Tutoring
The definition of a teacher has evolved over the years. A teacher is defined as “a person who teaches, especially in a school”. Teachers at school follow standard teaching techniques which are designed for larger groups of students. For explaining a concept, very common examples are used which may or may not help the student to understand. It is often a challenge that teachers face in class to cater to students with different learning needs. And hence the main objective invariably comes to the delivery of the content in the books and the explanation of the same.
A tutor on the other hand has a certain privilege because he teaches usually a small group of students or a single student, understanding the needs of the learners. The objective is to understand the student and focus on his flaws while building upon his strengths in the concepts taught.
It is important to understand that schools offer a standard curriculum that may or may not work for the student, as not all students bear the same level of understanding. A teacher can’t pay attention to each and every student in class, as a Mathematics tutor, let me put this down using some numbers. Let’s say that a lecture is of 1 hour and there are just 15 students, which means 4 minutes devoted to a student. School usually is about 6 hours per day, so a child receives an average attention of 24 minutes per day. Definitely, it’s less time to assess a student based on it and guide him through his education. A tutor teaching a single student gives all his attention to that student and follows him closely, understanding his needs and clarity of concepts.
The pace of tutoring depends on the student, if he understands, the tutor goes ahead else he explains things and clears the block. The idea of catering to individual students doesn’t work when you are teaching to a class of students and you have an objective to complete the syllabus in the given time frame. There are also time constraints that make the task more challenging for teachers working in schools.
Moreover, not all students are similar in their learning ways, some students are focused, motivated, engaged, getting the feel of the subject and moving ahead whereas others may be unable to understand and start to procrastinate which ultimately leads to loss of interest in the subject and grades go for a free fall. In many cases, I have seen that students require just a little support and they get that confidence to move ahead and try harder.
In general, the low performance of students cannot be attributed to a single cause, it is always a combination of factors, big and small followed by a domino effect. A tutor's job is to not allow the student to have the domino effect, he/she has to keep the student motivated, interested, and in form for the tests/exams and great results will follow. In doing all this the student should love to sit and study with the tutor. Tutors are hence more study partners than facilitators.
