Should Tutors Focus Only On Tutoring The Subject?

It's not enough for tutors to tutor academic subjects alone. Tutors also need to give their students the right tools that will enable them to develop academics autonomously.

Many parents believe that a tutor should concentrate on tutoring the subject and the subject only; however, often the problem may exist simply because of a lack of good study habits. Perhaps the young student may not particularly like the subject and go about studying in a disorganized haphazardly manner, not to mention putting off studying altogether.

In addition to tutoring the subject material, the tutor should also teach effective study habits and skills that will help the student to autonomously improve academically.

For example, a grade four student is having trouble in math. She tells everyone who will listen that she hates the subject, and reasons that she 'll never have any use for it later in life. Just with that information alone, one can see an attitude problem may be holding her back. In addition to a bad attitude, it may be nothing more than altering and improving the way in which she studies the subject. If tutoring is concentrated merely on the math alone, the girl's attitude may prevail and the full extent of the tutoring may not be appreciated.

By altering a few bad study habits, however, progress can develop a lot sooner, and as a result of achieving that initial success, the girl may learn to appreciate and even like the subject.

Usually a student will have good study habits and be well organized when he or she enjoys and is good in a particular subject. If a subject becomes a problem, however, natural study habits may not be present and the student may fall deeper into the hole of academic failure. By altering the bad study habits, the student can slowly progress in the academic subject and perhaps even develop an interest in the subject. Success breeds success no matter how small, it's just consistency of doing the right things that matter.

I have found that young elementary students are not the only ones who suffer from poor study habits, but students in high school as well. Of course, this is only natural because if students haven't learned certain skills early in their academic careers then how are they to develop those skills later on? Some do and some don't.

If your child needs tutoring, have the tutor incorporate effective study skills in addition to providing direct help in the subject matter. This will not only help your child better succeed with the problematic subject, but will help in all subjects, not to mention that these skills will stay with the student in later years as well.


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John Chartrand, founder of Ottawa Tutors and Ottawa Robotics Academy in Ottawa, is a certified Ontario teacher with 15 years teaching experience. Read other great articles on Tutors and Tutoring, please visit: http://ottawatutors.org
Ottawa Tutors
12 Panama Avenue
Ottawa On K2H 7R2
(613) 265-6446


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