3rd January 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Private tutors are often brought in by parents to help their children with subjects they struggle with and do not enjoy. One of the tasks the tutor faces is to find creative means to persuade their students to work, which can be particularly difficult if their students really do not enjoy the subject. Yet with the opportunity to go through the issues the student is experiencing one to one, it is likely that students will be more motivated to work once they have a better understanding of the subject. This is the usual routine for tutors. But sometimes, they have the opposite problem: What should tutors do if their students are working too hard?
This can happen for a number of reasons. Parental pressure is often at the root of it, and tutors can sit down with students and parents, and work out a schedule which reflects the well-being as well as academic needs of their students. Other students are concerned that they will fall behind over the holidays, and some have January exams. With A’level results in particular being superb year on year, students know that they must achieve top results in order to gain entry to the universities of their choice. When faced with all these very real issues, how can tutors persuade their students to slow down?
The key here is by not presenting it in this way. Rather, tutors must explain to their students that they need to do less in order to do more. In other words, what is required is focussed, targeted work which will really get to the heart of the work they need to too, rather than hours of procrastinating and worrying and repetitive revision. Teaching students effective revision techniques which do not just rely on rote learning techniques is crucial, as is teaching them about positive use of energy; an exhausted student is not a good student. Finally, teaching them the value of a break in terms of their well-being and the positive effect this will have on their work over all is crucial. For this reason, tutors everywhere should be encouraging their students to enjoy the Christmas holidays and keep work within reasonable limits.