Getting Experience in Computer Science Education - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 249

rums for discussing tutoring sessions and posing questions on disciplinary-related
topics.
In more detail, the tutor requirements are:

• To identify a tutee from among students enrolled in an introductory CS course
• To hold five tutoring sessions, each lasting about 2 h
• To complete a feedback sheet for each tutoring session (see Table 13.2 ) and to
submit it to the tutoring coordinator
• To hold two individual meetings with the tutoring coordinator: one, following
the first tutoring session and the second, after completing the series of tutoring
sessions
• To present the MTCS course plenum with one episode from the tutoring process
• To complete a final summarizing feedback questionnaire
• The mentoring model has several essential guidelines for its implementation:
• It is important that the five tutoring sessions of each tutor are held with the same
tutee. Such a relationship enables continuity of activity, reference to previous
sessions, and development along with the learning material. Continuity enables
the tutor to see the impact of the sessions on the tutee and to examine, for in-
stance, what still has not been properly understood and which thinking strategies
the tutee has adopted.
• A 10-h tutoring framework (5 sessions of 2 h each) seems reasonable in terms of
the tasks required of a student in the MTCS course. It is recommended holding
face-to-face meetings, which can be combined with electronic communications
according to the tutee's needs.
• Since the prospective CS teachers will teach, in the future, in high schools, tu-
toring a high school pupil would seem to have been more appropriate in terms
of experiencing the true target audience. Nevertheless, the need to find a high
school pupil might constitute a problematic constraint for the students, since
their living and learning environment is the campus, in which both they and tutee
are present. If a student has access to a tutee who is a high school pupil, it can be
approved. In some cases, a group of up to three tutees can be tutored together.
• Completing a feedback questionnaire after each tutoring session is essential to
the tutors' learning process. Focused and reflective examination of their actions
during the session enables tutors to evaluate their performance and formulate
guidelines for themselves for the remaining sessions.

13.4.2 The Contribution of the Mentoring Model to Prospective

Computer Science Teachers Teaching Experience

The mentoring model has the potential to foster the skills of the prospective CS
teachers on three levels:

1. Promoting the pedagogical-disciplinary professional skills by means of identify-
ing learners' difficulties in real-life situations, assisting and facilitating learners