How Much of a Difference Does Tutoring Really Make?
For students who are struggling in school, tutoring is often touted as a great way to help them focus on their academic work and provide the one-on-one help they need to master difficult curriculum material. But how much of a difference does a tutor actually make? This is a valid question, and one that any responsible parent should ask before engaging the services of a tutor.
To answer it, however, it is important to understand that not all tutoring services are equal. A tutor who doesn’t have the right training and experience cannot be expected to transform your child’s academic performance; at best, they offer no value added, and at worst they can encourage study habits that are actually damaging.
When looking for a tutor, it is important to go with a tutoring service that works with experts, professors, and teachers who have a thorough knowledge of their particular subject. It is also important to ensure that when you hire a private tutor you are getting an individual who understands the particular needs of your student, and can use modern pedagogical methods to ensure good education outcomes.
At Prep Academy Tutors, we hire knowledgeable, experienced tutors who can teach students from JK to Grade 12. We work with your child’s specific class curriculum to ensure the best outcomes, and we hold ourselves to the highest standards of educational excellence so that your child can achieve their full potential. To this end, when we first start working with a new family we ensure at the onset that the teacher or tutor we suggest has the experience and skillset necessary to help your child succeed.
The 3 Ways Tutoring Can Make a Difference
Numerous studies have shown that the individual one-on-one attention that comes with tutoring really does make a difference. Students who are given an opportunity to go over difficult material at their own pace with a knowledgeable, certified teacher are far more likely to see real growth and learning.
And this is how Prep Academy Tours works — our tutors use methods that are scientifically proven to be effective, and focus on the particular needs of each individual child. Here are three reasons why engaging tutoring from Prep Academy Tutors gets concrete results:
1. Tutoring Provides Students With a Safe Space
A teacher who is responsible for a classroom needs to project authority. But a tutor who is working one-on-one with a struggling student should be more like a peer, a smart friend who can come alongside them and help them deal with math anxiety or make sense of their French homework.
One of the most important ways tutoring makes a difference is by helping students encounter challenging ideas and concepts in a safe, supportive context where they can make mistakes and explore without worrying that they will look foolish in front of their peers.
2. Tutoring Lets Students Focus on Their Own Areas of Weakness
Not all students struggle with the same material, and this makes classroom teaching a delicate balancing act where teachers try to provide as much help to as many people as possible. A student struggling with one part of the curriculum may not get the time they need in class to focus on it, and may not have enough of a grasp of the underlying concepts to study it effectively in their own time. Tutors can help students overcome their personal hurdles and focus on the topics and problems they actually need help with.
3. Tutoring Helps Students Develop Good Study Habits
Most of us are familiar with the old adage that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. This is true of studying as well: learning how to learn is one of the most important things an education should impart. Because tutors work more intensively with students, they can help them cultivate good study habits and develop strategies they will be able to use for years to come.
If you want your child to benefit from the enhanced, personalized help that comes with tutoring from a certified teacher, get in touch with Prep Academy Tutors today!
Tutoring Doesn’t Just Help the Student
While there is ample evidence proving that tutoring can play a transformative role in the life of a student, tutors also benefit from the intensive one-on-one experience of helping someone else work through a curriculum and strengthen their own learning skills.
If you are interested in becoming a tutor yourself, find out how you can join our team and unlock your own potential as an educator. Tutoring is an immensely rewarding career for teachers who want to help students in a more one-on-one context, and as the University of Hawai‘i Community College has shown, working as a tutor has been shown to help provide an even deeper grounding in one’s knowledge of a subject, provides skills acquisition and enforcement, and can play a significant role in career development.
If you care about teaching and want to be part of a team that is passionate about helping individual students reach their full potential, get in touch with Prep Academy Tutors today!
It is a widely acknowledged truth that every student has their own learning style and learns at their own pace. While some students may function better in a classroom environment than others, all students can benefit from the one-on-one attention and personalized approach that comes with tutoring.
Tutoring has been proven to make a huge difference for students of all walks of life, so if you are interested in hiring a tutor, or you think you may want to become a tutor yourself, call Prep Academy Tutors to learn more about how tutoring can make a difference for you.
4 Ways Tutoring Can Help Your Child Get Into the Right University
Who doesn’t want their child to get into a good university or college? Getting into a top school can transform a student’s life, providing them with incredible resources and much better chances of success in their chosen career path.
