Today I had the opportunity to observe Andrew’s Math Standard session. In this session he guided his student through key mathematic question and concepts, working with and prompting the student to solve these.
Together they worked through a set of questions. In approaching a question, Andrew would begin by explaining the question, giving insight into how to answer this, basing this on the concepts in the question and mark requirements. Within this he engaged with the use of formulas and key terms, being important in the financial math questions they were endeavouring into. From this he would guide the student to answer these himself, encouraging his ability to do so. Allowing the student to independently answer these allowed the student to develop mathematic skills and confidence in approaching similar questions in an exam context. They then went through each question and any mistakes made, explaining how to answer these effectively. Together Andrew and his student collaborated on the question if any mistake or questions from the student were apparent, with Andrew carefully explaining solutions to these.
When the student was unsure Andrew used leading questions to prompt thought from the student, then he thoroughly explained each question, using both verbal and visual explanation to instate the students’ knowledge. He bolstered this with ensuring that the student was able to independently answer each of these questions after the explanation. This tutoring experience was highly useful to observe, with the communication and teaching skills within it being engaging and insightful.
Grace Blatch
