Tuesday 7 February 2017

How to Avoid Common Mistakes when Hiring a Math Tutor

Maths is not a subject that can be taught by just any tutor. Expertise on the subject does not guarantee a tutor to be the ideal one to teach your child and make him love and understand the subject. Thus when you are searching for a maths tutor, it’s important to be extra careful and avoid some of the common mistakes that most people make.

Ability to communicate

No doubt expertise on the subject is a mandatory requirement but even more important is the ability to transmit that knowledge and understanding through simple means to the students. Most maths tutors often turn out to be notorious communicators. Thus it’s important for a good maths tutor London to communicate properly and lucidly in an interesting and fun manner. To be a good communicator, he listens carefully, interacts with the students and understands their problems and then addresses their needs in the most effective manner. To access the tutor on this parameter, always insist on a few sample classes before you actually hire the tutor.

Attentiveness

For effective teaching, a maths tutor needs to gauge early both the current knowledge as well as the learning ability of the student. Apart from it, he must also have the uncanny ability to understand the student’s current psychological and emotional state which may impact his learning abilities as well at that time. Often due to some issues like crisis at home, a death of a loved one or any other disturbing incident, the student may show signs of attention deficit, lack of motivation to learn or the inability to focus despite trying hard. A good tutor would be able to counsel his student and get him away from this darkness on the right path again.

Guaranteeing results

Any good tutor will be able to access his student in a few classes and then gauge how far the student can be pulled up in the given frame of time. He would be able to guarantee a certain level of performance of the student under his guidance though would always try for a higher level. This will make him responsible and accountable for his teachings. While talking about this guarantee, you can also talk about a cut in fees as penalty in case the minimum guaranteed threshold is not met. This will automatically deter him from neglecting his job or taking it lightly.

Avoiding these mistakes would ensure that your child is actually making a progress.

Qualities of a good Maths Tutor

Perhaps one subject that is dreaded by maximum students around the globe is maths. However, a good maths tutor can make all the difference and actually cut away the difficulty and hatred associated with the subject. Regardless of whether you are looking for a maths tutor for A level or any of the higher levels, he/she should have some basic skills and qualities that would ensure that all the students understand the subject well and understand and enjoy it thoroughly. Some of those qualities are:-

Passion for the subject and teaching

A tutor can only be good if he is actually passionate about teaching as well as his subject. It is his passion that would propel him to keep on updating knowledge about the subject as well as think of innovative approaches to make his classes more understanding and fun filled. He cannot be a good teacher if teaching is just a job for him to get a salary at the end of the month.

Adaptive and innovative teaching style

Owning to his passion and flair, a good maths tutor would always be flexible and innovative enough to adopt approaches and come up with ideas which will ensure that every student of his understands the concepts clearly and easily. He would constantly be adapting his teaching style to suit the batch of students he is teaching. It would just take him a couple of classes to understand the child’s learning style, capacity and pattern and adapt accordingly.

Makes maths learning fun

A good maths tutor will always be able to transmit his love and passion for the subject amongst his students. A charismatic tutor can actually motivate all his students to love the subject and embed in them the right approach and method to study the subject. He would always boost up their enthusiasm and grow and nurture their interest in it using the right techniques and communication.

Interactive and effective communication

Effective communication skill is crucial for effective interaction between students and the tutor. Accurate eloquence, pronunciation, proper accent, simple language which can be easily assimilated by the students etc. are some of the traits that would not only make the subject interesting and understandable for students but also motivate them to participate in the class as well. He would always encourage them to raise questions and queries and participate in reaching to the solutions with the right application of methods.

Ultimately, a maths tutor must always be realistic, optimistic, trustworthy and supportive.