Tutors are more like coaches, guiding students through the reasoning process, rather than expert resource people providing factual information. Relationships between students and tutors are different than undergraduate education as students are expected to be more self-directed in their learning. Tutors will help tutorial groups by asking probing questions and challenging students to illustrate their explanations by using diagrams. These drawings will help establish relationships between concepts, and assist in the expression of ideas. In years to come, students will find that simple diagrams are exceptionally helpful in explaining difficult concepts to patients.

In the beginning, tutors will probably intervene in the group process, but as tutorial groups begin to work more effectively as a team, they will gradually withdraw until the group can work independently. The skills students acquire in learning how to learn and working in teams may develop slowly at first, but in time they will be a solid foundation for continuing professional education.

Students will be evaluated on their contribution to the reasoning process in the tutorial group. In their capacity as coaches, tutors will provide feedback. They will comment on group progress and take time to provide each student with suggestions on how they can contribute more effectively. They are not interested in determining who contributed the most or the least, rather they want to coach everyone to achieve optimal performance.

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