Many parents are taking advantage of hiring a tutor for their children because of the advantages it has in improving grades as well as giving their child greater academic confidence. Here are attributes that I believe are very important when considering hiring a tutor:
Supportive, Friendly and Welcoming
A tutor must project a demeanor with his/her student in a manner that is caring, friendly, and supportive. Children seem to be able to see through adults better than we do. They can tell if an adult is there for them or there for some other reason. A tutor must also come across in a friendly warm manner. This is important so that the young student can feel comfortable and at ease in his or her new learning environment.
Knowledge and Experience in Subject Area
This may seem obvious, but it's important that the tutor is both experienced and knowledgeable in the subject area. Students will look up to adults who are particularly talented or knowledgeable in a specific area. If the tutor doesn't come across as confident or knowledgeable, the student will lose interest and nothing much is accomplished. With this said, it's not important that the tutor be an expert in the subject area, but competent enough to teach it. For example, I once had a computer teacher who was an expert and highly experienced in his field, yet he couldn't teach if his life depended on it. Both experience and knowledge are extremely important for teaching; however, experience may be the more important of the two especially with young children.
Preparation
If the tutor isn't prepared for his or her lesson, how can you expect the student to be prepared for learning? The tutor must be prepared for both the lesson and the student that is being tutored. Preparation includes: knowing what the student needs to learn, having the teaching materials ready, and also pre-planning that may include a chat with the classroom teacher.
Passion
Children are able to pick up on vibrations that the tutor is projecting. If the tutor is enjoying himself as he is teaching, the student will detect this and have a much better chance of enjoy learning what's being taught. Also, passion can be contagious and a tutor can spread a learning desire to her students.
Patience
I wasn't going to include this quality because it goes without saying. A lack of patience on the tutor's part can be interpreted by the student as their inability to learn the subject or lesson. The young student has to feel comfortable in his or her learning environment and that can only be achieved with a relaxed and patient teaching style.
Variety of Teaching Styles
Basically, there are three different learning styles. One is visual learning where the student learns through seeing images, video, and even visual cues from the teacher. Another is auditory learning where the student learns by listening to instructions. And the third one is tactile learning where the student learns by doing. Not all students are able to adapt to every teaching style and if a tutor can demonstrate concepts in the variety of ways, the student will have a much better chance of learning.
John Chartrand of Ottawa Tutors is an Ontario Certified Teacher with 15 years teaching experience. He has taught grades one through twelve in several countries around the world. You can read John's full article on here: "How to be a Good Tutor"
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