One main feature of undergraduate education is the interaction between students and their teachers. Normally, this is understood to occur within some accepted modalities: students meet their teachers in lectures, tutorials and, in some unique cases, individual supervision. Yet, there are other significant areas for student-teacher interaction: a case can be made that some of the best and most neglected areas of teaching occur when faculty members provide students with guidance for projects and group presentations. My experience in teaching NUS undergraduates has taught me that one of the best ways to instruct students is to get them to work on a project. Requiring students to sink their energies into a project also means that they will come and meet with me for directions. It is this meeting—the Hidden Tutorial—that is the subject of this article.

At NUS, group projects have been emphasised for many reasons. It not only provides students with the experience of working together but also offers more space for creativity (i.e. ‘think outside the box’). Furthermore, group work also gives students more opportunities to capitalise on their multimedia skills.

Like many of my colleagues, I worry about the composition of student groups and their capacity to deliver a final product. Normally, I will try to find out as much as I can about the students by getting them to write on the first day of class and then creating groups that are as diverse as possible. I will make sure that the groups are balanced with both good and weak students. While these concerns are important, the process by which a group works is equally pertinent as it creates new teaching opportunities.

As I have made group presentations mandatory in my modules, I am accustomed to visits from student groups seeking instruction for their projects. I realise that these visits are perfect opportunities to actively engage students in learning. Students tend to pay more attention during these meetings because there are real stakes (e.g. self-interest) involved in their presentations. They are also more open to suggestions and more eager to learn because they are able to use the information practically.

In the best instances, students will come as groups and are prepared for a rigorous and wide-ranging discussion. The next 30 or 40 minutes will then be a special, but undesignated tutorial. Most students will have read up on the topic while many will have formed a definite approach to the project. The discussion, then, can be lively as students consider different approaches or weigh the pros and cons of each approach among one another. Getting them to talk about the different ways in which they will present the material, for example, can lead students to think about the course in new ways.

As a result, I restructured my classes to exploit the advantages of the hidden tutorial. All presentation groups are to meet with me twice during the course, the first of which will explore the chosen topic together. Students are then told to prepare an outline for the second meeting which should describe their approach to the presentation that usually involves a discussion about the nature of the material and how it augments the course’s main themes. In order to facilitate these goals, I require students to bring their outlines to the second meeting. Since these sessions revolve around their outlines, they can actually resemble Oxbridge tutorials, where students submit essays to their tutors. I will often fire questions at them to see how well they really understand the material in the outline. My supposition is that many students have become proficient at downloading material from the Internet without always fully comprehending it. Admittedly, these conversations are uneven and student participation within a group is not uniform. Nonetheless, I am convinced that when students leave my office, they not only feel more comfortable with their presentation, but are also armed with a more complete understanding of the course dynamics (e.g. its content and themes).

However, it has to be noted that crafting a hidden tutorial has its limitations. The technique probably would be less effective in broad survey or introductory courses. While I have employed it with success at the 2000-, 4000-, 5000- and 6000- levels, these hidden tutorials probably work best with advanced undergraduates and MA students. In addition, hidden tutorials complement multi-layered courses which have been constructed around a combination of themes and methodological reflection. To put it simply, the more basic the course, the less advantage there is in using hidden tutorials.

Here are a number of practical suggestions to note while implementing hidden tutorials:

• Teachers should use student groups (and their projects) as more than a means to divide work load as they offer the potential for additional levels of instruction.
  
  
• Teachers should fully utilise student group discussions not only to ensure a successful classroom presentation but also to develop the course’s nuances.
  
  
• Planning a module with group presentations also means looking ahead to the discussions with students outside class.
  
  
• The hidden tutorial works when there are two meetings with student groups; students must bring in an outline for the second discussion.
  
  
• These meetings also offer the teacher a chance to see how successful he or she has been in advancing the course’s main themes.
  
  
• Presentations tend to be richer and more balanced with the inclusion of hidden tutorials. A teacher has the opportunity to make sure that all students participate and that they work well together.
  
  
• Better organised presentations ensure that the class does not suffer (as is often the case) when one or more students give substandard performances.
  
  
• There is much to learn from students in these tutorials as they uncover new information and sources. More importantly, since these discussions help to generate new ideas, they help the teacher better understand the points of contact between his/her module and other avenues of knowledge.