Communication skills of tutors, in the tutorial activity of the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

Abstract

This article is about tutoring present in Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. Communication skills present in novice tutors and expert tutors were observed, enumerated and compared. The objectives were: describe what tutors understand by communication skills, understand communication skills that expert and novice tutors use in the tutor-tutored relationship and elucidate the meaning of tutor's communication skills that they have for their tutored students. Educommunicative and dialogic paradigm were resumed to support the study, as well as the revision of the concept of communicative competence. The type of research was qualitative, ethnographic method was used. Participant observation, interviews and video recordings were analyzed to allowed characterize the communication skills of the tutors and communication within the tutorial activity. Among the most important results is that expert tutors have more communication skills than novices. Although it is observed that if the novice tutor is interested in provide tutoring service, he develops skills. Tutoring training proved to be a fundamental activity to potentiate the development of the tutorial activity. Conclusions highlight that tutors have a wide variety of Communication Skills (CS) which they use during their tutorial practice, although many of them do not identify them consciously. Finally, it was detected that tutoring has a close relationship with the UAZ Model XXI Century since it prioritizes students and their learning.