Tutoring targets − the challenge of evaluating success

Abstract

The evaluation of student success within a tertiary environment is a challenging endeavour. Success is a multifaceted concept and the achievement of success can be either promoted or prevented by numerous factors. The main challenges include the need to determine how success should be defined and how the contribution of intervention programmes towards success can be established. In this paper we discuss the challenge of interpreting quantitative and qualitative data in order to understand the contributions of two tutoring programmes to student success within the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Humanities. The main aim of the article is to show that, when results are discussed within a programme theory framework (PTF), important strengths and challenges of support programmes could be highlighted. This offers an alternative perspective on the understanding and evaluation of 'success' that differs from the 'one size fits all' model often used.