To be a tutor requires three fundamental characteristics – depth and breadth of knowledge, the right personality, and adaptability.

 

Knowing a subject well seems like an obvious requirement for a tutor. It surprises people when they find out that a student who has received an excellent grade in a class is not qualified to tutor another student in that same subject. Good tutoring, like good teaching, requires a depth of knowledge that allows the mentor to point out important relationships and make connections between concepts and skills that very often seem unrelated to the beginner. In addition, good tutoring requires a breadth of knowledge that allows, for example, a tutor to point out to a mathematics student that the current concept being studied will be needed again when he/she studies related problems in physics. With my teaching and tutoring experience, a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nottingham, UK and my academic background in Biological sciences I have the unique ability to make the connections not only within subjects but also between subjects.

Without the right personality, all the knowledge in the world will not make you a good tutor. Great tutoring requires someone who has infinite patience, a genuine love of each subject being tutored, and an innate desire to help people learn.

Every student is unique: academic ability, personality, degree of interest in the subject, willingness to study. A tutor who has a fixed agenda or blueprint for tutoring is ill-equipped for one-on-one mentoring. Adaptability with regard to how I interact with students is one of the important components of my tutoring.

The fundamental goal of my tutoring is to teach the student how to teach him or herself. It is no longer the main responsibility of the teacher to provide information. With the ever-increasing and accessible sources of information, tutors should be teaching their students how to learn in addition to providing them with the skills and concepts they need to benefit from their knowledge seeking. I will not only teach, I will teach how to learn! The fundamental goal of tutoring is to show the student the beauty and usefulness of the subject being studied and then give him/her the skills to explore, learn and excel!

You might like to know that I have lived in seven different countries including the UK, France, Philippines and Canada. I also spent a year as a teacher volunteer in a non-profit institution in Lebanon. In addition, I was an intern with an international organization in France. I have experience in teaching varies ages and levels of Mathematics, starting from elementary up to college level.