History of Tutoring
When mentioning this method of education, we should reach for its roots, embedded in the 17th century England. As Zbigniew Pełczyński, ProfTit writes, tutoring “was a response to the lack of universal educational system in that country.” First tutors are considered to be the private teachers educating the sons of lesser nobility. It was discovered quite fast that such students in terms of education received do not differ from the participants of costly lectures at universities. For this reason, in 1870 tutoring became a common educational method.
Nowadays, it is the most important form of work and education at English universities, at Oxford and Cambridge in particular. It takes the form of weekly, an hour-long meetings of the tutor and the tutee. Over the course of a trimester, a student works individually on a selected area or a topic. The effect of this work, for humanities studies in particular, is an essay written once per semester. Throughout the three years of studies, the student works with a dozen or so tutors, making on average about 150 appointments - tutorials.
In reference to Poland, the beginnings of tutoring are tied to the 18th century Collegium Nobilium, where the then elites honed their skills in reasoning and rhetorics, among others.
Z. Pełczyński, Tutoring Worth the Effort. Excerpts from the Experience of an Oxford lecturer.
W: B. Kaczarowska (red.), Tutoring in the Search of a Method of Educating Leaders. Warszawa 2007, Wyd. Stowarzyszenie Szkoła Liderów, p. 31
