If we build it, will they come? Saving the history tutorial and rethinking assessment

Abstract

As teaching programs in university history departments strain under the pressure of increasing class sizes, diminished budgets and fewer staff, savings in time and money have been sought by reducing the number of tutorials offered to students. Charting the history of one university’s attempt to make cuts to the humanities tutorial program, this article critiques the arguments used to justify such measures, and mounts a defence of the tutorial system, although not of the way in which students have been traditionally assessed and taught. It argues that if tutorials are to be saved and they are to enliven student learning, teacher-historians need to rethink the way in which they assess students and organise their teaching activities.