But as any parent who has participated in the process themselves knows, admissions to top-tier universities is competitive. With tens of thousands of candidates and only a few spaces to fill, your child needs to be among the best of the best if they want to make the grade (Harvard’s admission rate, for example, is 6.5%). This means your child needs to be in the top ten percent if they even want to be considered, and will have to be better than 93.5% of their peers if they are to receive admittance.
Given how stiff the competition is, the students who get into elite universities often do so because they have started preparing for their application years in advance. Grades need to be consistently strong, extra-curricular activities need to be chosen strategically, and students need to be able to show that they can perform at the highest levels academically.
For this reason, it can be useful the hire Prep Academy Tutors to provide your child with bespoke tutoring options that can help them prepare for the rigours of university admissions. We meet students where they are, and our tutors work alongside them to help them meet their learning goals. If you want to know more about how hiring a tutor can give your child an edge, here are four ways tutoring can help your child ace their university admissions.
1. Tutoring is Both Rigorous and Personal
Tutoring isn’t just about passing on information; it is about engaging students intellectually to help them internalize what they are learning so they can build on this knowledge over the course of their academic life. The best tutors don’t just know the material well, they also know how to help a student master it on their own terms.
Expert teachers are at the heart of how our tutoring services work because we understand that effective tutoring requires the same kind of methodical, strategic approach that teachers use in the classroom. At the same time, a tutor isn’t just teaching to a class of one: tutors take advantage of the more informal, personal dynamic a one-on-one lesson allows to help students build confidence and develop their own problem-solving skills.
2. Tutoring can be Tailored to Each Student’s Needs
Every student is different, and every student has slightly different needs. One of the reasons children struggle in school is because the size and format of the typical public school classroom privileges a certain learning style. While Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences has achieved widespread support among educators, budgetary and logistical restrictions still conspire to give students with linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence an edge.
Because tutors can use a one-on-one approach, they are able to help your child learn the material and prepare for standardized tests in a way that plays to their strengths. If you want to know more about our tutoring philosophy, check this out to learn about how our tutors turn pedagogical insights into tools like gamification to maximize educational outcomes.
3. In-Home Tutoring Provides Flexible Options
Universities are increasingly looking for students who aren’t just book-smart, but who also have a commitment to service and an interest in extra-curricular activities. This means that students angling to get into a good college or university should also be taking their involvement in organized sports, arts programmes, science fairs, and community volunteering seriously.
This puts a lot of students in a catch-22 situation: they need strong grades to even be considered for top schools, but they also need to prove that they have a well-rounded personality. When are they going to find time for all of this?
Private tutoring is a flexible alternative to the after-school tutoring offered by many high schools. When students are juggling dozens of commitments a week, tutoring needs to be adapted to the student’s individual schedule, even if that schedule changes week by week. Scheduling tutoring sessions for when your child is free ensures they can work on their grades while also working to strengthen other parts of their university application.
4. Don’t Just Learn the Material, Learn the Test
If your child is applying to study outside Canada, they will need to take one of the standard American admissions tests: the SAT or the ACT. Both of these tests are extremely demanding, and will play a major role in determining whether or not a student will be admitted to the university of their choice.
Both are designed to test a student’s general academic knowledge, but it is a well-known fact that studying strategies for taking the test is an important part of doing well on it. If you are considering any international schools it is important to find your local tutor early so they have adequate time to help your child prepare for the gruelling process of taking one of these standardized entrance exams.
When it comes to preparing your child for the rigours of university, there simply aren’t any shortcuts. If you want them to get into a top tier institution, you need to start preparing them for the hard work ahead now.
Because tutors meet students at their own level, tailor their approach to the student’s needs, and have the expertise to help not only with particular subjects, but with standardized tests themselves, they can play a vital role in helping your child achieve admission to the school of their choice.
3 Strategies You Can Use to Study More Efficiently
Educators have long understood that students need more than classroom instruction if they are to successfully master curriculum material; this is why homework is a staple part of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education.
Some experts suggest that children should on average spend between forty-five and seventy-five minutes a day on extra-curricular study. Routinely reviewing the material being covered in class doesn’t just help students lock what they’ve learned into their long-term memory, it also helps them develop active memorization and problem-solving skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.
But researchers who study the psychology of learning have consistently found that it isn’t enough to simply spend time with the material. If students want to make the most of study time, they should use evidence-based learning methods that have been proven to improve recall and comprehension. As with most tasks in life, working hard isn’t the same as working smart, and the students who are most likely to succeed academically are those who use their study time most efficiently.
