Expert Teaching Skills Make a Big Difference in Tutors

Most of us want to be helpful when someone is struggling in a class — the impulse is to help with homework or a tough assignment. While there is nothing wrong with lending a hand, it seldom helps a student do better in the long term. If your child needs help and you’re searching for tutors near me, make sure you emphasize finding someone with professional teaching skills. Teachers not only understand the subject matter but also know how people learn. Often, the development of better learning skills and study habits is as crucial to doing better as understanding the subject.

We’ve all known people who are outstanding students and have a knack for doing well in school. To a few, it comes naturally, but more often, it has to do with hard work, practice, and the development of the needed skills. Being organized is a big part of learning, and when children can’t stay focused and work sequentially, it impedes their progress. A professional teacher as a tutor will pick up on these needs and help your child in many needed areas, learning skills, study habits, and organizational abilities among them. It’s a significant difference from what you’ll see when your child only has a homework helper.

For many years, it’s been a common practice to let older students who do well in a subject help the younger ones. While they certainly have the subject matter knowledge to explain a homework assignment, most are powerless to do much more than demonstrate how to answer an assignment. As long as they work with a younger student, grades and homework may improve. But sooner or later, a test or other event will occur where your child is answering independently and cannot produce the needed correct answer. Those situations are a reminder of the value of having a trained teacher as a tutor.

For students who need significant assistance in a subject, it often helps when tutors and teachers communicate. When tutors understand more nuance about what’s being taught and the expectations for success in a class, it helps focus the tutoring sessions more on needed skills and knowledge. Courses are more focused on subject areas for middle and high school students, while elementary classes may have a broader set of expectations. Doing well in school seldom rests on improving in a single area. Much more often, it is about improving in inter-connected ways that together bring success.