With many children struggling to keep up with online schooling, parents across the country are turning to tutors to provide a little one-on-one help to make sure kids don’t fall behind.
The best tutors strike the right balance between guiding kids through the intellectual challenges of learning math, writing, science, or French, and establishing the kind of personal rapport that can help children develop confidence in their problem-solving skills — and this individualized coaching is especially important at a time when many students are feeling isolated and discouraged.
If you think online tutoring could help your child but aren’t sure where to start, here are four tips that can help you find a tutor who will be a good fit.
1. Stay Local
With school moving online, many families have benefitted from having access to learning resources from across the web. But tutoring is one thing that is best handled locally, through a service based in your own jurisdiction.
Different provinces and states have different curricula, and hiring an online tutor who understands the learning objectives your kids are being asked to master in their regular classes can help ensure they get the kind of targeted support that translates into academic success.
2. Look for Specialists
If you’ve ever looked for a tutor online, chances are you’ve noticed just how many competing services there are. Countries like Canada and the United States have some of the most educated populations in the world, so there is no shortage of students at the undergraduate and master’s level making use of their skills by working as tutors.
But the best tutors don’t just know their subjects — they also know how to teach them. Looking for tutoring services that hire specialist tutors with some knowledge of pedagogy will ensure the tutor you hire has the experience to actually help your kids master the material.
3. Make Sure They Offer Feedback and Communication
When you’re investing time and money to make sure your kids have the educational support they need, you want to be sure that the tutoring is actually working.
That’s why professional tutoring services like Prep Academy Tutors and Preply are assiduous about reporting back to parents so they can stay in the loop.
Ideally, a tutor should:
- Provide detailed notes after each lesson
- Give feedback to show what progress is being made
- Be accountable to parents about any concerns they might have about their children’s performance.
A good tutor will be in regular contact with you, giving you a chance to be an active participant in your child’s learning.
4. Check Their Track Record
You wouldn’t hire a plumber without checking how long they’d been in business and looking for testimonials from former clients, so why wouldn’t you apply the same rule when looking for a tutor?
A tutoring service that has been in business for years, shows signs of steady growth, and is proud to display customer referrals is a tutoring service that will probably be able to help your kids achieve their learning goals too.
When you hire a tutor, you want to be sure that they will be able to help your child in concrete ways. Tutoring exists to advance particular objectives, and given the added challenges that come with pandemic learning, it is important to have confidence that your tutor is making a real difference.
If you want to find a service that will be a good fit for your child, these four tips can help you ask the right questions so you can find the ideal tutor.