What makes a Quality Home Tutor?

I would like to share my point of view in qualifying a quality home tutor. In my interactions with parents, students and tutors, I have gained insights into the realm of home tuition and its mechanics.

Home tuition tends to cost more than group tuition, hence there is more unscrutinizing in private tutors. As home tutors are giving one-to-one assistance to students, their teachings are more focused onto the students' minds and there is also the transfer of values and habits subconsciously.

To me, a Quality Home Tutor must be one that is able to establish rapport with the student. This means being able to connect and speak in the same language. Once the tutor and the student can connect to each other, there will be effective communication and effective impartation of useful knowledge.

The Quality Home Tutor must also be a strong motivator. In most cases, students need home tuition because they are not faring well in the subjects they sought tuition assistance for. In group tuition, these students might face stress from the good performance rest of the students. This might lead to students wanting to give up on themselves. In home tuition, the tutor's role as a motivator comes in. There will be moments when the student will not understand the topic and start to shift his mind away. The tutor should set in and encourage him and push him on. Maintaining a positive healthy mindset is crucial to a child's performance in school.
The Tutor should be one that has passion in teaching and has a desire to help students soar in their grades. He should not see tutoring as a job. With these criteria met, he would be willing to stay behind after the tuition lesson and update the parents and student on the academic progress of the student. He should take the proactive approach to do this form of updating. With proper tracking of progress, the tutor can then be more certain on his teaching style and pace.
To sum up my views, a Quality Home Tutor isn't just one that is an expert on his field of teaching, but more importantly, it is the method of his sharing of knowledge that determines the quality factor.

Yoong Kheong Fong is the IT Director of We Care Tuition Agency (http://www.wecaretuition.com).

We Care Tuition Agency (http://www.wecaretuition.com) has been a leading home tuition service provider for about ten years. With a successful and efficient system of matching tutors with students, we have seen the grades of many students soar. From the feedback gathered from parents and tutors, we continuously improve ourselves to provide greater and more value-added services and consultation.

Qualities of a good tutor

Parents hire tutors with expectations in mind and most tutors may fall short of the parents’ expectations. In many instances, there may be problems over the long run if the parents and tutors fail to communicate well. Obviously, the parents are the customers and the tutors have to try their best to satisfy the requirements of the parents. The question is what are most parents looking out for?

The attitude of the tutor is the most important above all others that I am going to cover. A good tutor should display genuine care and concern for the student under his charge. Many tutors merely regarding tutoring as a part time job but I will like to highlight that the parents have entrusted their children to the tutors because they hope that the tutors can help to improve the grades of their children, hence, I suggest that all tutors should be encouraging to the students under their charge and try your best to help the child academically. Make a difference in the lives of the students and I believe that the students will come to thank you in the years to come.
The second pointer is obviously the appearance of the tutor. For your first lesson at least, you should be dressed correctly so that you portray a professional image. There is no need to over-dress but do remember smart informal will be good. You will always be judged when you first appear at the student’s house and you will have to make sure you pass the first test.
Knowledge is power. This is the deciding factor especially when you are tasked top teach higher levels where you will need to explain difficult concepts to the students. There is no way to hide your inadequacy if you have a poor grasp of the content knowledge. You will have to admit that with the changes in the syllabus, you have to read up. Do not be complacent especially with the use of internet; students may know more than you do.

Delivery of the knowledge is the final test of how good you really are. University professors are famous for being rich in knowledge but poor at delivering that lectures sometimes sound like an ancient Latin class. You can do better than most professors if you take note of certain pointers. Obviously, you have to watch your tone of voice, speed and clarity of language. Always use lay man terms as far as possible when you are explaining concepts which are cluttered with difficult English words. Remember, simplify and do not make the cardinal sin of reading from the textbooks. There are boring tutors who will do that and the tuition sessions will turn up to be frightening reading classes. You can be sure to get the boot soon if you persist in this ancient mode of teaching.

In search of the best tutors, parents will and can pay good fees. In order to command a high fee, you will have to prove that you are really good. You can be sure that tutoring is rewarding when you established yourself as the guru tutor in a specific field.

What should you expect from your tutor?

What should you expect from your tutor?
By Marcus Ong (Senior Tuition Coordinator, We Care Tuition Agency)

If you are searching for a tutor now, you should consider how you should make a wise selection of a tutor so that your expectations are met. There are several tuition agencies in Singapore that offers matching services of tutors to students. With the wide range of tutors you will need to consider carefully the best choice of tutor for your child so that you get the maximum benefits.

Qualifications of Tutor

You will need to know how qualified your tutor is before you can hire the tutor. Obviously, you do not expect an O levels holder to teach a JC student. Trust is good but I suggest caution is the best solution. Always verify the identity of the tutor who turns up for tuition using the following method. You should verify the credentials against the identity card of the tutor to be sure that the tuition agency has sent the correct person to your place. You do not wish to find out only after your child’s exams that your tutor is less qualified than expected. Ask confidently and you should really be cautious of agencies that refuse to accede to your request or tutors who keep forgetting to bring their documents down to your place. All these are warning signs that your tutor may not be qualified to teach at all.

Charges of Tutor

Different tutors have different charges just as lawyers and other professionals. The trained teachers definitely command the highest fees because they are familiar of the syllabus and will be able to help your child navigate through the syllabus with little ease. The good ones are able to inspire at the same time and they will know which areas are commonly tested in exams. Thus, we cannot expect such tutors to be cheap because cheap tutors are usually cheap for a reason in the first place. Thus, you may like to ask the tuition agency to explain why a tutor is charging a certain fee. You may like visit our site too at www.wecaretuition.com to understand the different charges of tutors.

Your tuition budget.

When you hire the services of a tuition agency, you should be honest about your budget for tuition so that the correct tutor can be allocated to you. With other financial demands on your family, I feel that there is no need to spend a bomb on tuition alone. In most instances, the tuition coordinators will advise you accordingly the type of tutor you can hire based on your budget. For example, our agency www.wecaretuition.com believes in value for money. All the coordinators are trained well to send the correct tutor down for each budget given.

Tutor’s style

This is the most important factor that you will have to consider. You will need to know which style of teaching suits your child best. Do you want your tutor to drill your child or you like your tutor to do a question and answer-based methodology? Do you like your tutor to replace your child’s teacher completely or you just like your tutor to complement your child’s teacher. You will need to be honest so that the correct tutor can be matched to your child. Remember, all children have different learning styles and you will need the tutor to help you discover your child’s learning style.

Remember to drop me a mail at http://www.wecaretuition.com if you like any advice on any tuition matters. WE CARE to bring you the best!