The Purpose of a Tutor ?

[n2ize]

Let's say you send your child to school and over time she appears to have a weakness in a particular subject. She is simply not making the grade. She cannot seem to keep up to speed with the rest of the class and as a result her grades are falling.

You decide to hire a tutor to assist your child. But what do you look for in that tutor ?

In one or two brief sentences, what are the most important goals you would like to see that tutor accomplish ?

[N9MOQ]

. .

[ab1ga]

Let's say you send your child to school and over time she appears to have a weakness in a particular subject. She is simply not making the grade. She cannot seem to keep up to speed with the rest of the class and as a result her grades are falling.

You decide to hire a tutor to assist your child. But what do you look for in that tutor ?

In one or two brief sentences, what are the most important goals you would like to see that tutor accomplish ?

'ize,

It so happens that as I write this my wife Sara is out tutoring one of the local kids. She started tutoring kids who were at risk of failing a grade because of protracted illness or recovery from accidents, and has been one of the few to actually get kids graduated on time.

After a few rants and tirades, I have figured out that most kids with real difficulties are lacking in reading skills, you know, what we did before YouTube. The kids with math problems all seem to lack the facility with numbers that comes with drilling multiplication tables and similar things. If a youngster is having trouble with fractions, you can bet they don't know their tables.

As for what to look for in a tutor, one element is an iron will. Most kids are embarassed in a tutor, and will engage in avoidance behavior such as not preparing, giving in to distractions, etc. Once Sara's kids figured out doing the work was easier than ducking it, things percolated.

The other element is the ability to deduce how to best get the knowledge into the kid. What you don't want is a lecturer, you do need someone who is creative enough to try different approaches to getting the material across until a successful one is found.

That's all this spectator can give you. If you'd like to talk to Sara directly, I can send you her email if you wish.

73,

[n2ize]

'ize,

It so happens that as I write this my wife Sara is out tutoring one of the local kids. She started tutoring kids who were at risk of failing a grade because of protracted illness or recovery from accidents, and has been one of the few to actually get kids graduated on time.

After a few rants and tirades, I have figured out that most kids with real difficulties are lacking in reading skills, you know, what we did before YouTube. The kids with math problems all seem to lack the facility with numbers that comes with drilling multiplication tables and similar things. If a youngster is having trouble with fractions, you can bet they don't know their tables.

As for what to look for in a tutor, one element is an iron will. Most kids are embarassed in a tutor, and will engage in avoidance behavior such as not preparing, giving in to distractions, etc. Once Sara's kids figured out doing the work was easier than ducking it, things percolated.

The other element is the ability to deduce how to best get the knowledge into the kid. What you don't want is a lecturer, you do need someone who is creative enough to try different approaches to getting the material across until a successful one is found.

That's all this spectator can give you. If you'd like to talk to Sara directly, I can send you her email if you wish.

73,

So you would add "flexibility"and "creativity" to a list of positive traits that a tutor should have. Excellent suggestions.

I'm working with some students who are interested in tutoring various subjects, i.e.math, science, language, etc. and I've been trying to compile a list of guidelines (or characteristics) that would make a person a good tutor. I'm trying to go beyond the everyday academic manuals and get ideas from people who may have kids that need or have had tutoring, people who have actually done tutoring, from those who have benefited from the services of a tutor, and and general ideas that anyone may have to offer.

[WF7A]

I used to tutor astronomy and electronics student waaaaay back when (as well as being a flight instructor, but that's much more than being a tutor). It didn't take long to see that the same, recurring problems popping up: the students were fed rote knowledge and didn't know what to do with it or how to make a connection from one facet of a subject to another facet so they couldn't intuit any outcomes...and they weren't motivated to learn, which I fault the teachers on since if you can't motivate someone to learn then you're just wasting everybody's time and causing a lot of frustration in your students.

As for what to look for in a tutor, someone who has infinite patience and spoon-feeds bits of knowledge instead of trying to shovel it in; when a student can digest little pieces at a time then they feel a sense of accomplishment and have a much better chance of comprehending the lessons and subject at hand.

