1. Personalized education. Part of what makes private tutoring so effective is that the process is catered to each individual student’s strengths and challenges. As we’ve discussed on our blogs before, students all have different learning styles – some students are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and some learn best with hands-on demonstrations. At Tutor Doctor, we also believe it’s important for a student to get along and feel comfortable with their tutor, so personality traits are also highly considered during the matching process.
2. Targeted instruction. A good tutor will often spend the first few sessions identifying the areas a student needs improvement. In many cases, students themselves are not able to specify the exact reason they are struggling – we often hear something along the lines of, “I don’t know why, I’m just bad at math I guess!” Part of a tutor’s job is to identify the specific topics and areas that a student needs to improve.
3. Revisiting previous topics. As teachers have a lot of content to cover throughout the year, sometimes the class just has to “move on” to the next topic. This becomes a problem for students that needed more time with the concept, and they often never get the chance to go back and review these areas. As a result, learning gaps can begin to form and future topics that are based on this knowledge likely won’t make sense. A tutor has the unique ability to work outside the classroom’s schedule and revisit previous topics that need more coverage.
4. Confidence towards school. Working with a tutor can help students develop a more positive attitude towards school and academics in general. This is largely due to the boost in confidence students receive once they start seeing the results of their hard work!
5. Closing learning gaps. A special consideration needs to be highlighted due to the events of the last year or so. The pandemic caused a major shift in education, with many students being let out of school months early in 2020. Learning gaps are already a problem in education, and the pandemic has undoubtedly increased these challenges. Some students are more comfortable with online education than others, and research has shown many students returned to school last fall retaining approximately only 63-68% of their learning gains in reading and 37-50% in math (in comparison to a regular school year). Due to the unique challenges faced by families, students, and teachers alike over the past several months, private tutoring is a good option to consider for any child.