How to be a great tutor

Written by Daphne Lim - Updated 14 January 2025 20:33

1. The Number One Rule at KIS

Do what's best for the student. No ands, ifs or buts. That's it

2. How to be a Master Tutor

Here's some useful information we found in a post made by StudentVIP (A University organisation). Full credit to them for writing this amazing piece

We could go into 100 pages on latest science of Adult Learning Theory (ALT), or summarise it in just 4 points;

1. It’s not about knowledge.

   Knowing your subject is critical, but alone, it isn’t enough to be a great teacher. It’s not even enough to be an ok teacher. Sorry, knowledge is only about 20% of your role. So what’s the other 80%?

   You are a motivator.

   Full stop. Read that again. What are you? “I am a _______”.

   At the end of each lesson, you can evaluate yourself as a tutor by one simple question: “Did that lesson motivate my student or not?”.

   So think of yourself as a sports coach.

   How often does a tennis coach show you how to serve? Does the coach show you how to serve for 50 minutes out of an hour lesson, while you watch? Nope.

   How often does the tennis coach get you to try serving, practicing, making mistakes, correcting them and practicing some more? That’s where 50 minutes of the lesson is spent.

   So your job isn’t to explain, explain, explain… Your job is to motivate and coach. Your student does the work and the thinking while you are on the sidelines, not centre stage.

   Why? Well, if you can slowly change your student’s motivation about a subject, they will start to;

   – pay more attention in class,

   – spend a little more time doing homework by themselves,

   – push themselves a little harder when they come up against a tough question in exams.

   There’s 168 hours in a week. You are only with the student for one.

   But if you can change their motivation, the effect ripples through the rest of the week.

2. Different people are motivated by different things.

   Interestingly, not all people are motivated the same way. Here’s 3 types;

   - They are motivated by other people: “I (or your teacher or your parents) would be so happy if you could have next weeks homework done before the lesson”.

   - They are motivated by goals: “You got 14 out of 20 this week. Lets see if you can crack 15 next week”.

   - They are motivated by competition: “How did you do in the text compared to Jake? Ok let’s see if we can beat Jake next test”.

3. Small steps. Small victories. A story about motor bikes.

   The best teaching I ever had was at a motorbike course. It was a two day course.

   On the first day we didn’t even turn the bike on. Seriously. Step one was to learn how to sit on the bike. Just sit. So we sat.

   Then 20 minutes of just getting on and off the bike. Then we walked it around the car park holding the handle bars for 20 minutes. Then 20 minutes of squeezing the breaks on and off. We practiced parking it against a curb for 20 minutes.

   Remember, the bike still hadn’t been turned on yet!! At the end of day one, everyone felt super comfortable getting on and off the bike, moving it around, braking, parking. It was all so damn easy! We felt so good! Bikes weren’t scary anymore. We were motivated and confident. How hard could day two be?

   Day Two: The next day the bikes finally got turned on. Just playing around with getting in and out of first gear went all the way to lunch time. We never even got over walking speed. In the hour after lunch we got into second and third gear and something above walking speed. Then weaving slowly between cones. Then faster cones. In the last hour we tried slow speed emergency braking.

   And as the sun set on day two, real high speed emergency braking! Full throttle, red light flashes, then full two-sequenced emergency braking with a 10 metre stop target. There was a little smoke but not one bike was dropped. Everyone did it - everyone. 100% pass. The day before, half the class had never sat on a bike before. What was the secret?

   Every step was small.

   We started at the very very start. Nothing was skipped.

   Every step was practiced and practiced until we were 110% comfortable we had it mastered. We left each step feeling great (ie our teachers had motivated us) to try the next step. We weren’t uncertain or scared.

   So…

   – Break topics into little steps.
   – Start at the very very start.
   – Make each step as easy to master as possible.
   – Have the students practice and practice until they feel 110% confident about that task.
   – Congratulate them at each step! Make sure they see themselves progressing. Tell their parents. The end of (most) lessons should be a celebration! High five!

4. Homework vs learning

   Lots of students feel the pressure of delivering this weeks homework which they'll often ask you to do in class, but what they really need is to go back to more basic topics.

   They pressure you to deliver an answer to this weeks homework, but they wont understand it.

   So negotiate. “How about we spend 30 minutes on the homework, have a 5 minute break and then come back spend 25 minutes on some important stuff I want you to get good at”.

Your role as a tutor: Do what's best for the student. Always.