Many parents have been using online private tutoring platforms ever since the world went into lockdown. That’s because both students and teachers have been struggling to adopt online school learning effectively, where it’s extremely difficult for one teacher to give adequate attention to each student.
And now that the world is opening up, private tutoring might still be more beneficial for your child than schooling alone. Let’s look at 7 reasons why.
Private tutors teach much more than just the topic.
School teachers are often required to follow a lesson plan. The lesson plan includes what topics they should discuss, how much time they should spend on each topic, and how they should explain a topic during one session. And it’s very rare to see classroom teachers deviate from their lesson plans.
This means if your child struggles to understand something and needs a different explanation, a school teacher won’t be able to provide that to him. In contrast, private tutors don’t really have a lesson plan per se. Their goal is to use whatever they can to explain a particular topic to your child.
They also go beyond the subject matter to teach your child study techniques, ways to cope up with stress, and how to stay productive (or any academic aspect that your child might be struggling with).
Private tutoring offers way more flexibility than schools.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of private tutoring is its flexibility. If your child misses a school lesson, no one’s going to teach them the missed concepts later. On the other hand, private tutors can adjust their schedule and curriculum right according to your needs.
This is especially true if you’re using an online tutoring platform like Cluey Learning, where you can have the number of weekly classes adjusted according to your requirements. For example, if your child’s exams are close, you can increase the number of weekly classes without causing too much inconvenience to the tutor and your child (since the classes are held online).
Online private tutoring also means your child won’t incur an academic loss in case you decide to take a vacation (or in any circumstance where it would be impossible for your child to attend a physical class).
Private tutoring opens up a wide range of learning tools for your child.
Conventional classrooms have only two major learning tools — books and teachers. A private tutor, on the other hand, can use a wide range of other learning tools to help your child understand a concept better.
The biggest example is the internet. A private tutor can help your child discover and navigate a plethora of useful online websites depending on what they’re learning.
A private tutor might also be able to perform small experiments and demonstrations at your home, improving your child’s understanding. These on-demand experiments are almost impossible in a school setting (unless they’re included in the lesson plan).
A private tutor can cater to different learning styles.
Not all children learn in the same way. At least six different learning styles have been identified. Some students are visual learners who require lots of diagrams and charts to understand concepts. Others are auditory learners, who benefit the most from re-listening to recorded lectures.
You also have physical learners, who are more hands-on and learn the best by actually doing the stuff being discussed during class. Social learners require social interaction and activities like role-playing to learn the best. Finally, some people are solitary learners, who learn the best on their own.
And as you can see, it’s practically impossible for a classroom teacher to accommodate all these learning styles within a single lesson. If their tutoring style doesn’t match your child’s learning style, she will struggle.
Private tutors solve this problem because they are able to tailor their tutoring style according to your child’s needs. Your child will especially benefit from a private tutor if they’re a solitary learner. You can use this questionnaire to determine their learning style.
Private tutors are useful for building confidence in your child.
Confidence can make all the difference in your child’s overall success in life. And there are many ways you can build confidence in your child right from an early stage. One of them is to introduce them to a mentor they can look up to. Being able to vent out their feelings and issues without the fear of judgment is crucial for building confidence, which is what a private tutor can help your child do.
Since it’s almost impossible for you to choose your child’s teachers at school — who might not even have the time or will to mentor them — private tutoring is your best bet here.
A private tutor lets your child ask questions.
You might think this is trivial, but asking questions is an extremely important part of learning. And we often see students suppress their questions in a classroom setting for the fear of judgment by classmates and disapproval by the teacher.
Since private tutors teach your child one-to-one, they don’t feel conscious about asking a stupid question. With just a little bit of encouragement from the private tutor, your child can learn way more effectively by asking questions (compared to a classroom).
Here’s how you can encourage your child to ask more questions in general as a parent.
Private tutoring allows for personalized homework and tests.
Homework is meant to solidify a child’s concepts. It’s also meant to be something fun (and not a chore). Unfortunately, that’s not always the case in a classroom setting, where homework is handed out just for the sake of it.
In contrast, private tutors can hand out homework that’s not only fun but also set at the right level for your child, increasing its effectiveness. You can then use these stress-free ways to help your child with their homework.
The same is true for tests. Tests are meant to help you identify your weaknesses and improve them. Since private tutors are well aware of your child’s weak areas, they can create personalized tests that target these areas and help your child improve in them. This, again, is not always possible with tests at school.