What Are The Basic Attributes Of A Good Tutor?

Tutoring is one of the best way to stay in touch with what you have learned before and reciprocating what you have learned to others. It’s the ideal situation in which you can learn as well as contribute. The best satisfaction for a teacher/tutor is when your student respects and admires you. And this is the point where the journey begins. So what does it take to be a good home tutor?

SKILLS THAT MAKE ONE A GOOD TEACHER

There are two basic aspects to teaching. One is where you need to have a set of skills & knowledge and the other is where you need to be able to reach the children and teach in a way that is most effective so that you can share your knowledge and get those students ready for the future.

The basic skills that are essential to be a good teacher are:

• Good hold of the subject that you intend to teach
• Fluency in the language, you would communicate, with the students
• Professionalism
• Being a calm-headed, patient person under pressure or stress
• Able to manage time efficiently
• Creative ideas

SKILLS TO BE AN EFFICIENT TUTOR

In case you are looking for a tutor that can provide the knowledge, services and qualities that you are looking for, here are certain qualities that you should be looking for:

• Being receptive. Children or students tend to have their own method of learning or understanding a topic at hand. A good tutor will adapt to their approach and make them understand the subject their way to help them get comfortable with the fundamentals of the subject.
• Being patient. There are two types of students. One, who understands it easily and quickly. The other that would ask a number of questions to help him or herself clarify a certain topic. Sometimes, a student may have little understanding of previous fundamentals, and that is the time that the tutor must remain patient and repeat those needed fundamentals to help the student truly understand the subject at hand. Every student wants to learn. If you get impatient with students asking repetitive questions, the student may succumb.
• Working with students as well as parents. Creating learning plans, exams assessments, doubt-clearance in collaboration with the students parents, helps the tutor to understand the individual student better. The student will do better overall if the tutor collaborates with the parents to understand the student and their learning styles better. The student will benefit immensely from this extra step. If you’re tutoring university age students, going the extra mile and giving them coping skills such as how to avoid student loan forgiveness calls, is going to make you invaluable.
• A good tutor will be an expertise in some topics rather than all of the subjects. Experienced in paper setting, problems, fundamentals, real-life applications, concepts and ideas. A good tutor would have the basic experience in creating the friendly environment around a student that allows the student to open up about any issues that he may have with a particular subject. This puts the student at ease so that he is able to share his issues and therefore the tutor is able to help solve those issues and correct them.
• Being Positive. A tutor must not demotivate a student if he fails to grasp the knowledge or does poorly in a couple of tests. A tutor should motivate students so that they study harder. A tutor should talk positively and with optimism because that positive attitude will only inspire the student to work harder and achieve his goals. A good tutor should reward the student when he/she does well. That also will boost the students confidence and help him/her to do better in their upcoming projects.

Einstein had once said that a good teacher is one who can explain complex matters in a simple and easy way. And that is indeed quite true. Learning a new thing can be very brain-boggling for a student initially, but a good tutor would simplify the topic and help him comprehend the matter easily.

This article was contributed by Singaporean tution agency, SmileTutor.

Save