There are many factors parents and students consider when
choosing a effective private tutor. Some considerations can include
age, sex, experience, qualifications, reputation/track record,
budget, etc.
Given that there are many tutors around, how then could you as a
tutor stand out? I shall share a few factors which I think is
important.
1) Passionate and knowledgeable in
the subject you are teaching
This is an important criteria that you must fulfill. Other than
previous grades in school, a good tutor has to demonstrate a good
track record, and be able to make references to the why and how of
tackling the concept or question.
Most importantly, a good tutor must be able to put seemingly
difficult concepts into simple terms, making sure that the student
can absorb and assimilate the details.
Passion is also important because a good tutor must want to impart
his skills, knowledge as well as passion to his/her students.
He/she must want to target for full marks, and not just
sufficiently high grades, for his/her students.
2) Active
tutoring
There are tutors who are tutoring passively. That means, they sit
around and watch the students do their homework/schoolwork. There
are tutors who simply tell the students to try and try again,
without offering much active help. In my opinion, this is clearly a
waste of money by the student. Why pay so much to employ a guardian
to watch over you do your own work?
Active tutors take the initiative to provide notes and questions to
their students, and teach in such a way that it helps the students
think, comprehend, analyse, and understand concepts and questions.
They repeat this process again and again. They train the student to
grasp concepts, to utilise effectively every tool in their hands
(calculators, rulers, etc) and to make full use of exam strategies
to reduce their careless mistakes or take advantage of the
structure in which questions are set.
3) Motivating
This is to me the most important factor to be present in a good
tutor. To do so, tutors have to be able to build good rapport with
their students. They have to create the hunger, the want, the
confidence to score in their students.
Many a times, I have come across students who are desperate,
dejected and totally low in confidence. They seeked tuition from me
as a last resort, as if I'm a miracle pill to at least help them
pass a subject. And luckily for them, I managed to instill more
confidence in everyone of them, give them hope, and finally, they
achieve a grade that is way better than a pass.
There are also students who have totally no idea why they should
study a particular subject. I have this student who plans to go
into game design, and cannot think of any reason to study and do
well in physics, other than to make the grade. That unmotivation
remains, until I explained how mechanics and physics are also
required in games, and went into some details on how the programmer
needs basic knowledge in these aspects in physics to create a
realistic game.
There are many more stories, but I would have to stop. In short, a
good tutor will be able to help students break out of their rut and
work hard for their goals.
4) Responsibility
A good tutor will take responsibility for all of his/her students.
Being responsible as a tutor means
i) willing and want to take the student all the way to the end of
the year
ii) do not teach the wrong things. When unsure, state so, and do
extensive research before teaching the student the correct things.
It is a hideous sin to make the student unlearn wrong things.
iii) ensure that the student improve in grades
To your success :D
Article is also found
here
and it will be submitted to ezines soon.
