A private tutor is a person directly responsible for your child’s afterschool learning. Hence, hiring a private tutor is the most intuitive and yet the most daunting task ever. After all, your choice determines the quality of your child’s education and his pursuit of excellence.
It is natural for the parents to straightaway rush to the most popular local tutors in the city. They often fall for the traps of blingy advertisements and fervid references given by people they know at work or in the family. It is also easy to fall for the tall claims about the results.
For example, wouldn’t you choose a local tutor who advertises that on an average, 80% of their class gets an A grade? But what if this tutor has a teaching style starkly different from your child’s learning style? What if their average batch size is way more than your child can be comfortable with?
We had discussed ways to find the right personal tutor for your child in our earlier blog posts. Now, it is time to look at what potential mistakes you could make while finding a private tutor:
1. Using qualification, experience and previous results as the only yardstick
Qualifications and experience while form an important part of a home or a local tutor’s credibility, are not enough parameters. Someone with several certifications or a degree from a prestigious university might not necessarily be a good teacher.
Good communication, patience, ability to make academics interesting are some qualities that lie beyond experience and education. We discussed in one of our blog posts how finding the right tutor is more important than finding a good one.
Here are some parameters that must be looked at apart from qualifications and experience:
- Teaching style: Is the tutor reckless? Do they give enough examples to explain a concept? Do they spend enough time discussing theory before solving problems?
- Patience: The idea of a private tutor is hinged on the fact that a child needs more personal attention than what is available at school. A private tutor must necessarily be patient with his students.
- Punctuality: Does the tutor turn up for classes on time? This is especially relevant in evaluating a personal, home tutor.
- Communication skills: Does the tutor communicate well?
- Subject expertise: Which subject is the tutor’s expertise? Don’t try to fit in multiple subjects with one tutor for the sake of convenience. A tutor’s command over a subject is the key to your child’s excellence in that subject. Even at a younger age and in primary classes, try not to club more than 2 subjects with one tutor.
The list is not exhaustive and it can include several other parameters too. One should never judge a book by its cover and a tutor by their academic stature alone.
2. Giving in to social pressure and prestige issues
Many parents feel the pressure to send their children to the renowned tutors. Most of these renowned private tutors either charge a hefty fee or have huge batch sizes. Friends and family members can put undue pressure on a parent by boasting of the tutors they hired.
Here, parents need to understand that each child is unique. A private tutor must suit your child’s learning needs. Remember that your prestige and proficiency as a parent don’t depend on the popularity of the tutor you hire.
3. Not using a structured approach for searching a tutor
Using a haphazard approach and finalizing a personal tutor based on a whim is one of the most common mistakes. Ever picked up the first garment you spotted in a mall? Or the first tomato you set your hands on at a vegetable vendor? No!
If we are so meticulous about selecting the smallest of things, why not take enough time for selecting a tutor? A lot of times, parents flustered with multiple responsibilities and work pressures can take shortcuts while choosing a tutor. Doing your primary research is of the essence. Take your time with scheduling calls with potential candidates. Talk to them, visit their centres or sit through their sessions at your home.
4. Not taking regular feedback from your child during demo classes
Not including your child’s real-time feedback can be one of the gravest mistakes. In the process of finalizing a private tutor, you will probably take a lot of demo sessions. Make sure you talk to your ward in detail after each session.
Ask him conceptual questions to see if the tutor explained the basics rightly. Not carefully assessing your child’s behavioral, psychological and intellectual comfort with a tutor is the worst mistake possible. After all, it’s your child who will spend their most crucial hours of the day with the tutor.
Children do not sometimes open up about a tutor or do not analyze too much in a demo session or two. It’s the parents’ responsibility to pry open the inhibition.
But also, finalizing a tutor based entirely on your child’s feedback is another corollary of this mistake. Ideally, both parents and the child should discuss at length how they feel about a tutor. No opinions should be forced, but of course, let your child have the last say.
5. Sticking to a tutor, resisting the process of changing the tutor
Ever felt this – “my child loves his home tutor, but his grades are just not improving. The tutoring is just not working.” Well, it is quite possible that odds change in the course of a month or so, despite all due diligence. As a parent not being dynamic enough to look out for another tutor is one big mistake you could make.
Clinging to one private tutor only because you’ve gotten used to them is a serious mistake. The search for the right tutor is often dynamic and there are no real full stops in most cases.
Give a tutor enough time and assess their work with your ward. But if in a span of two months or so things don’t change, you must begin searching for the next best tutor right away. Do not procrastinate or put away the thought. It will be a lot of repeat work – the same research, the same cycle of demo classes, etc. – but know that it must be done anyhow!
Want to hire a private tutor and take your child’s learning capabilities to the next level of excellence? We at Talentnook can help you find thousands of tutors and courses in the vicinity. Start exploring now and set yourself free from the hassle of doing it all by yourself!
