
Miguel Ángel Zubiaur Alejos* Jesús Emilio Agustín Padilla Caballero
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Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 5, No. 37
April - June 2021. e-ISSN 2550-6862. págs 15-31
2020; Bravo et al, 2019); finally, there are the students, or the tutored, who are the
beneficiaries of this activity.
Another concept was also determined that indicates that tutorial action is favorable for
students as long as it is carried out in a planned manner with well-planned objectives
and goals (Martínez, Pérez, & Martínez 2018), an affective and empathetic
communication and a fluid and cordial relationship among all participants (López, &
González, 2018; Sánchez, Luna, & López, 2019 ); all this will result in a quality mentoring
program, necessary in these times in which higher education has become progressively
massified and depersonalizedwith greater emphasis on some professions (Delgado-
García, Conde, & Boza,2020).
In relation to the benefit obtained by the student, previously the concept was that
academic development represented the primary objective of tutoring . However now,
personal-social development and professional development have also been added; this
represents a more comprehensive concept of education (Bejar, 2018; Alonso-García,
Rodríguez-García, & Cáceres-Reche, 2018), although it is necessary to differentiate the
tutoring programs according to the characteristics of the students and their professional
studies (Gargallo, Pérez-Sanz, & Esteban-Salvador, 2019 ); for this reason, tutoring
programs should be evaluated on an ongoing basis, examining what students think,
assessing both the priorities and needs they perceive (Martínez et al., 2020; Alves,
Simao, & Leitinho, 2018 ).
Similarly, in relation to the tutor, it was found that he/she must have the ability to identify
the characteristics of students and enhance their capabilities to promote their self-
learning and collaborative work ; for this - in addition to having mastery of the course -
he/she must have competencies such as empathy, leadership, communication,
teamwork, as well as pedagogical preparation(Sánchez, Luna, & López, 2019; Batista et
al., 2019; Miranda et al., 2019); for this reason, the need arises for teachers who are
going to exercise tutoring to be selected based on the aforementioned characteristics
( Lagarda, Rodríguez, & Vera, 2020 ); however, the vast majority of university teachers -
because of the profession they have followed- do not have pedagogical training, this is
a reality that influences the quality of tutoring ; because of this, courses and trainings
should be programmed for teachers who will perform the tutoring tasks referred to the
mentioned competencies (Aguilar-Salinas, Chávez-Valenzuela, & de las Fuentes-Lara,
2017; Aguilera,2019).
Another important aspect is the one that refers to virtual tutoring that in times of
pandemic takes special relevance, in this regard only three investigations were found in
which it is mentioned that the teacher must have developed digital skills ; in addition to