1st January 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Private tutors are generally hired by parents to help their children with a particular subject, and their job is to work with them to improve their students’ knowledge and skills in that area. Strategies may differ from subject to subject and depending on the age of their student, but overall their job is to focus on the curriculum of the subject they are there to teach. Yet tutors who have students in sixth form often find themselves being asked to help their students with an important decision which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the subject they are there to teach: What subject should I study at university?
Tutors who have taught the same student throughout the year, or even longer, are often asked to help their students make this decision, and with this comes a great deal of responsibility. Of course if their students want to study the topic they are teaching, it is somewhat easier, and the tutor is in a good position to help their students put an application together and advise them about the courses available. But what is trickier, is if students are torn between their tutor’s subject and another, or if their student has chosen a course which the tutor thinks may not be suitable. What happens if the tutor thought that their student wanted to study a science subject and learns that the student wants to go in a different direction and wants to study English or History instead?
The most important thing a tutor can do when helping their students to make this decision is to listen to them, and provide the most unbiased advice they can. Tutors will often want to see their students go on to study the subject which they have been teaching, but this may not be the right choice for the student. The other thing that tutors should try to establish is the student’s motivations for choosing a course. It may be that parents want them to study Law or Medicine, but would this be the right choice for the student, and is this what they really want? Although it can be difficult for tutors to remain impartial, it is important that they do so, and they are in a unique position to advise their students and help them make the best decision for them.