6th September 2012 12:50
By Blue Tutors
We’re Tutors not Teachers
Many clients don’t seem to understand the difference between what we do and what their child’s teacher does in school. They ask us to search for a teacher in a subject, cutting out many extremely good tutors from helping their child and often getting no offers from tutors at all as a result.
Teaching is different from tutoring. You do not have to be a teacher to be an excellent tutor. Tutoring is about responding to the needs of an individual, about focussing in on skills and improving these bit by bit. Teaching is pressurised, it is about getting through the curriculum and by catering to the majority the teacher hopes to provide a great teaching environment for all the kids in their class.
Individual tuition on the other hand has the luxury of being able to focus on one topic for as long as it takes to develop understanding. While the teacher covers the curriculum the tutor can support learning by providing the extra time required on certain aspects which the child finds difficult.
Being a qualified teacher can, of course, help you become an excellent tutor but it is by no means a necessary or even a desired feature of a great tutor.