What really IS long-term tutoring?
I think this is something that I should talk about on the blog, rather than actually make ads for it. I think that also would be a good idea…hmmm…maybe that will be for tomorrow.
Either way, I think this is something that I should write about, but also talk about. So, in general, I am a chemistry tutor in Miami, FL and I offer services throughout Miami-Dade County. I offer help in courses like general chemistry, organic chemistry, advanced organic chemistry, biochemistry, and biology. I also dabble in philosophy tutoring from time to time. However, one thing that really ties all these courses together is something that students struggle with all the time. Even adults struggle with this concept: Learning how to learn for yourself.
This blog post will be separated into 3 sections:
1. What is the most common form of tutoring?
2. What is long-term tutoring?
3. What does long-term tutoring have to do with learning and learning science?
I will not be talking about ANY of the actual science behind tutoring or learning, since that can literally be a course or even a separate degree program.
What is the most common form of tutoring?
The most common form of tutoring is having someone come into a space; in my case it is usually a library or a local coffee shop, and just do rapid fire questions about practice problems. This is literally the most common and most ground-level form of tutoring. You just sit there and answer questions about questions. Which sounds really silly, but this is mostly because students either do not know the answers and are just looking for answers, or they are curious about how they answered a question wrong and want to know how to answer it correctly.
If those two things sound different to you, that’s because they are. Students who want the right answer, show up and just want to know the right answer to a specific question and are just looking for a way to identify the right answer. This means that they are making patterns in their mind, they are looking at questions and wondering if it is similar or different to a previous question. They write down their answer based on whether or not the question is similar to one they have seen in the past. A really good example of this- in organic chemistry tutoring- is when students want to know the difference between one reaction and another. They try to memorize the entire reaction, and if their exam question looks remotely similar, they will just vomit the answer they committed to memory.
I have seen students write entire molecules that had nothing to do with the question because of this “memorization” technique to studying. It is a lot harder to find this in general chemistry tutoring sessions. Which is funny since general chemistry comes before organic chemistry.
In general chemistry, you find students who want to learn more about the process of solving a problem. You cannot really memorize the answer to balancing an equation or the answer to converting 12 gallons into deciliters. You can memorize the process, however. This is the other form of tutoring that occurs the most often. Students just want to know how to get the right answer. It is at this point, I tell the student that general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and philosophy is not about getting the right answer, but understanding the rules and patterns at play that will always lead them to the right answer. Once students learn the patterns, the rules, the methods, they will almost always find the right answer if they do not make small mistakes. I think this is where long-term tutoring comes in. The process of learning about patterns, rules, methods, or whatever you want to call it is not something that you can do in just one session or two. It is something that you have to be mindful of while practicing your problems or reading your assigned readings or answering the free response questions. It is not enough to just memorize the process of getting to the right answer, one has to drill it over, and over again to make sure they know when use one method over another.
For example, let’s say a student comes to me and wants to know how to convert 12 gallons to deciliters. I would break it down by asking if they memorized the basic conversion factors first (somethings you just have to memorize). If they say yes, awesome we can start talking about how conversions work immediately. If not, we need to first talk about what a conversion factor is, why it makes sense, and then show some examples. So, we know 1 gallon is equal to 3.78 liters. We also know that for every 1 liter there are 10 deciliters. We can draw out the conversion, do the math, use our calculator, and find the answer. However, the process of finding the answer may or may not be the same based on the question, itself. This sounds really obvious. That is because it is. However, students mess this up ALL the time.
Students assume that once you get the right answer, this process should be the same for all future questions. This is not entirely true. What if you had a question where it was asking to convert 12 gallons/sec to deciliter/sec. The eyes glass-over like a deer in the headlights about to be obliterated into dust. I think this is where long-term tutoring comes in. This is where I shine.What is long-term tutoring?
Long-term tutoring is tutoring focuses on content, but it also focuses on two other aspects of the student: their mental health/well-being and their fundamental understanding of the concepts BESIDES their ability to answer questions right or wrong.