If you want to know more about how your child can get the best return on the time they spend studying, here are three strategies that are scientifically proven to help our brains retain information.
1. Spaced Practice
The principle behind spaced practice is a relatively simple one: if you plan on studying for two hours over the course of a week, splitting that time into four intensive half-hour study periods will yield much better results than a single two-hour cram session.
Spaced practice offers two key benefits: first, it allows a student to divide the material into digestible chunks of information, which reduces the chances that they will become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. Second, going back to the same material several times throughout the week helps to encode the information into their long-term memory.
One way to help make spaced practice more intentional is by hiring a tutor. Having a series of set times throughout the week or month when your child is scheduled to meet with a tutor locks intensive study into the calendar and helps encourage spaced practice (you can click to learn more about our tutoring services and how an experienced tutor can help improve your child’s learning outcomes).
2. Retrieval Practice
In their book Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel relay an anecdote about a group of professors who, as part of a fire drill, were quizzed on where the nearest fire extinguisher to their office was. Most of the professors failed, and one of them, a psychology professor, was perturbed by his inability to remember such a basic piece of information. He went looking for the nearest fire extinguisher only to discover that it was right next to his door — despite having passed by it every day for twenty-five years, it hadn’t worked its way into his memory.
This anecdote underscores an important point about learning: being exposed to information doesn’t necessarily mean we will take it in. Learning is an active process, and simply re-reading is not enough to make a piece of data stick with us. Instead, students should focus on trying to retrieve information from their memory.
Retrieval practice can involve things like practice tests, cue cards, and the copy-and-cover method, but in all cases it should be geared toward finding and filling the actual gaps in a student’s memory.
Retrieval practice can be challenging, especially for students who struggle with memorization, which is why hiring a tutor can help. Our team of certified teachers provide in home tutoring in all subjects for students from JK to Grade 12, and because they all have real world teaching experience, they can help students master the kinds of evidence-based retrieval practice that will help them meet their learning goals.
3. Create Visual Resources
The human memory is an amazing thing. Memories that are locked away for decades come flooding back when we taste food from our childhood or see the face of an old friend because our brains form memories through association. Learning to study effectively is about unlocking the huge potential of our memory so that we can recall information at will, and one of the best ways to do this is through sensory cues like visual resources.
Have you ever noticed that when you are trying to remember a phrase or piece of information from a book, you can often recall where on the page it was? This is because your brain has locked away visual information to help you find it.
Creating visual resources that help you call up information is an important part of effective studying, so you might want to find a tutor near you who can help students come up with visual and other sensory resources that help them learn most effectively.
Ongoing research into the psychology of learning is showing more and more that our brain, like the rest of our body, operates best when we are able to strike the right balance between repetition and novelty. Helping your child find a balance of study practices that works for them is essential to long-term learning, and while many students struggle to master these strategies on their own, hiring a tutor can definitely help (you can click here to learn how).
All too often, potentially fruitful hours of studying are wasted because students are using inefficient study methods that simply do not deliver good learning outcomes. It is important to remember that, when it comes to studying, more is not always better. The best way to get good results is by using study strategies informed by the latest insights of learning psychology.
5 Strategies For Building Strong Study and Organizational Skills
Written by Nick Mehring of Prep Academy Tutors of Kitchener-Waterloo
For parents and teachers alike, it can be incredibly frustrating to see the self-sabotage that sometimes goes on when a student lacks positive study habits and organizational skills. For many bright students, it’s not uncommon for them to be able to simply coast through entire grades and subject areas with little to no effort put into studying or organization. For others, developing those skills as early as possible can be a crucial aspect of their academic success. Regardless of where your student or child may fall on this spectrum, promoting positive study habits and organizational skills from a young age is essential to ensure that they are set up for success at higher levels of education and in daily life, even if it seems like they are getting by without them. The following list highlights five of the best strategies to promote these crucial skills in children and students of all ages.
