Are School Tutoring Programs Effective?
School tutoring programs like Math Club, Study Club, and Homework Help are great resources, but are they as effective as external tutoring? Let's break down the pros and cons, exploring why external tutoring might have an edge. Learn about the value factor, the importance of a fresh environment, and how a different teaching perspective can make all the difference.
TRANSCRIPT
Tutoring programs at school, are they effective?
This is Jason Ursino from Learning Space, and I'm driving to school.
Today I'm going to be talking about those tutoring programs that schools have, Math's Club, Study Club, Homework Help. They're usually on before, after school, or at lunch times, and they're there to support the students. And they're essentially tutoring programs. So it's tutoring that the school offers, usually by a teacher that runs it in the math's department, or in any really subject. And, or sometimes it could be senior students, year 11, 12 students, helping younger students. They are very good, and your son or daughter should be encouraged to go, even if they're traveling okay, to get the extra support, just means that they will be on top of things. However, I have found in my experience, that there are three reasons to why they are not as effective as getting tutoring outside of school.
The first one is because of the value.
When you pay for something, you tend to feel like there's more value for it. An example of this is when you get a personal trainer. If you pay the personal trainer, there is very, very low chance that you're going to miss a session, because you're paying him or her, and you feel like that there's some value to it, and you don't want to waste that value. So similar sort of thing here, because the school is offering it, and there's no extra payment for it, sometimes the students don't feel, and the parents don't feel, that there's, oh yeah, it's great, it's there if you need it, but it's not that important if you don't attend. And you see students who come along, maybe now and then, or when there's an exam coming up, or when they've been encouraged a parent-teacher night, they come in for a couple of weeks, and then that's it. So that's the first reason, the value of it.
The second reason is the environment.
Some students feel that it's just an extension to school. So if you have it at school, after school, or before school, even at lunchtime, students do need a bit of a break from school, and to have it at school just feels like it's just more school. So having a tutoring center away from school seems to be more effective for students. They leave school altogether, and they go to a different venue, and we find that students come in a little bit more refreshed with a different environment.
The third thing is having different support.
So if you have, if you're at school, and you have a particular teacher teaching you, and then that same teacher is also the one that does the tutoring, sometimes it's a good idea to get a different perspective. So if you go to tutoring that is a different teacher, then you might find that there's something that you've picked up from the different teacher that is something that you understand a little bit more. So you might decide to go, okay well instead of going to the same teacher, I'm going to try a different perspective.
So getting external tutoring can be more effective when you're paying for it. The student tends to come in every week, and tends to treat it more seriously. It's a different environment, so the student doesn't see it as an extension of school, and the fact that it's a different person giving them the support. It's still important though that the external tutor is a teacher, because if the external tutor is a teacher, they do understand the programs, and they do have professional development on a regular basis to make sure they're up with the programs.
If you like my videos, there are more of them at learningspace.net.au slash driving to school, and have a good day!
