Tutoring is an investment in your student, and like any investment, you want to get the best bang for your buck. For most, that means choosing between group and one-on-one tutoring. Though each has its advantages (and disadvantages), one-to-one tutoring offers benefits you may not get in a group session. What are they, and how do you make the most of those advantages?
5 Reasons to Consider One-on-One Tutoring
People who choose group tutoring often do so because it’s less expensive than one-to-one tutoring. But if your budget allows, here’s why you should consider one-to-one tutoring for your student.
1. Personalized and Individualized
The biggest advantage of one-to-one tutoring is that it’s tailored to your student’s learning style. If your student is a visual learner, the tutor can use more visual elements. Hands-on learners will have more interactive tutoring sessions.
Group tutoring sessions aren’t as tailored. While the tutor can focus on a specific concept, they don’t have the freedom to adjust the session to account for every student’s learning style. They may need to move at a different pace than what your student needs, which may mean the tutor doesn’t fill their learning gaps.
2. Private and Focused
One-to-one tutoring is, of course, private, and that often gives students the courage to ask the questions they may not be comfortable asking a teacher in a group tutoring or academic setting. What’s more, if your student doesn’t grasp the material right away, the tutor can spend as much time as necessary to ensure your student masters the concept and fills that learning gap.
Private tutoring also helps your student focus on the material and learning instead of being distracted by other students who aren’t as engaged with the tutoring or who take up too much of the teacher’s time with questions.
3. Increases Confidence and Self-Esteem
In most cases, tutoring will increase a student’s confidence and self-esteem. As they build their academic skills, they develop a growth mindset and realize they can master the material no matter what it is.
However, in a group setting, this may not happen as quickly, and in some cases, it just won’t happen. As noted above, group sessions may go at the “wrong” pace for your student, and they may not be comfortable asking questions in front of the group. One-to-one tutoring eliminates these barriers, helping your student build their confidence and self-esteem quickly.
4. Convenient and Flexible
Group tutoring sessions have a set schedule. While it may meet multiple days and times, this schedule may not mesh with yours. Your student may have to miss activities they enjoy, which could lead to resentment or disengagement. You may have to rearrange your schedule so much that your student is rushing around or cramming everything into one day that they don’t get anything out of tutoring.
One-to-one tutors also have a set schedule, so you can plan your week and reserve the day and time your student will put aside for tutoring. However, private tutors often have flexibility and can adjust your tutoring schedule when you need to. If there’s a big tournament or performance coming up, the tutor can flex around it, ensuring your student still gets the tutoring they need and gets the most out of it.
5. Improve Study Skills and Habits
Tutoring will usually improve a student’s study skills and habits, but individual tutoring ensures the skills and habits work for your student.
Let’s say your student has underdeveloped executive functioning skills and has trouble with due dates. A group tutor may advise your student to use a calendar or date planner to keep track of what’s due when. But that particular organizational technique may not work for your student, and they may still miss due dates.
A private tutor can not only offer alternatives that work but also provide the accountability your student needs to meet deadlines. For example, instead of using a date planner, the tutor may suggest a Gantt chart and help your student plot everything on it. Each session, the tutor can check in with the student to ensure they’re using the chart effectively, turning work in on time, and suggest alternative solutions if the Gantt chart doesn’t work.
How to Make the Most of One-on-One Tutoring
Once you’ve made the investment in one-to-one tutoring, you want to make sure the investment pays off. Here’s how to make the most of it.
1. Communicate
Clear and consistent communication between student and tutor will ensure the student gets the most out of every session. But what does that look like?
Students need to be specific about what they need. Don’t understand the concept? They need to tell the tutor they’re lost. Need more details about how the tutor got from A to B? Ask! Did the homework and didn’t get it at all? Speak up. If the tutor doesn’t know what the student is struggling with, they won’t know how to help or if what they’re doing is working.
2. Set Goals
To get the most out of every session, it’s important to set and have tutoring goals. Prepping for the SAT, ACT, or an AP exam is different than struggling with science or a foreign language. Having clear goals and communicating those to the tutor ensures each one-to-one session moves your student closer to accomplishing them.
3. Practice
While the tutor can teach the concepts and skills, it’s up to your student to build them, and that only happens with lots of practice. Just like practicing an instrument outside of lessons develops a musician’s skills, practicing outside of tutoring sessions is a critical part of student growth.
It’s important to practice inside and outside of the classroom. For example, a student prepping for the SAT should do practice tests before the big day to improve their skills and identify any weak areas they need to work on.
4. Prepare
A tutor can help your student strengthen their weak areas. However, it’s important to identify those areas before every session.
For example, someone struggling with biology should do their homework before meeting with their tutor. This helps the tutor identify what they should work on in that session and makes it easier for the student to learn and comprehend the material. They’ll be able to see where they went wrong and understand how to avoid the same mistake in the future.
5. Connect
Finally, the best way to get the most out of one-to-one tutoring is by working with a tutor your student connects with. Without a strong rapport and trust, your student won’t get much out of any tutoring session, whether it’s in a group setting or one-to-one.
It may take some time to establish a bond, but the best tutoring relationships are ones where the student likes the tutor and feels comfortable asking questions about the material.
Find Your Match
While group tutoring is often a more economical option than one-to-one tutoring, the individualized learning and personal attention are often worth the extra cost, which pays off in the long run.
Emergent Education tutors offer one-to-one tutoring online for students across the U.S. and in-person for students in the Portland and Seattle area. Contact us today for a free consultation, and we’ll match your student with a tutor they can connect with who will help them achieve their academic goals.
