The tutor in project-lead education: evaluation of tutor performance

Abstract

At the University of Minho, project-based learning is becoming part of most first year engineering curricula. Although projects are different, a common element is the changing role of the teachers, as some are supposed to function as tutors instead of lecturers. The precise role of a tutor in project-led education is rather ambiguous to both tutors as well as to students. In order to define this role and inform the tutors about their performance and help them to improve, the Council of Engineering Courses developed a questionnaire with both open and closed items that aims to evaluate the performance of individual tutors in a project semester. After a pilot version at two courses, a revised version was applied at the end of the first semester of 2007/2008. The answers to the open questions provided information about strengths and weaknesses of each tutor. The answers on the closed items helped to gain insight in the performance of a tutor with regard to the functioning of the group, individual learning processes, the progress of the project, the altitudes of the tutor with regard to project-led education and his/her role in the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills for students