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Lizette Álvarez
29 April 2011
From Student to Tutor
Tutoring is an essential service that should be available at every school in order to
promote the academic success of every student. Simply offering the service is not
enough, however. The tutors must be good, and that does not refer only to their
understanding of a specific area of study, but also to their teaching and communication
techniques. Tutoring is utterly useless if the answers cannot be clearly explained by the
tutor to the student. To ensure that all qualified individuals are effective in tutoring they
must first undergo training that addresses the qualities necessary to be an efficient
tutor—that is, verbal and non-verbal communication, knowledge of the different styles of
learning, and an understanding of different academic backgrounds.
Before becoming a tutor one is a student, and as a student one discovers what
study method works best for him or her. While that particular method can be
recommended to the student, it should not be the only option. It is imperative that a tutor
be familiar with different studying techniques and be able to offer creative options
depending on the student’s strong points; visual learners should try diagrams and
highlighting, kinetic learners hand gestures and body movements, and auditory learners
verbal quizzes and story-telling, or a combination thereof. Most students have a
difficult time understanding new concepts because they tackle the complex whole rather
than utilizing the smaller, known basics to make sense of this whole. The inability to
understand, however, is often linked to the student’s use of a study technique that does
not fit with their preferred learning style. It is up to the tutor to recognize when a different
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method of study should be used and recommend it to the student accordingly.
While a teacher provides students with new information, it is a tutor’s job to
review said information and prepare a student to become an independent learner. Many
people tend to think that a tutor simply provides answers, this is the general idea that
some new tutors at first have as well. At the Learning Assistance Center, I am entrusted
with the task of running the questioning techniques workshop for new tutors. In the
workshop, tutors become aware of and practice the necessary questioning techniques to
influence the students’ manner of reasoning; rather than providing them with answers,
tutors learn how to show students what path to take to arrive to the answers themselves,
therefore promoting independent learning.
Tutors often deal with a diverse group of people culturally, academically, and
with different personalities. Many times students seek tutoring due to low grades which
often lowers their self-esteem, affecting their performance. It is part of the tutor’s job as a
mentor to help them not only acquire the necessary skills for learning but the right
attitude as well. While the need to comfort and empower these students may come
naturally to some, others may feel uncomfortable in such a situation; training helps tutors
share advice and experiences to prepare for this and other types of situations.