9th June 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Something which isn’t lost on us at Blue Tutors is the distinction between someone appearing to be a good tutor, and actually being a good tutor. This may sound very obvious, and not something which should cause many problems, and in a perfect world it wouldn’t, but many people who don’t understand how private tuition should work are often fooled by a tutor’s appearance.
This was highlighted in a recent article on our site about tuition in Hong Kong, where the tutors themselves admit that the lessons they give are often like a show. The tutors are built up so much, and so much is expected of them that their intention when leaving a lesson is for the student to feel as though they have got their money’s worth.
We know that we could train a tutor to ‘act’ in a way that would impress many students and their parents. If a tutor lectures interestingly and enthusiastically to a student then the student is likely to feel impressed by the energy, the knowledge and the confidence of the tutor. Obviously every good tutor reading this will be saying “but lecturing does not a good tutor make”, and you’re absolutely right, but it’s amazing how many people don’t look beyond the superficial appearance of a tutor, and fixate on the tutor’s confidence and energy.
Obviously enthusiasm and confidence are great tools for a tutor to have, we’re not saying that tutors must be dull and lifeless, but they have to be used in the right way – to inspire and elicit thought from the student, not to simply give the impression that a tutor is in control, and has done this sort of thing before.
What we want to encourage is a more critical view of a tutor’s ability, and over a period of time. We’re aware that first impressions tend to last, and if a student or parent aren’t impressed by a tutor within 5 minutes of meeting them, then it’s a difficult view to change, but we try to encourage people to judge their tutor after a lesson, not during it, and to consider whether their understanding has actually improved. Far too often students persist with a tutor who simply lectures, just because it feels as though they’re a good tutor, and we want people to question this more often.