With a lot of people offering to share their knowledge and skills as tutors, students looking for private tuition have a wide choice of options!
But deciding on whom to study with in order to have a great learning experience is not always easy and in particular, when there are many criteria that need to be taken into account.
Some students search for tutors in a relaxed way and don’t really see a huge difference between taking language lessons in a tutoring academy or with a private tutor at home, to give just one example.
However, that is not always the case and it can be useful to think about what kind of teaching you are looking for to narrow down your search.
Wherever you search or whoever you pick to give you private tutoring lessons, if you are serious enough it will pay off!
In other words, if you dedicate time to your search and have precise criteria for choosing your tutor, you’ll start to be able to get results from the very first lesson.
There is a diversity of one to one tutoring formats, that is to say, each tutor uses their own unique set of teaching skills and has their unique tutoring experience.
That is why a private English tutor doesn't necessarily have to have a teaching qualification. If they don't, that would not mean that their tuition will be less professional or inferior in any other way.
For instance, many English university students offer tutoring services to school and NCEA students looking for support in English and exam preparation. Undergrads usually have much more experience sitting exams and can provide them with relevant advice and tips.
Find an NCEA English tutor to get all the help with high school English you need.
It’s important to consider all the pros and cons before making a decision to be sure that the tutor and the tutoring format you choose will suit your needs as a learner.
Discover ten good reasons to study English with a private tutor!
Meeting up with each candidate before hiring them can be a good idea. You’ll discover their personality in person and can judge for yourself whether the two of you are compatible. The understanding between a tutor and a student is crucial for the effectiveness of one to one tutoring.
Here are few tips for anyone about to start looking for the ideal tutor for the first time.
Define Your Criteria for an English Tutor
Every student is different from others and that’s where a private English teacher can make a real difference by adapting their approach.
As soon as you begin to look up teachers' profiles and read reviews, you will certainly be surprised by how diverse the tutoring community in New Zealand is.
Tutors haven't always followed the traditional teaching pathway. Some are indeed retired teachers but others may study English at university, and their teaching skills and perspectives on private lessons will be completely different when you meet them on a one to one basis.
The advantage of private tutoring is that the learner is at the centre of it and the teaching approach is tailored to their specific needs, so when you start your search for a tutor, you should first be clear about your goals.
So, you should always start by defining your criteria.
Draw up a list of what is important to you when it comes to learning with a tutor.
That could include plenty of different things, from their level of education and years of experience to their hourly rate; here are some especially important elements you may want to take into account for your classes:
Organising Teaching
Private tuition can be received in various forms.
Some parents prefer that their children go to tutoring academies and a healthy distance between learning and leisure can be maintained at home. This way, children see their classes as a part of their school education and not as something disturbing their home activities.
Others are, on the contrary, okay with tutors coming to their homes and even working online since it's a way to create a cool learning environment for the student.
The in-home and online arrangements are very effective for learners who have had bad experiences inside the education system. Once they realise that learning is possible without too much stress and the necessity to speak up in front of their class as well as competition with others, they start enjoying the process much better.
Discover other benefits of private tutoring in English!
Online tutoring in particular is an outstanding option, whose popularity has lately grown exponentially thanks to new technology.
Online tutoring isn’t that different from taking tutoring classes at home. For instance, it is given on a one on one basis. However, since tutors and their students can be in two completely different parts of the country, they communicate via a microphone and a webcam.
Despite the tutor and the student not being physically in front of each other, they can still work on the same documents thanks to technology, and teachers can even watch their pupils do different activities, which makes the whole experience very similar to in-home tutoring.
At the same time, learning with an online tutor has numerous benefits. One of them is that students and tutors can save a lot of time travelling between each other’s houses.
Cost of lessons
Most families in New Zealand don’t have to pay for their children’s school education, so tutoring rates can sometimes seem shocking to them.
For a long time, private tutoring has been viewed as reserved for only the richest families. Yet, the market has changed quite a lot over the last few years. There is much more competition between tutors and more and more online classes, so lessons are becoming much more affordable!
When you start looking for a tutor, try to set a budget first and you will certainly find a suitable option.
Specialist Tutors
Tutors can offer a variety of different services in New Zealand and parents search for them for a particular reason.
For example, a very common goal of contacting a tutor is exam preparation before or during the NCEA year.
When it happens that you need a tutor for a very specific reason, you should try and reach out to people with the necessary skills.
Another case, in which parents should look for specialist tutors is when their children have Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) such as dyslexia, which makes the English language a particularly different subject and requires special teaching skills.
The good news is that tutors who either specialise in teaching pupils with SpLDs or have experience in it are quite numerous in New Zealand and you can meet them easily.
So, you can start looking for tutors without worrying and whether you are after a tutor able to help someone with dyslexia or an NCEA preparation specialist, be aware that help is available.
Is Teaching Experience really important?
A great number of tutoring specialists have a teaching background.
Some may have teaching experience in a school, college or university, the more years of experience a teacher has the more attractive to students they are.
Nevertheless, a teacher's years of teaching experience in formal settings aren't always a good criterion since they may not have the particular skills a student is looking for.
For example, students struggling in their school lessons may better learn with a tutor who understands their problems and is aware of the drawbacks of the education system. 'Just another school teacher’ wouldn't probably be of much help in that case.
This is where NCEA English students and English university students come in.
As these types of tutors have recently gone through the school system as students themselves, they can easily understand pupils' needs on a personal level. They can advise them on the best revision approaches, essay writing and time management.
Regarding teaching experience, you should consider it alongside other criteria.
It’s essential to remember that teaching 30 students at the same time is quite different from offering one to one tuition. In many ways, experience as a tutor can sometimes be more valuable than formal teaching skills.
A good idea can be to ask your potential tutors about their approach and methods directly. Their tutoring experience can be one of the questions on your list. But remember also that a tutor with less experience may still have good teaching skills but charge lower rates.
One of the benefits of looking for a tutor on an education platform is that it will do the work for you providing you with relevant information and reviews, so you will have a good idea about a tutor's experience and qualifications before you contact them for the first time.
That will help you meet the right person quicker.
Getting in touch with Tutors
Once you have a list of a few tutors you like, it may be time to contact each one of them, so you can make your final decision.
Using the phone or sending them an email can be an opportunity to not only set up a meeting with them but also ask for additional information if necessary.
And here is a list of useful questions to ask, so you don't forget anything:
- How many years of private tutoring experience do you have?
- Do you have any references?
- What teaching qualifications do you hold?
- Do you specialise in any kind of English (e.g. NCEA exam preparation)?
- When are you available?
- How do you usually arrange lessons?
- Have you taught a child like mine yet?
These first contacts are essential in making sure the tutor is right for you before classes begin, so make the best out of them!
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