Do Advisory Sessions Encourage Independent Learning?

Abstract

Many self-access centres, writing centres and individual teachers around the world offer tertiary students help with their (academic) writing by offering feedback on essays. Many students appear to use such services expecting a ‘quick fix’ to help them submit their essays on time with as few errors as possible. Many teachers, on the other hand, hope to raise students’ awareness of the weaknesses in their writing and encourage further study by recommending strategies and materials. Little research has been done to establish if they are successful. This study looked at one university self-access centre’s writing support, as offered through its language advisory sessions, and monitored the subsequent work students did to find out if they had followed up on the recommendations made by their advisor and returned to the centre for independent study. It was found that, in general, this was not the case. It appears that students take a rather instrumental view of the sessions, one that may not align with that of the advisors helping them.