Finding the right tutor for your child

Finding the right tutor for your child can appear to be a daunting task. You want to make sure the tutor ticks all the right boxes, such as relating well to your child, being trustworthy, reliable, organised, and skilled in the desired subject. This decision can feel overwhelming, as, understandably, you want to ensure you are making the right choice for your child. As educational specialists, we appreciate the importance of this selection process, as implementing educational support outside the usual school hours has the power to make a dramatic and lasting impact on a child’s academic performance and approach to learning. We therefore feel it is vital to consider the following key points before making your decision:

Specialty

Over the years, we have grown to learn that the ideal tutor is a combination of different tutors. This is because each individual has unique personality traits and specific skill sets to contribute towards enriching and maximising your child’s lessons and learning experience. Whilst a student may benefit more from teachers who specialise in mathematics based degrees for certain subjects, they may also need tutors who specialise in English based degrees for subjects requiring a lot of writing. Having a choice from a diverse selection of tutors means your child will get the opportunity to experience a variation of people with different strengths, allowing you as a parent to build a comprehensive lesson schedule for your child with support in each and every subject.

Teaching Styles

From kindergarten all the way through to university, your child will be taught by a multitude of teachers at school, each with their own teaching style, personality, approach to homework, group work, assessments, and everything in between. This is an experience shared by most children all over the world. Tutoring should therefore complement this journey and optimise academic progress both inside and outside the classroom.

By involving numerous tutors on a child's learning journey, students are exposed to different styles of instruction, fostering their ability to effectively extract and apply knowledge from different sources. This helps to ensure each child is better prepared for the variability they will encounter throughout their future learning.

As it is impossible for a teacher to observe a student through different eyes, it is valuable to involve multiple “sets of eyes” to develop a complete picture of a child. This allows those tasked with overseeing a child’s development to witness any variability in learning when the student interacts with different teachers, male or female, quiet or interactive, as this variation in teaching style can shape the child’s ability to acquire knowledge in school and be more confident when encountering a variety of personalities along their learning journey.       

Student Empowerment

A core pillar of our educational philosophy is the empowerment of students. We advocate for children to take control over their own learning and not become dependent upon one specific individual or teaching style. As children enter more formal education, they should be able to embrace situations where their usual teacher, or preferred teaching style, may not be available to support them. They therefore need to feel comfortable being able to discuss topics, ask questions, and learn effectively when exposed to different teaching styles. Giving students the responsibility to take control of their own learning will grant them a greater sense of independence, autonomy, and belief in their own abilities, something which will greatly help them in their future endeavours.

Flexibility

Commonly, Hong Kong children and parents have especially busy timetables. This means flexibility is an important and central factor in determining the right tutor for your family’s lifestyle. You want to be able to rely upon regular support that can become available at a moment’s notice, which can also be accomodating of scheduling shifts. By minimising the dependence on one individual tutor and involving multiple tutors on your child’s learning journey, you can benefit from a much higher degree of flexibility when arranging weekly lessons.

Summary

When trying to find the right tutor for your child, it is important to consider the decision from different perspectives. From the perspective of the student, would they benefit from the involvement of a combination of tutors with different personalities, specialties, and skill sets? From your perspective as a parent, how can you simplify the process of arranging a tutor for your child to ensure there will always be support available to accommodate the demands of your busy schedules?

There is no “one-size-fits-all” policy, what works best for some children may not be effective for others. What’s important is that you feel you are making the right decision for your child and your family.