A guide on how to tutor or teach. Below is an simple guide on how teach, this can be used by tutors, teachers and academics, as it's beneficial in breaking down how to explain a question to someone that doesn't understand.
You don't require a special qualification to explain a question to someone, all you need is an understanding of the topic coupled with good communication skills and you're ready to go.
There are many ways to help you improve your communication, when explaining an academic question to a student. I have mixed these in with some of our top tips for tutors.
1. Speak clearly (don't shout), make sure you're clear and your voice isn't melotone, the way you speak makes a huge difference when you're explaining things to people. Just imagine if the prime minister whispered during a speech, you'd think something was wrong with them, in order for people to listen to what you have to say, you need to speak with some level of conviction and belief in what you say.
2. Try using a relatable situation to explain a topic someone may be struggling with, a great example that everyone can understand is algebra.
2x + 10 = 50, to a child you might want to use sweets, toys, sports or anything relatable to their childhood to help them understand the question. So instead of giving someone a boring algebraic question try saying, "You've been given an unknown amount of sweets", make it clear they don't know how many sweets they've been given. You can then say " I'm now going to double the sweets, and after I've double the sweets, I'm going to give you ten more", "you now have 50 sweets!" , now of course this is just one method and may not work for everyone but the idea is that you're trying to find ways to make something that's boring to the student, more interesting, so the recipient of the information will remain engaged for a longer period of time and therefore take in more information.
Another example may being using the abbreviation KFC when showing a student how to divide fractions, when you divide fractions, the first one stays the same (K = KEEP), the divide sign is changed to a multiplication sign (F = FLIP), and the last fraction is inverted so that the numerator (number at the top), is now at the bottom and the denominator (the number at the bottom) is not at the top. (C = CHANGE), just click the picture below for a demo on how to explain fractions as a completely new topic.
A very common English example I like to use, is to do with a student's writing. Students need to write things in order and the sentences must make sense and flow, there should be a sufficient level of detail in each sentence and this should include proper spelling and grammar. Most importantly you need to answer the question. You can say to a student "You'd answer a question directly, if someone asked you a direct question such as, how are you today? You would say I'm fine thank you or I'm not that great and so on. So why is it when asked a question in an exam we don't answer the question directly, even in the mark scheme and specification of many exam boards it clearly states that in order to pass you're required to answer the question presented". It's important that the student understands that you're going by the mark scheme and specification for their exam board, so it's not you telling them but what the people who mark their exams are looking for. Try and teach students to write like they are speaking at a job interview or to someone of importance, like the Queen for example. You'd answer the question directly and you'd want some sort of structure to your answer to ensure the thought process can be followed easily.
3. Try identifying what the student doesn't understand, this can be done by simply asking. As a tutor you're being paid for your time by the parent, carer or student. It's important you value every second of that time, sitting there talking, and not being confident whether the student understands the topic are the traits of a bad tutor, and is evidence of a poor communicator. Stopping and asking a student whether they understand and getting them to do a similar question is very important. Show not tell, should be the method used by any educator, we test students this way by the implementation of annual examinations but tutors and teachers should use this method on a small scale during lessons to ensure students understand the work, this way you can ensure improvement is made much quicker.
4. Have a good relationship with the student, having a good relationship with the person you're teaching is very important as it will help you to understand the needs of the student much better, which means you're able to provide a better service. Even if you've only met the student for a short time, it's vital that you're able to show you have a shallow level of concern for their education, being the one that's been chosen to help them improve.
5. Make sure you give your tutee lots of notes, if your tutor isn't writing enough notes get rid of them. If you're a tutor and you don't write enough notes for your student, it's time to start. Notes are what tutors can use to show what thought process they are following to get to the answer of a question, this is very helpful for the student, writing enough notes is important to help with explanations and to give the tutee revision material for their studies.
6. The bridge, the point at which the tutor is able to explain a concept to a student and the student is able to understand the concept is what I call crossing the bridge, the best tutors are able to instigate this process much quicker than less capable tutors. There are many methods we can use to explain concepts and cross the bridge. A few examples are:
- Identifying the point at which the student is becoming confused.
- Once you've identified the area of confusion you can address the problem.
7. Have a plan. It's very important to have a lesson plan when tutoring students, as it gives structure and order to the lesson, random has never been in fashion with regards to tutoring. It's important to have an ordered, structured methodology on how you plan to improve the student.
8. Keep asking questions, not only to ensure the student understands but to keep them engaged in the session, it also makes the tuition session feel less like a lecture you can watch from youtube, and more like a personal tuition service. Asking questions and having small levels of dialogue makes the session feel faster and more helpful.
9. Take a break, if you're booked in for a two hour slot then take a break for five to ten minutes, this is good for you and the tutee, a break can come in many different forms and a break doesn't mean you can't be productive. Here are some suggestions:
- Have a discussion with the tutee.
- Give the tutee some time for him or herself.
- Speak with the parent to update them on what you've covered in the lesson so far.
- Give your tutee some revision tips or advice.
- Have a drink or a snack with your tutee.
In your break, it's important you avoid phone use, phones are very distracting so a tutee seeing something on their phone that they find more interesting than the lesson, can mean they have a change of focus, this is bad as it can undermine the steady progress made throughout the course of the lesson.
10. Tutor in an environment with as little distractions as possible, this is especially important when working with young children as they become distracted by the smallest things.
11. Ensure you have great tools, Righttolearn tutors are provided with many resources to help them tutor students, ensure you have the correct material to hand and use it correctly. A great way to use past papers is with the following steps:
- Give the student a past paper before you start tutoring and mark it.
- Go through each topic the student didn't understand in the question paper.
- Test the student on each topic by giving them questions or an exam on that given topic.
- Once the student can show they have an understanding in each topic you can give them a different test of similar difficulty to the one they were previously given.
You can repeat this process by giving a harder test each time for more advanced learners.
12. Share revision tips and methods, this is really important. Lets say your student is awake from 7am to 10pm every day on average, that's a 15 hour day. If you only visit your student once a week for two hours, that means out of seven days you're seeing them only once, and out of the 105 hours they are awake during that time, you're only with them for 2 hours, that's two out of 105 so 1.9%, this means that as a tutor, it should be your primary concern to give your student tips, revision methods and extra help in order to help them study when you're not with them, for those remaining 103 hours of the week.
13. Use different methods, as a tutor you shouldn't be afraid to show your student different methods to use when answering a question, don't stick to one generic method, as the people you teach will be different, so will their receptiveness to different methods of explanation you'll be using. It's also important to consider a primary method you may have that you find most effective when explaining a concept to students, if you find one method very successful don't feel you need to change it, just be open to the fact there is always another way to approach the question.
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