7th March 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
There are many conversations going on at the moment in politics and the national press about private tutoring, covering a range of issues from social mobility to child safety. Whenever these discussions are held one gets the impression that only children receive private tuition. There are concerns about children being tutored too young, concerns about hot-housing children, and child safety in the unregulated tuition industry. The boom in private tuition has not only happened amongst school children and their parents, but also adult learners. This demographic is very diverse in itself, and requires a specialist approach from tutors.
First of all, what do we mean by adult learners? This is a huge category which includes university students over the age of 18, meaning that it is all the more important for tutors to assess the individual needs of their students. Here tutors are not dealing with standard requests for GCSE or A’Level. Adult learners may want to brush up on a subject they have not studied in years, or they may be an absolute beginner. They may be students struggling with undergraduate or graduate courses, and require an element of pastoral care/advice which would not be appropriate of other adult learners.
The trick is for tutors to have a clear conversation with their new student as to what they want to get out of the lessons. Tutors are often young people who have recently graduated so it is important that they are able to strike the right dynamic with a student who may well be older than them. They should be respectful and helpful, but also assertive where necessary. Whatever the needs of the student, good communication from the outset is the key to successful adult learning.