Individual Tutorial Programs
Model One: Literature-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: mastery of the complex literature associated with a specific field, school of thought or perspective.
Nature of Tutorial: This model most closely resembles the traditional 19 th Century European tutorial. The senior tutor and student identify a specific body of literature that the student will master during their doctoral program. The student and tutor meet in person periodically, as well as correspond regularly by telephone, email and/or via the ad-learn platform. The senior tutor and student might attend relevant conferences together or meet with one or more of the authors of the books the student is reading. The student prepares essays, critical analyses, summations, annotated bibliographies and/or other written products that document their mastery of the literature. The student might even offer presentations alone (or with the senior tutor) at appropriate meetings and conferences, or prepare journal articles based on the literature being reviewed. The final dissertation project for this tutorial student is usually either theoretical in nature or a scholarly summation and/or analysis of the major themes contained in the literature they mastered. Typically, the student wraps all or most of their course work around the literature they are reviewing, and the senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) helps the student determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich and broaden the scope of their literature review and analysis.
Model Two: Project-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: completion of one or more projects closely associated with the daily work being done by the student or related to a major career shift envisioned by the student.
Nature of Tutorial: This model departs dramatically from the 19 th Century European tutorial. The student and senior tutor identify specific projects that the student wishes to accomplish that will enable them to be even more successful in their current work or enable them to move into a new line of work. The tutorial can be centered on one major project (such as the writing of a book or establishment of a new institute) or around a series of smaller projects (such as writing a journal article, preparing a new training program or instituting a new treatment strategy). Typically, the student wraps all or most of their course work around their major project or set of projects, and the senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) helps the student determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich and broaden the scope of the student’s project(s).
Model Three: Practice-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: completion of an extended program of training, coupled with extensive reading in a specific area of psychological practice that relates specifically to the student’s desire to expand their current repertoire of psychological practice or move into a new area of psychological practice.
Nature of Tutorial: This tutorial model builds off of the traditional residential education programs that have been offered at PSP for more than 25 years. As in the case of the residential programs, Model Three tutorials prepare students for specific psychological practices. However, unlike the residential program at PSP, the new Model Three tutorial program is focused on a specific psychological strategy and the student is given extensive training in this strategy, while also mastering the literature that provides a foundation for this psychological practice.
Typically, the student who is enrolled in this tutorial program already has a professional license (such as an MFT or LCSW) and does not wish to obtain any further licenses; alternatively, the student is working in an area of psychology that does not require a license and already has substantial training (at the masters level) and substantial experience in this area of applied psychology. In general, students enrolled in Model Three tutorials wraps all or most of their course work around their advanced education and training in this area of specialization. The senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) help the student determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich their knowledge or and expertise in using this specific psychological practice.
Model Four: Reflection-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: completion of an extended process of reflection and review with regard to the student’s life experiences and the values and themes that have influenced the student’s life choices.
Nature of Tutorial: While this tutorial model incorporates the contemplative processes of 19 th Century European tutorials, it diverges from this model significantly in that it is intended primarily not for scholars who are at the start of their career, but instead for those men and women who are near the ends of their career or have retired from their career and wish to use their doctoral program as an occasion for further enrichment of their self knowledge and their potential work with other men and women who have reached this reflective point in their life.
As in the case of the literature-based tutorial, this reflective tutorial may involve the in-depth reading of major works, but it will often involve the student’s reading of their “own book” (reviewing transcriptions of interviews their senior tutor has conducted with them). Like the project-based tutorial, the reflective tutorial may include the production of various products (such as a journal article, book or institute), though the major emphasis in not on producing something, but instead on gaining greater wisdom regarding self and others. Typically, the student wraps all or most of their course work around their reflective process, and the senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) helps the student determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich and broaden the scope of this reflection (and any projects that might emerge from this reflection).
Model Five: Institution-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: expanded knowledge and skills on the part of both the tutorial student, who serves in a leadership role within an institution, and other members of the institution, leading to creation of a “learning organization” that is modeled by the commitment of the tutorial/leader student to their own ongoing education.
Nature of Tutorial: This model departs significantly from the traditional 19 th Century European tutorial in that it is intended for senior-level leaders rather than learners who are at the start of their career. It also differs from the traditional model in that it involves not just the PSP student who is earned his/her doctorate, but also other members of the institution in which this student serves as a leader. This tutorial model often incorporates elements of one or more of the other tutorial models. The student/leader and other members of the institution may be reading and discussing relevant literature (Model One), participate in projects (Model Two) and participate in training and education programs that increase knowledge and skills in specialized areas of applied psychology (Model Three).
Typically, the student/leader completes course offerings through three interrelated processes. First, the student/leader may participate in programs being offered by a PSP faculty member to members of their institution (often within the context of a continuing education initiative). Second, the same PSP faculty member may help the student/leader expand their knowledge (in their role as leader) in the same area being addressed in the programs offered other members of their institution. Third, the senior tutor for this student/leader may offer some individualized courses that specifically address the unique learning interests and needs of the student/leader. Typically, the student wraps all or most of their course work around their role and responsibility as an institutional leader, and the senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) helps the student determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich and broaden the scope of the student’s role as institutional leader.
Model Six: Cohort-Based Tutorial
Primary Educational Outcome: meeting the distinctive educational interests and needs of each student in the cohort group, as well as the shared educational interests and needs of all students in the cohort.
Nature of Tutorial: This model builds on the past experience of PSP with cohort groups (having already successfully conducted two cohort-based programs). A cohort typically is formed around a specific theme (e.g. collaborative learning), institutional affiliation (e.g. community colleges) or geographic location (e.g. British Columbia) and consists of four to eight members. While the other five tutorial models enable an individual student to begin a doctoral program whenever they want, the sixth model requires that all (or at least most) of the participating students begin the program at the same time. As in the case of the other five models, members of the cohort group meet with their senior tutor to design their tutorial program to meet individual and collective educational goals.
The cohort will often engage in collaborative review of seminal literature that is directly related to this cohort’s convening theme or to the major challenges facing the institutions with which all members of the cohort are affiliated (parallel to Model One). As in the case of Model Two, students in the cohort-group may complete individual or collaborative projects (such as creation of a training institute or production of a book). Members of the cohort may also link their cohort activities to specific professional practices in which they are all engaged (Model Three), choose to engage in shared reflection on their careers and/or life within the type of institution with which they are each affiliated (Model Four), or link their own participation in the cohort group with work being done within their institution or even with work being done collaboratively among all or most of the institutions represented by PSP students participating in the cohort group (Model Five). Typically, the students participating in a PSP cohort group will wrap all or most of their course work around the specific theme, institutional type or geographic location that serves as the convening point of the cohort. The senior tutor (or other faculty members assisting the senior tutor) help students in the cohort determine ways in which the multiple perspectives offered in the diverse course offerings at PSP can further enrich and broaden the scope of the convening theme, institutional-type or geographic location.
