Mixing It up A Little: What Good Tutors Do

As tutors we always wonder if there are things that we can do more effectively or different. And the answer is, “Absolutely!”

There are many good practices that you can implement into your lessons as a tutor to make it interesting for you and your student. Not just following one specific routine or way of teaching is important as it helps your student not to become bored; remain engaged with you; and most importantly help them with the academic subjects that they need your help in. It also keeps their academic work and the support you are providing interesting as well as fresh and meaningful.

Try a few of these tips below as you instruct your students to ensure that they are continuing to learn and that you are continuing to be effective as their tutor:

Use different teaching styles

Every student is different. Therefore, there is no single method that works for everybody. As a tutor, it’s good to be aware of many different styles of teaching. It’s good to try each of these tutoring styles with the student and see which one yields the best results. Some of the most popular methods of tutoring are lecturing, “watching over shoulders”, and working through examples. With the lecturing style of tutoring, students expect you to prepare the lesson. You then sit down with them in which you spend most of the time explaining the concepts. This style is very similar to how teachers teach a class. Another style of teaching is when you watch the student as they complete the problems. You stop them every time they make a mistake. One other method is when you do a lot of examples with the student. Some students may prefer lecture style while others may prefer that you look over their shoulders. Irrespective of what style you use, just make sure that your student understands what you are trying to help them with.

Apply the lesson to something that your student is already interested in.

For example, your student may play football. If you are tutoring that student in the math subject, then use football analogy. Remember that it’s ok to focus on another topic once in a while which may help you in tutoring the student about their specific subject. As we know, it is very easy to learn something when you can relate a foreign concept to something that someone is familiar with already.

Ask your student to teach some of the materials back to you.

There are studies that show learning by doing is the most effective way to learn. This method can serve to help your student be accountable for explaining the information back to you. This will also give you and your student immediate feedback on whether or not the material is truly being understood.

Try a few of these approaches to see what works best for both your student. The sign of a good tutor is their flexibility and willingness to teach using different approaches. So mix it up and you’ll have students lined up for your help!