So, what does this look like?
Well, when it comes to something like biology tutoring, I usually like to ask students about their week, how they have been doing, what big developments have or have not occurred, and what they feel about those new developments. It really does start to sound more like a conversation and catching up with a friend than a simple tutoring session. But this tells me so much about the student, as a whole. Can I realistically give them extra homework or do we need to focus on practice during the session? What has been keeping them from studying chemistry: is it time management, housing, toxic or abusive relationships? This really does tell me what I can and cannot expect from my student while also providing the tutoring services they need in order to succeed.
After speaking with my student, I can then ask them what part of the content has been the most difficult for them. This really ends up becoming a deeper conversation that some people really have a hard time with. It is hard to admit you are not good at something or that you are not as cool, smart, able, functional, or hard-working as everyone else. Honestly, as someone who teaches for a living and also tutors, this is such a bullshit mind set that people keep buying into. This idea that if you are not better than everyone else, you will fail. Or that you should be ashamed that you cannot do something that is deemed “normal” or “bare minimum”. For example, I have a student who really struggles with reading. This is not their fault. It is a fault of the educational system that fosters test-performance over college readiness (this should be another post, entirely). Due to this struggle, my student has to spend more time learning reading techniques than going over the content, which is fine, I have no issue with this, but it is a constant battle between building up confidence in my student and facing another hurdle when it comes to reading assignments. I always remind her, this is not her fault, at all.
Sticking with the previously mentioned student, I really do try to change my tutoring to cater to her needs. I started to learn more about reading strategies, how to incorporate active reading techniques into her studying, and even built a small list of reading techniques she can use while she is reading her chemistry textbooks or the lab manuals (that is also another struggle). In these sessions, we do talk about content, but I also try to give her the tools and skills she needs so she can independently read, on her own. It would make great sense to keep her dependent on me so I could have an income; but in the long-term, that really is not helpful nor is it wise. I think that is really the difference of long-term tutoring and all the other forms: I am here to invest time and energy in a person’s independent success; not money.What does long-term tutoring have to do with learning and learning science?
This is a hard question but I think I sort of hinted at it near the end of section 2. Long-term tutoring allows me to help the student understand how they learn and what techniques best help them understand the underlying concepts and principles of their classes or the science. For example, when it comes to the student I was writing about earlier, her sessions are more about how to break down the information on a paper, THEN we can start talking about the content and how to answer questions or identify what information she has wrong or right.
I think that is how long-term tutoring interacts with learning, I provide a ton of tools for students to pick and choose what works for them, so they can more easily understand the information and have more time to practice and discuss these concepts with me or their other classmates. A great example of this are my organic chemistry tutoring sessions for FIU students. I always tell students not to memorize but to understand the content. This looks different for each student: some students focus on reagents and mechanisms, some students prefer T-charts, some prefer Venn-diagrams, some prefer to draw and redraw the same reaction. Others prefer to just redo their reactions over and over again. Each strategy is different and unique to the student. One strategy does not always work for all students. You have to mix and match.
In terms of learning science, long-term tutoring allows me to come up with different strategies for different classes. For example, just because one method works for biochemistry tutoring, does not mean it will work for genetics tutoring or physical chemistry tutoring. I think the most important thing is to really let the student learn how they learn and then build tools and skills from there. That way, once they finish a course and are taking a new course, they can trouble-shoot on their own and may not need to call me. That is really the dream, I want to make myself obsolete.
I hope this blog post kind of helps folks understand what “long-term tutoring” means. This is something that I think I need to put more thought into and really practice writing about it so it is easier to understand.
In the end, I think long-term tutoring is really more about getting students to learn about themselves, how they learn, so when they start a new class or career they know how to take in new information on their own. Like I said, I want to tutor students to make myself obsolete. If I am not helping students achieve their goals and build their independence, then I am just scamming and hurting my students more than anything.