[ab1ga]

So you would add "flexibility"and "creativity" to a list of positive traits that a tutor should have. Excellent suggestions.

I'm working with some students who are interested in tutoring various subjects, i.e.math, science, language, etc. and I've been trying to compile a list of guidelines (or characteristics) that would make a person a good tutor. I'm trying to go beyond the everyday academic manuals and get ideas from people who may have kids that need or have had tutoring, people who have actually done tutoring, from those who have benefited from the services of a tutor, and and general ideas that anyone may have to offer.

Hi, Sara, wife of ab1ga here, just back from tutoring and thought I'd put in my 2 cents. A tutor specializes in one aspect of teaching, figuring out what's in the mind of a student by interacting with the student, analyzing on the fly what's happening, and continuously adapting the interaction.

Enthusiasm for the subject helps a lot; enough experience with the subject to know the foundations of it also helps. What helps above all is enough experience with students to know how they are likely to think and enough imagination to figure out why this student reacted that way.

Be responsive to the student; figure out what the student's doing mentally. Know enough about the subject to know the pitfalls and basic skills.

So, to sum up, I'd add 'responsiveness' to your list of qualities and I'd use the word 'adaptability' in place of 'flexibility' -- it's a little more precise. Good luck!

73

Sara, wife of Dale

[n2ize]

Hi, Sara, wife of ab1ga here, just back from tutoring and thought I'd put in my 2 cents. A tutor specializes in one aspect of teaching, figuring out what's in the mind of a student by interacting with the student, analyzing on the fly what's happening, and continuously adapting the interaction.

Enthusiasm for the subject helps a lot; enough experience with the subject to know the foundations of it also helps. What helps above all is enough experience with students to know how they are likely to think and enough imagination to figure out why this student reacted that way.

Be responsive to the student; figure out what the student's doing mentally. Know enough about the subject to know the pitfalls and basic skills.

So, to sum up, I'd add 'responsiveness' to your list of qualities and I'd use the word 'adaptability' in place of 'flexibility' -- it's a little more precise. Good luck!

73

Sara, wife of Dale

Thank you. I appreciate your thoughts and advice regarding the subject of tutoring. I added these to the list of attributes.

1) Adaptability... to be able to adapt to the needs of the student

2) Responsiveness

also I'm including

3) Enthusiasm...quite important, both for the subject at hand and for the overall objectives.

4) Empathy... to be able to understand the student, their feelings, apprehensions, etc.

[n2ize]

I used to tutor astronomy and electronics student waaaaay back when (as well as being a flight instructor, but that's much more than being a tutor). It didn't take long to see that the same, recurring problems popping up: the students were fed rote knowledge and didn't know what to do with it or how to make a connection from one facet of a subject to another facet so they couldn't intuit any outcomes...and they weren't motivated to learn, which I fault the teachers on since if you can't motivate someone to learn then you're just wasting everybody's time and causing a lot of frustration in your students.

As for what to look for in a tutor, someone who has infinite patience and spoon-feeds bits of knowledge instead of trying to shovel it in; when a student can digest little pieces at a time then they feel a sense of accomplishment and have a much better chance of comprehending the lessons and subject at hand.

Often the teacher or professors time and resources are limited. often working with large class sizes and large amounts of material to cover in relatively limited time the teacher/professor finds himself blazing through the material at speeds that often dazzle the students. And as long as nobody complains or asks questions the teacher/professor often goes by the assumption that the material is being absorbed and he maintains his lecture speed. All too often it turns out that many students are not really understanding the lecture/class material and yet seldom ask questions or request the teacher slow down, perhaps out of embarrassment and out of assumption that they'll figure it all out later during a study session.

This is why teaching assistants and tutors are so invaluable. They can often reach students in ways that the teacher or professor cannot Both students and teachers are indebted to quality tutors and teaching assistants.

