Tutorials for large classes of Common Foundation Program biomedical science students: successes and challenges

The aim of this paper is to investigate the problems encountered conducting biomedical science tutorials for nursing students in large classes with a typical student: staff ratio of 45:1. The study is based on level 1 Common Foundation Program students from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast at the conclusion of two phases of biomedical sciences education which include a course of 12 interactive tutorials. Survey and interview methodologies were employed to investigate difficulties encountered by students in these large tutorial classes, to ascertain what characterises a good tutor and to explore student attitudes to interactive learning. The barriers to effective teaching and learning in tutorials are discussed and subsequently, a set of guidelines is proposed to enhance learning in them. These include being aware of the ability of the student group, having a compassionate questioning style, tailoring the teaching environment to fit the aims of the class and experimenting with different tutorial formats.