This Week with Sara Fitts looks at the differences between tutorials and simply providing extra help to students. In some ways the differences are small while in many ways the differences are incredible - and mean the difference in passing and failing - as well as in making an A or making a B.
Tutorials provide extra help - but also provide a framework of support that extends well beyond the 60 minutes of direct work with the student. Tutorials utilize academic coaching in all areas: review, current support, extension of the topic, and setting the stage for all topics that follow. Tutorials are structured with the intent of bringing out the very best the student has to offer. While the structure of a tutorial session may be less like a classroom filled with 25 or 30 other students, there is a platform for inquiry, for growth, for moving forward toward the next lesson and beyond.
Tutorials provide motivation. Students are freer to express their fears - and with academic coaching, conquer them. Success breeds more success. Once a student tastes success in a subject that has been so difficult for them, all things are then possible in the mind of the student. Once the student has a mindset of motivation and success, success is much more easily attained.
Extra help is wonderful and can bridge many gaps - but it is usually not sustainable.
Tutorials combined with academic coaching are sustainable.
If you are a student who is struggling - or you are the parent of a struggling student - please consider hiring an academic coach to provide one-on-one tutorials. It can be the huge difference that is needed.
Sara L. Fitts is an academic and instructional coach and consultant who works with students to improve their abilities in mathematics. For more information, please visit www.SLFConsulting.com today.
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