Thinking About Tutoring
What Is the Purpose of Tutoring?
10 minute read
Ask ten people why tutoring exists and you may hear ten different answers.
To improve grades. To prepare for exams. To catch up after falling behind. To get into a better school.
Those are all valid reasons to seek tutoring. But they describe what tutoring is used for, not what tutoring is ultimately for.
Key ideas
- Tutoring is about more than improving results.
- The goal is to help learners become increasingly independent.
- Great tutors think beyond the next lesson.
- Success is measured by what learners can eventually do without their tutor.
Beyond the next test.
Most tutoring begins with a short-term goal.
An upcoming examination.
A difficult topic.
A school transition.
Those goals matter.
But great tutors quietly keep another goal in mind throughout every lesson.
The purpose of tutoring is not simply to help learners succeed today.
It is to help them succeed tomorrow without us.
Teaching independence.
Professional tutors are not trying to make themselves indispensable.
They are helping learners become increasingly confident to think independently.
Every question, explanation and conversation should move the learner a little closer to standing on their own.
A different kind of success.
A learner who once asked for help after every question now pauses, thinks carefully and solves the problem independently.
The tutor did less.
The learner did more.
That is progress.
Helping learners think.
Good tutors explain.
Great tutors help learners explain.
They ask questions that encourage thinking rather than simply providing answers.
The goal is not to create dependence on expertise.
It is to develop independent thinkers.
Whenever possible, replace "Let me show you" with "What have you noticed?" Small changes in questioning can have a big impact on independent thinking.
Confidence with challenge.
The purpose of tutoring is not to remove every difficulty.
Learning should still be challenging.
Instead, tutors help learners develop the confidence to stay with that challenge a little longer than they thought they could.
Great tutoring does not make learning easier.
It helps learners become stronger.
A temporary relationship with a lasting impact.
Most tutoring relationships eventually come to an end.
That is exactly as it should be.
The measure of successful tutoring is not how long a learner stays with a tutor.
It is what they are able to do once they no longer need one.
How will you know you've succeeded?
Imagine one of your learners no longer needs your support because they have become confident, independent and resilient. Would you see that as the greatest success of all?
The best tutors work towards redundancy.
Every lesson should leave learners a little more knowledgeable, a little more confident and a little more independent than they were before.
The purpose of tutoring is not to create lifelong clients.
It is to help learners discover that, one day, they can continue without us.