This session I had the opportunity to observe Satine tutor maths to a student. Watching the session take place made it obvious to me what the unique benefits of tutoring were.
A tutor gives their whole attention to the one student instead of their attention being split to thirty plus students concurrently. This allows the student to get a teaching experience tailored to their strengths, weakness and potential learning styles. For example, some students may be confident and well versed on certain topics in a subject, and instead of the class being paced at the fastest or slowest student, the lesson can be paced appropriately and efficiently to the student at hand. If there are topics or concepts the student particularly struggles with, these can be focused on instead of overlooked.
Satine specifically provided a warm and encouraging environment to make the student feel comfortable and encouraged to learn. Satine had a warm and kind voice that helped the student feel at ease, with language complexity matching the students age. Using metaphors where appropriate to help the student simplify or better understand a concept. When explaining topics that the student struggled with, the process was broken down into digestible steps. Satine also provided tips and tricks learned from experience that could help with certain topics/concepts.
I noticed that teaching was approached in a specific manner. Instead of telling the student the answer, Satine asked probing questions around the topic as to help guide the student to the correct process, framework and answer instead of telling them directly. However errors were corrected right away as to minimise incorrect learning as efficiently as possible.
Other behaviours observed were frequent check ins with the student, both with their understanding during the process of teaching and afterward. Check ins were also done to gauge how the student was feeling as the session progressed.
Overall, tutoring seems to provides numerous benefits unique to regular schooling, as shown through my observation of Satine.
