Rewards and lessons from one-on-one teaching

Tutoring was never something I’d given much thought to before the opportunity suddenly presented itself to me at the beginning of the school year. However, now that I think about it, I’ve always enjoyed helping others in one-on-one situations, where I can find out exactly what the individual would like to know and tailor my explanations and instructions to suit their learning style. For example, in high school, I would frequently help my peers understand a math problem or science concept by having them lead me through the question in a step-by-step manner, so I could identify where their misunderstanding or misconception was occurring. I would then provide prompts and learning probes to guide them towards refining their understanding and discovering the correct answer.

In retrospect, I can see that I was naturally relying on a constructivist approach to teaching, as opposed to a direct instruction method. From a teaching perspective, I have always instinctively felt that people learn more effectively when they discover and manipulate knowledge themselves, rather than being told or shown how to do so. From a learning perspective, I’ve always believed that imitating an observed behavior, technique, or analysis is useful for conditioning oneself to perform that behavior, technique, or analysis – but ineffective for learning the justifications and thought processes that support it. Through my psychology courses this term, I’ve developed an understanding of the theory and reasoning behind my intuitive approaches to teaching and learning, and I now understand why my methods of teaching seem to be successful.

In practical terms, being a tutor allowed me to directly observe and engage with an adolescent – an invaluable experience which I'm sure will serve me well in my teaching career. I noticed that my student, while usually an eager and active learner, could be quite stubborn at times. Occasionally, she would be convinced that she knew the best way for her to learn the given material or complete the task at hand, and it was often difficult to change her mind. In some cases, I would recognize that she was frustrated and looking for the easiest route to the answer, which usually involved asking me to simply tell her. However, in keeping with my teaching strategy, I was always reluctant to give her the answer, so I would instead redirect her attention by helping her look at the problem from another angle, or by suggesting that we move on to something else and return to the current problem or topic later. In other cases, I came to realize that, sometimes, she did know the best way for her to learn the material. In these situations, it was crucial that I was ready and willing to listen and be flexible, because it would have been easy to overlook her understanding of her own personal learning style. Sometimes, students are the experts, and they hold the key to maximizing their own learning potential.

Just some food for thought!