengths are able to

shine and grow. Three strengths that I see coming out while I facilitate a tutoring session are

discipline, achiever, and harmony. I see discipline come into action when I create my agendas.

When I utilize my agenda, I tend to stick with the schedule to make sure my sessions are run

smoothly and on time. I use my achiever strength to set goals for the group once they explain to

me what they want to go over during the session. I make it a goal for them to not only review the

specific concept or topic, but understand it and solve at least one problem related to it. Finally, I

see my harmony strength through my facilitation when groups get off track. Sometimes the
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students will begin talking about something else unrelated to chemistry or complain about the

professor; so I make sure we stay on topic. I use my harmony strength to remind them that they

are here to learn and understand chemistry and that complaining about the class or teacher is not

going to help them pass.

My facilitation experience as a tutor can relate to the leadership theory, situational

leadership. Situational leadership is when a leader adjusts their style to fit the developmental

level of the followers they are trying to influence. As a chemistry tutor who has taken the

chemistry course before, I need to be mindful that the people who I am tutoring will not know as

much as I do in my position. Therefore, In order to facilitate a group who is trying to learn and

understand chemistry, I must adjust my tutoring style to better explain and break down concepts

that new learners will understand.

As a result of facilitating as a tutor, I have gained a better understanding of how to adjust

to different learning styles and tailor to the educational needs of others. I learned the importance

of setting and reaching goals, and the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve those goals.

In my future tutoring groups, I will continue to have my groups set goals at the beginning of the

session. I will keep in mind that everyone learns differently, and apply different methods for

learning concepts such as talking problems out, doing them on the whiteboards, and having other

students explain how they came to solutions.

In conclusion, I was very satisfied with how the tutoring session ran. Even after five

semesters of tutoring, I still pick up on new skills and continue learning. It is important to keep

up with class concepts and material as a tutor to be prepared for any questions that may arise.
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Due to my facilitation experience in tutoring, I was able to gain experience through the lens of a

facilitator and learn skills that will help me during future facilitation and leadership roles.
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CHM 103 Tutoring Agenda

Tutor​: Alex Gianquitti

Date​: 11/5/2019

Time​: 1:00pm-1:50pm (arrive 10 minute before to prepare)

Location​: Roosevelt Hall; Basement Rm. 018C

Group​: CHM103

Professor​: Brittain

Number of People​: 5

Goals​: Review and Understand chemistry concepts and problems

1:00 - Group arrival and sign-in

1:05 - Determine what concepts the group want to go over during the session

1:10 - Review past knowledge

1:15 - Teach concepts from my own perspective

1:20 - Complete practice problems to reinforce concepts learned

- Complete problem on own → compare answer with one other person →

bring back to whole group

- Have students come to white board and explain answers to problems

1:40 - Answer any final questions and provide study tips

1:50 - Group depart and sign-out