22nd September 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
At Blue Tutors we’re constantly trying to learn, and trying to improve the way in which we work. One of the areas to undergo a massive change since we started is our assessment system (what was called our interviews years ago). This has been based on feedback received from applicants, and our own growth and understanding of the qualities we’re looking for in a tutor. Thankfully, all of the negative feedback received about an assessment comes after an applicant has been told that they performed below average, yet positive feedback is often received before an applicant has discovered how they did.
Our assessment now is an attempt to create a real teaching situation, and we think it’s a fairly good recreation of a tutor’s experience when they first meet a student and are asked to teach. However, there are also aspects of the assessment that differ from non-assessed tutoring, which we try to subdue as much as possible.
To start with, the assessor doesn’t have an aim in the same way that a student requesting private tuition does. Tutors are asked to state a good lesson goal at the beginning of the assessment, but it’s not quite the same as actually having the pressure of future exams to motivate someone to focus on the lesson. Having said this, it could be argued that it’s not uncommon for students to be disinterested in lessons, requiring motivation from the tutor, and our assessors are chosen very carefully, they’re almost always interested to learn something new.
An assessment only lasts 10 minutes, and lots of applicants feel that they’ve just begun to get into the lesson when it stops. Obviously we want to observe tutors teaching as they would throughout an entire, longer lesson, and it might be that this would change for some tutors; that their first 10 minutes would be different as the lesson goes on. However, in our experience, when we have let a lesson continue for longer than 10 minutes, a tutor’s performance doesn’t change very much. Also, 10 minutes is more than enough time to collect all the information we need; applicants are often surprised at how thorough and full their assessment feedback is.
One of the main criticisms of the assessment from some tutors is that they feel under pressure. They know that there is only a short period of time to impress their assessor, which makes the tutor nervous. Also, the fact that there is a scheduled start time, the assessment is in an unfamiliar place, and the tutor hasn’t met their assessor before all contribute to the anxiety felt regarding the assessment. Of course, all of these factors are likely to affect one’s teaching, but we make no apologies for this. This area is one where our assessment recreates the first lesson a tutor will have with a student, and does so very realistically. It is much easier to relax and teach well after spending some time with a student, but the first meeting and first lesson is an important part of a tutor’s role, and it’s great for us to see how well a tutor copes in that situation.