Developing a central theme for a tutorial set facilitates learning of concepts

Tutorials complement lectures in providing students with a different perspective to revisit themes and concepts taught in lecture. Based on discussion conduced in small groups, tutorials provide an interactive platform for the learning of concepts taught in lectures, as well as an opportunity for students to discover how those concepts could be applied in problem-solving. However, difficulties often arise in building a coherent tutorial question set able to support the educational objectives stated above. Thus, in this contribution, an approach of building a tutorial set around a central theme was suggested that could provide the framework for building a concept inventory relevant to the lecture material taught. Specifically, a thematic concept map provides an intellectual framework for students to understand the tutorial, as well as serve as the basis for the design of tutorial questions on which relevant concepts could be explored in alternative ways compared to the lecture’s presentation. Collectively, a thematic approach to structuring a tutorial provides the framework for building concepts around a thematic core, while allowing different questions to be posed for exploring the intellectual and application space surrounding the concepts.