A Replication Study on Student Expectations on CS Tutors: Understanding Roles and Labors of Tutors

Understanding what students expect from undergraduate teaching assistants (tutors) is essential to improving the effectiveness of student-tutor interactions. Building on the work of Lim et al. (2023), this study replicates and extends prior research by conducting 23 semi-structured interviews across four institutions to further examine the expectations students have on tutors in university CS2 courses. The original study was scoped within a single institution; by expanding beyond a single-institution sample, we examine the generalizability of previously identified student expectations and explore new perspectives on the tutor's role during tutoring hours. Our findings reveal a large set of roles tutors are expected to play. These roles can be categorized into tutors as solutionists, diagnosticians, and facilitators. Tutors are expected to play these roles, switch between them, or at times take on multiple roles at once. We detail the expectations associated with each category and surface both confirmed and novel findings relative to Lim et al.'s work. Our discussion highlights the emotional labors involved in tutoring, identifies implicit and sometimes unreasonable student expectations, and provides a practical framework for supporting tutors in aligning their efforts with student needs. Implications and limitations of our categorization of roles are discussed alongside directions for future research.