Tutoring – What a good tutoring service should provide.
Many researchers and educators agree that tutoring models tend to be effective at fully individualizing instruction to the needs of students. This is the reason why most tutoring services today only focus on individualized instruction.
So how effective is the individualized learning when learning achievement is measured?
The latest research has shown that only focusing on individualized tutoring instruction DID NOT have a positive effect on school achievement [2].
But why?
Currently, research does not have a definitive answer to this question since every tutoring experience is subjective and depends on the interplay of multiple factors such as the prior knowledge the student has acquired, the tutor’s qualifications, and the difficulty of the subject being learned.
So, what do we think?
We believe tutoring cannot be effective by just providing instruction that is individualized. For tutoring to become fully effective, it must be designed to provide individualized instruction, personalized support adapted to the needs of students [1].
What do we mean by individualized instruction and personalized support and attention?
Individualized tutoring instruction
This is the type of instruction many struggling students need but isn’t easily accessible in the traditional learning environment. Traditional schools provide instruction using the one size fits all approach – which is not designed to consider the learning needs of the students especially those students who really need it due to life circumstances.
Ok, so how about these new “innovative” tutoring companies? Do they provide individualized instruction? No.
Many tutoring services do not do a good job of providing individualized tutoring instruction. Many online tutoring services just hire tutors who just want to make a quick buck. Many tutors who work for these companies are not paid enough to create individualized lesson plans and thus are demotivated to even go in that direction.
This is the reason why most instruction will simply revolve around solving homework questions and not providing a wholistic – excitable learning experience with a goal of building effective instruction that builds the necessary connections and associations needed to learn anything.
We believe, individualized instruction should be designed to meet the immediate learning goals of the student. Each tutoring session would be adapted to the needs of the student drastically reducing the average time need to complete a learning goal.
For example, a working engineering professional who has been out of schools for 5-10 years might start preparing for the standardized NCEES FE Exam. When looking at the NCEES exam specifications, they will most likely feel overwhelmed since the exam covers so many subjects. They will most likely not recall anything related to Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering Economics, or Mechanics of Materials.
How does the tutor help?
This is where individualized instruction can help. To individualize the instruction for the FE Examinee, an expert tutor is expected to perform an initial diagnostic to gather information about the topics the person is struggling, learning difficulties, ineffective study habits, and much more.
From there the tutor will individualize the right instruction to meet the overall learning needs of the student.
Personalized tutoring support
Most tutoring companies will hire tutors to strictly focus on the immediate learning task the student needs to complete (i.e., homework). The slow progression of understanding how the student learns is rarely considered. Also, outside the tutoring sessions, support isn’t really expected by the student since the student is only paying for hourly tutoring and nothing more. For some students, this works fine but for those who really need extra help and guidance, personalized support will be crucial to their success. Especially when a student is trying so hard and “just can’t seem to figure it out”.
What do we mean by personalized support?
This really depends on the learning needs of the student. It might involve the development of study/learning plans, guidance to develop strong study habits, guidance to develop daily lifestyle changes to help a student achieve their learning goals, or even simply answering student questions through chat and email.
We believe for a tutoring service to be effective; it must provide the personalized support many students need. Not a life coach – but a tutor who really cares about helping students achieve their learning objectives and accomplish their goals.
DirectHUB was formed to provide an e-learning experience that many e-learning educational companies fail to provide. Our foundational principles revolve around providing the best-individualized instruction while providing the personalized support many students need. We specialize in providing tutoring for math and engineering courses while helping engineers pass their FE and PE Exams.
Need help preparing for the FE Exam? Check out our ONE on ONE FE Exam prep service that is guaranteed to help you prepare and pass the FE exam.
References
1. Slavin, Robert. “New Findings on Tutoring: Four Shockers.” Robert Slavin’s Blog, 5 Apr. 2018, robertslavinsblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/05/new-findings-on-tutoring-four-shockers/.
2. Ömeroğulları, M.; Guill, K.; Köller, O. Effectiveness of private tutoring during secondary schooling in Germany: Do the duration of private tutoring and tutor qualification affect school achievement? Learn. Instr. 2020, 66, 101306. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475219303093
3. “How Tutoring Increases Chances Of Passing Engineering Exams: School Of PE”. Schoolofpe.Com, 2018, https://www.schoolofpe.com/blog/2018/05/how-tutoring-increases-chances-of-passing-engineering-exams.html.