[ad5mb]

Allow me to answer certain questions you did not ask:

0) The student learns. The teacher facilitates learning. Your job is not to shove knowledge into an unwilling receptacle, your job is to grease the skids while the student pulls knowledge in.

1) Learning is association. The teachers function is to point out the associations. Note that any person who teaches anyone anywhere anything starts by saying "It's kinda like..."

Example: Motorcycle clutches have many small plates. This gives them a lot of surface area without a lot of diameter. Which is also why capacitors have multiple sheets of conductive and dielectric plates, rolled into a cylinder. Find associations and point them out to your pupils.

2) How much to teach: Consider an archery target. ( I'm not into archery. I don't care if I get the order of the colors wrong. I'm just making a point here ) You have a black circle in the center, a yellow ring around that, a red ring around the yellow ring...

The rings represent degrees of knowledge; Technician, General; Basic Open Water SCUBA, Advanced Open Water SCUBA...

If you are tasked to teach a person the black circle, teach at least 20% into the yellow circle. That way, when the student forgets, he forgets the extra stuff. If he remembers some of the extra stuff, he may be able to restore to memory the basic stuff he forgot by interpolating the extra stuff, when crunch time comes.

3) Study every new thing you learn as if you intend to teach it. It makes the learning easier.

4) If you want to pay a teacher an compliment, tell him he'd make a good salesman. If you want to pay a salesperson a compliment, tell her she'd make a good teacher. To pay either the ultimate accomplishment, tell them they would make a good lawyer. Ergo: to be the best teacher you can be, study selling and lawyering, which is not the same as law.

5) Lesson planning: From the general to the specific. Define every term when first used - your understanding of the meaning of a word may be different from the students.

6) Training aids: Blackboards and whiteboards are all well and good, but they have no memory. Flipcharts are great: tear off a page and hang it up, move on to the next thing. Refer back as necessary. When flip charts are not available, butchers paper works well.

7) Reference models:
When you were a little kid, you learned with the Choo-Choo Train reference model. First you learned +, because more is better. Then you learned -, because what's the use of having without spending? Then X, then Division, one after the other. Each depends on the item before.

Later, you learned in a more complex way. Interactive subjects like chemistry and computers. Consider an onion: Slice it top to bottom, left to right, at a 45 degree angle, looks the same inside. A core with layers around it. This is how you learn computers. Everything starts with I/O, Memory, DMA and Interrupts. Every new thing you learn is wrapped around this core, and every new thing you learn depends on the layer beneath. The Onion Reference Model.

Finally, the Painting reference model. When you study computer networks, you learn little more than a vague definition of switches, routers, bridges, protocols, et cetera. Then you go back and study each in greater detail. Then you study the interaction between them in greater detail. Then you study the components and protocols in tiresome detail. This is how a painter works, rough pencil sketch, wash the background in broad strokes. Building a foundation, adding details. All over the canvas, over and over. The way to teach complex interactive systems.

8) There are boring subjects. There are boring teachers. Boring subject X Boring teacher = Stultified student. If the subject is boring, don't be boring yourself.

[kc9jwa]

Look for in a totur, good teaching quailities, great person who knows how to help act as a tutor for children, one who has great intelligence, just my 2 cents i dont know much. I didnt finish high school cause of my teachers juat wnated money so they taught me nuttin, so i dropped out, goin for the ged soon. I would wnat a tutor to accomplish the goal of teaching my child if i had one what he or she has a problem with the exact issue no playin around, i want to see least b or a, and him or her have fun and learn what he or she needs.:)

[AK7V]

I spent about a year teaching one-on-one at a major music conservatory and the biggest thing I learned is that a teacher/tutor needs to determine how that particular student learns best. This takes creativity and thoughtfulness. It also took some study of the various pedagogical methods used in the field. The way I learned, or the way my teacher taught me, is not necessarily the best way for someone else.

Pretty obvious, I guess, but the importance of understanding pedagogy in addition to the subject material became very clear to me.