My nephew spent 40 minutes at the kitchen table one night in spring working on one algebra problem for his homework. I had watched him do all his other “regular” homework for the night and he worked diligently on this one problem. After 20 minutes or so I left the kitchen to watch some TV and about 8 minutes later he joined me watching 3 different YouTube videos about the problem he had been working on at the table. But within about 8 minutes of his tutor asking him where he thought he started to get lost on that one problem, he worked it out.

It’s not a miracle. It’s just that someone paid attention to how he thinks and helped him to get out of his problems.

The classroom was never really designed for everyone

One teacher. Thirty students. One way of teaching. One speed. One set of notes. And when that way of teaching, that speed, and those notes do not happen to be the way that a child learns best, then that child is left feeling frustrated, lost, and like they are falling behind. In order to ensure that all students are able to succeed in the classroom, there must be compromises made along the way. For some students, the traditional classroom model can be extremely successful. But for others, the model can create a leaning tower of concepts that never quite solidify in a student’s mind because they never quite fully understood the foundation upon which they were built.

The reality is that if a student has not mastered the concept of fractions in 4th grade, they will continue to struggle with math for the next 8 or so years as the curriculum continues to build on top of previous concepts. Teachers know that their students have these large gaps in their knowledge and parents sense that their child is not meeting their potential. But in a room of 30+ students, there is just not enough time for any one teacher to stop and work with one student to fill in any large gaps in their knowledge of concepts that the rest of the class has already moved on from.

Please remember that I am in no way am trying to disparage teachers or schools, but rather to recognize that the way that kids are currently being taught in traditional classroom settings is a problem that can be alleviated by offering individual tutoring.

The confidence piece is real, and it’s underrated

A student who is afraid to ask a question in class of their peers for fear of giving an incorrect answer may only answer questions that they are absolutely sure they are getting correct. Because of this, students who are afraid to ask a question in class may not fully participate in class. As a result, they may only complete exam questions and homework problems to the best of their ability. In the end, a student who is afraid to ask a question in class may believe that they are not able to learn a subject and that they are not as smart or as able as their classmates.

This genuinely frustrates me, because it’s so preventable.

As I mentioned earlier the classroom is not really set up for every learner. One-on-one tutoring on the other hand can help the quiet student who has been struggling in class because of their inability to ask for help. The student who is barely able to participate in class becomes completely engaged in the tutoring sessions and will ask for help (i.e. tell the tutor where they are getting lost) in order to continue learning. This can happen as long as the tutor can create a safe space for the student to ask for help and for the student to admit where they are confused.

For those students who tend to remain quiet in classroom discussions or activities (especially reading or writing) and therefore are usually categorized as ‘struggling’, the reason behind their performance is because they are afraid of silence being ‘public’. In one-on-one tutoring situations however, they will unlock and ask the necessary questions to learn about content and become fully engaged in the learning process.

Individualized Tutoring allows for Learning at your own pace

Myth #3: Students who need tutoring are behind their classmates. That there are students who need extra help because they are “behind” in their studies is not necessarily true. Most students could benefit from some extra help, not because they are behind, but because the typical classroom is not a place where every student can receive the individualized instruction that they need to excel.

This structure of learning is critical to the learning process of students who are receiving tutoring. Traditional classroom models typically have one teacher and thirty to thirty-five students. Therefore, the teacher is expected to teach all of the students in the class in order to meet the objectives of the curriculum by the end of the school year. The teacher is restricted by the framework of the lessons that are designed for the traditional classroom setting. However, tutoring sessions can be set up and carried out in whatever way is most productive for the student who is receiving tutoring. In other words, in tutoring sessions, students are able to learn at their own pace. The student and tutor can go over as much material as needed and tackle topics in whatever order is most effective.

Also, another advantage to one on one tutoring is that students get to understand that it is OK not to know things. That is a big advantage that I think a lot of people do not realize.

What does Personalized Tutoring actually look like in Practice?

The way that a tutor can work with a student can vary dramatically from student to student. In some cases, the work that a tutor does with a student may resemble that of a traditional tutor, helping a student with their homework or preparing a student for a test. However, for many students, the work that a tutor does involves filling in of very large gaps in foundational material that have been slowly deteriorating as the student struggled along in the classroom. Some students require a very step by step approach to material, while others require the tutor to paint a very big picture for them in order to understand the material that is being covered. In many cases, a tutor can work with a student to create a very specific agenda for each session. Other tutors work with students on a day to day basis, following along with the student’s confusion from day to day.

New local students looking for a tutor in Newark will be best to start with tutor Newark to explore academic support for their child.

So when does tutoring actually make sense?

While tutoring is not for every student who is having trouble in school, I am a strong advocate for individualized instruction. Many of the problems outside of a student’s control in school (for example, in high school, a student not getting enough sleep at night, or a lot of stress from other parts of their life, or a classroom where they are not being well served by the teacher) will often resolve themselves given enough time. For example, a student in middle school or high school can go through a phase where they don’t get along with their teacher, or with some of their classmates. But with time, they come out of that phase.

• Your child understands something in the tutor’s or teacher’s presence but freezes on tests
• Homework is taking two or three times longer than it should
• A student who used to enjoy a subject has gone quiet about it
• There’s a specific foundational gap, fractions, grammar rules, early algebra, that keeps resurfacing in different forms

These issues do not necessarily mean that a student is failing or that they are not capable learners. Rather, they indicate that the student is in need of a different type of support and that one on one tutoring may be just what the doctor ordered.

It’s not about fixing kids. It’s about fitting the learning to them.

Anxiously driven parents are amongst the driving forces behind the growth of the industry of personalized tutoring; there are many families eager to support children’s learning, beneath the surface of their desire to have their children reach their full potential is a deep conviction that learning within the standard routes offered within school is not best for all students. Indeed, most students are delivered the same lesson and as a result, whilst some students will develop understanding of the same material, other students will check out. Tutors are well-placed to see this difference in action and the main difference between the tutor and the rest of the child’s learning is that within the majority of classrooms, the tutor of one-to-one session with a student enables learning to be tailored to suit the student.

There is so much that can be learned in a classroom, on a large scale and on a “fit” with how learning takes place for a student. Recently there has been a great deal of focus on the value of personalized learning, and one on one tutoring is a huge part of that. There are many students that are struggling in a particular subject, or are looking to learn even more, and tutoring can be a lifesaver for these students. The learning that takes place in these one on one sessions can be just as valuable as the learning that takes place in the classroom for a student’s academic growth.