1st March 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
One of the questions we ask when we interview tutors is what they think makes them a good tutor, and there’s a certain type of response which you’ll hear from many tutors. Particularly with a subject like maths, some tutors say that they really struggled with maths at school, and know what it’s like not to understand something. Can it really be the case that someone who wasn’t great at maths could actually be a better at Key Stage 3, or even a better maths GCSE tutor than someone with a maths degree?
It’s a fairly persuasive argument. The stereotypical view of a maths graduate is someone lacking empathy and understanding, someone who found maths at school so simple that they are unable to comprehend why someone can’t understand something they find so easy. The result is a tutor who becomes frustrated and can’t rephrase explanations which will help a student to realise their misunderstanding.
The tutor who struggled with maths might say that when they were young they needed someone to reassure them about their confusion and go through everything slowly and in an understandable way. Needing help with maths does tend to come from a poor understanding of the basic concepts upon which more complicated ideas are built, and in that situation a tutor needs patience to go back and correct the misunderstanding of more basic ideas.
The truth is, the problems a student has with maths at school are definitely better dealt with by a tutor with a maths degree. The depth into which maths undergraduates go in their degree is almost like tutor training. The more human skills to make students feel at ease and not feel like they’re stupid are really helpful, but contrary to popular belief, a maths graduate can possess these skills. Most importantly, it takes an expert understanding of basic maths concepts to be able to correct those problems for students.