14th June 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
When private tutors are hired they often don’t have a great deal of information about the job. The will accept jobs based on the subject and level taught, such as GCSE English, and the location they are being asked to travel to. Other than that, they know very little about what kind of job it will be when they arrive to give a first lesson. As many tutors will say, teaching GCSE English to one student is very different from teaching the same subject to another student. This, of course, is the value of private tuition, that tutors can adapt their methods to their students’ needs. But how does this affect the tutor?
Some parents hire tutors to help with revision in the months running up to exams. In those cases, tutors often use similar lesson plans, including revision techniques, and teaching students what examiners are looking for. Revision tuition is often intensive, and can involve providing emotional as well as academic support. Whilst most tutors are happy to do this up to a point, living through students’ stress can be draining. Tutoring a student throughout the year can be more rewarding for both the student and the tutor, who will have a chance to really get to know their student’s learning style and develop creative ways of helping them.
Unfortunately, whilst some students are a joy to teach, others are not. An hour with a motivated, interested student will fly by, but if a student drags their heels, the lesson will drag too. I’m sure that anticipating the visit of a tutor when not having done any work can be unpleasant for students. However, I’d say it is equally unpleasant for tutors whose lesson plans go out of the window if the student has not completed the necessary work. This is more likely to happen if the student isn’t particularly interested in having tuition, and are being made to take extra lessons by concerned parents. Hopefully, in those cases the tutor will manage to find a way to motivate their student. But in some cases, when both tutor and student wish the lessons were not taking place, it is best to reconsider.