Today I observed Alexander who was teaching his Year 8 student simple and compound interest. At the beginning of the session, he first revised past homework questions that the student was not able to complete at home. While reviewing his homework, Alex revised the important information for the topic which helped the student understand their mistakes. After, he asked the students to try the questions again that they could not previously do. The student completed it and got them all correct. This was an effective method in teaching the student as it allowed them to understand their mistakes specific areas where they got the question wrong, and empowered them to revisit the questions again.

When he started the new topic, Alex thoroughly explained the background of the topic, gave relevant world examples on the use of both simple and compound interest, as well as going through the formulas. During all this, he asked the to student what he knows about the topic and tried to make his examples relevant to the students initial understanding. This was a very interesting approach as he tailored the explanation to the students own experiences. After his explanation, Alex went in detail through worked examples, allowing his student time to work through the examples and try to understand their mistakes specific topic thoroughly.

After that, he gave the student a couple of questions ranging from different difficulties to challenge their understanding of the topic. This is effective is showing the students current understanding of the topic and gives Alex a range of where he needs to explain more of the concept of give more examples.

Overall, Alex did an exceptional job in teaching the student about simple and compound interest. I have learnt a lot about his methods for tutoring such as allowing the student to explain to me the concept and fill in the gaps.

Great work!!!

James Bletsas