A Compendium of
Learning and Teaching Strategies for College
Tutor Pathway
Tutoring is a powerful learning tool. It is powerful because:
* it provides a personalized approach.
* it can be tailored to the student's current level of development in a particular subject area. That is, challenges can be offered to the student that are neither too easy or too difficult.
* immediate corrective feedback can be provided. In that way, students will not continue down a wrong path and will be less likely to develop bad habits.
Tutors should act as coaches, letting students do most of the work in learning new material, with support provided as needed. This allows the student to make progress on the road to self-directed learning.
As you, the tutor, speak with students, become aware of your use of figurataive language, i.e. idioms, metaphors and similes. For example, you might say, "after Shirley received her grade on the test, she was on cloud nine." Or you might say, "In this story, Tom wears his heart on his sleeve." For some students with learning difficulties and for many ESL students, such figurative language can be difficult to understand. When you notice yourself using figurative language, consider following up with a more explicit statement. "Shirley was on cloud nine. She was very happy!"
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You can find more examples of figurative language here and here.
Tutors should read all the pages on the Student Pathway. Note that on the Growth Mindset page, there is a reference to the Possible Selves book.. If a student is having difficulty with academic motivation, consider working with the student using the steps in this book. You can read an overview of the Possible Selves book here.
Also review the various learning strategies that are presented in the Student Pathway. Ideally, when students show up for help, try to meet their immediate concerns, but weave in ideas about learning how to learn. This can be done a little bit at a time, but if the student and you are willing, consider using a systematic and structured approach to teaching a given strategy.