1) Start Young by Helping to Build Foundational Learning Skills
Play “academic” games with your toddler. Read aloud to them, put together puzzles, play counting games, math games and games that promote their creativity. Through play-based activities, you begin to set your child up for strong study skills in their future [1]. As your child gets older, place an emphasis on routine when it comes to homework [2]. Do your best to have dinner around the same time each day and set aside time especially devoted to homework. At this time it’s beneficial to relay the importance of designating a space for homework. Have your child help to co-create a space which they feel comfortable with. Stock the room with all of the supplies they might need for completing homework and ensure they are free from distractions while they are in that space [1]. As your child gets better over time at sticking to this routine, begin to pass more responsibility for completing their homework onto them including where and how they can find resources to help them if they get stuck [1].
2) Model Effective Organizational Skills from an Early Age
One of the best ways to do this is to use a family calendar. Track everyone’s activities on the calendar and include your child in the process. When they are old enough to do so, encourage them to make their own entries [3]. Another strategy is to assign chores and tasks to your child that involve sorting, categorizing and pre-planning. Cook together and follow recipes, allow them to help plan grocery lists, and plan family trips and activities with the input of your child [3]. All of these things add up, and over time will help to promote organizational skills necessary for success later in life.
3) Encourage the Use of Time Management and Organizational Tools
At a certain age, planners are a must. Many schools give these out at the start of the year. Make sure to constantly encourage your child to develop a habit to use them. For older students, writing a daily list either in their planner or somewhere else can be incredibly effective in increasing productivity and keeping them on track [4]. Once this has become habit, have them use a simple ranking system to prioritize the list. Another highly effective strategy for disorganized students is to get them thinking visually. Colour-coded notebooks that signify different subjects or priority levels can be a difference maker in terms of getting students to stay on top of things [5]. Finally, teach students the value of chunking tasks into more manageable bits. One example is to use the first, next, last strategy where you break tasks into three much more reasonable steps [6].
4) Teach Self-Regulation and Discipline
As students get older, it becomes much more important for them to learn to properly manage distractions in order to stay on task. During study or homework time, encourage them to learn to control their social media and phone usage. For some, this means removing the phone entirely from the room they are in. If they feel like they have no willpower to control this on their own, introduce them to things like AntiSocial, an app that restricts access on their phone during scheduled times [7]. During studying and homework time, the television should be off. If your child or student enjoys listening to music when they complete their homework, encourage them to listen to music in the 50 to 80 beats per minute range. Music like this has been shown to help focus the mind by stimulating alpha brain waves — just make sure the volume isn’t turned up too loud.
5) Student Mindset Matters
Many students view homework or studying as a required task, instead of as an opportunity to learn. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however research has shown that having a positive mindset during study and homework time can greatly increase the positive effects of the activity — in other words, mindset matters [8]. If a student is very clearly upset, anxious or distracted by a problem going on in their life, it might be beneficial to forgo the studying until that issue is resolved. More often than not, if you try to force your student or child into studying when there’s something big looming on their minds, you’re likely setting them up for frustration instead of learning.
Notes:
[1] “5 Ways to Build Strong Study Habits at an Early Age.” Huntington Learning Center. March 23, 2018. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://huntingtonhelps.com/resources/blog/5-ways-to-build-strong-study-habits-at-an-early-age.
[2] “Homework and Study Habits: Tips for Kids and Teenagers.” Child Development Institute. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/tips-for-helping-kids-and-teens-with-homework-and-study-habits/#.XJzFhC3Mw6h.
[3] “12 Ways to Develop Your Child’s Organizational Skills.” Scholastic Parents. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/social-emotional-learning/social-skills-for-kids/12-ways-to-develop-your-childs-organizational-skills.html.
[4] “Mastering Time Management and Organizational Skills to Increase Productivity.” Brian Tracy International. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/mastering-time-management-and-organizational-skills-to-increase-productivity/.
[5] Simeon, Diana. “Organization Skills for Students: 10 Ideas That Really Work.” Your Teen for Parents. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://yourteenmag.com/teenager-school/teenager-middle-school/help-your-teenager-get-organized.
[6] Morin, Amanda. “At a Glance: 7 Ways to Teach Your High-Schooler Organizational Skills.” Understood: For Learning and Attention Issues. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/learning-at-home/teaching-organizational-skills/at-a-glance-7-ways-to-teach-your-high-schooler-organization-skills.
[7] Zegarra, Maria. “9 Techniques to Improve Your Study Habits.” Florida National University. December 18, 2018. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://www.fnu.edu/7-techniques-improve-study-habits/.
[8] Grohol, John M. “10 Highly Effective Study Habits.” PsychCentral. October 8, 2018. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://psychcentral.com/lib/top-10-most-effective-study-habits/.