Tutor or courses?
Sooner or later, all parents begin to ask this question. It becomes especially acute on the eve of preparation for exams, but some particularly advanced mothers and fathers consider it their duty to develop their child from early school age. So which classes should you choose: with a tutor or courses in private schools? Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages.
First, let's look at the option with a tutor. It has both obvious advantages and no less obvious disadvantages.
Advantages of a tutor
1. Individual approach to your child. The good thing about a tutor is that he presents the material in the form in which the student will best understand it (for example, based on a visual or, conversely, an auditory context). So, if you are pressed for time and solid knowledge is important to you, this is most likely your option.
2. You have more opportunities to choose a convenient time for classes and their intensity. Sometimes you can arrange for a tutor to come to your home.
3. Only a professional tutor like chemistry tutors is able to fill gaps in knowledge in a short time. Classes with him are always based on the real capabilities and characteristics of the student, and do not follow a plan once developed and approved by the authorities.
4. You can be sure that the entire lesson time is spent communicating with your child. The tutor's attention will not be distracted by other students who have their own problems and wishes.
5. Those who can clearly formulate their problems and goals should pay attention to classes with a tutor. For example, excellent students preparing for a subject Olympiad. Or often sick children who are forced to miss classes and fall behind because of this.
6. You only pay for the lessons that were given. If the lesson is canceled for any reason (the child is sick, has to go on an excursion, etc.), you simply reschedule the lesson to a more suitable time.
7. If we are talking about preparing for the Unified State Exam and entering a specific university, you can always hire a teacher from that university. He will familiarize you with local requirements and give you the necessary level of knowledge.
Cons of a tutor
1. Price. Personal tutoring services are expensive.
2. It is difficult to understand at first glance how professional your tutor is in his field. There is a risk that the tutor, instead of teaching how to solve a problem, will begin to solve it for his student.
3. The load on the child increases. As a rule, homework assignments given by a tutor are larger and more complex than those given in courses.
4. Sociable children may find it boring to study alone. They lose interest because there is no competition, no one except the teacher sees their victories.
5. With a tutor, you risk studying endlessly. He will say that your child has made progress, but you need to practice more and more, because there are no limits to perfection. Courses are designed for a certain number of lessons, and there is always some pause when you decide whether to move to the next level or not.
6. According local & online tutors on NiceTutor.co.uk personal relationships play too important a role. If suddenly your child does not get along with the teacher, the effectiveness of the lessons will decrease. In groups, conflicts with the teacher are less likely.
Now let's talk about courses. What are the positive and negative aspects of group classes?
Advantages of the courses
1. You buy a ready-made course compiled by professional methodologists, psychologists and teachers. You can rest assured: here your child will be taught strictly “according to science.” Teachers are selected through rigorous competition and interviews. It is unlikely to run into a non-professional here.
2. The teaching methods in the courses are more varied, since the work is done in a group. If these are language courses, then here the child will hear not only the teacher’s speech, but also the speech of other students, and learn from their mistakes.
3. Courses are not just lessons, but also socialization in the company of like-minded people. For schoolchildren, this is a good opportunity to expand their circle of friends, prove themselves in a new team, automatically reach out to the strong ones or learn to help weaker comrades. In addition to the lessons themselves, course management sometimes includes entertainment events in the program: celebrating the New Year, Physicist Day, excursions, and so on.
4. This is a relatively inexpensive option; in any case, the courses are cheaper than the services of a tutor.
5. During the courses, deadlines are clearly discussed for you. If your child attended more than eighty percent of the lessons and completed homework regularly, he will definitely master the program in the specified number of hours.
6. The effectiveness of courses is easy to evaluate. For example, your child has been studying for six months, but in the subject at school they again got a “C”. Who is to blame: your son or daughter - or the teacher? Here you always have the opportunity to compare the successes of other students in the group and draw a conclusion.
7. At the end of the course, a document is issued: a certificate or diploma. You can hang it in a frame on the wall and thereby increase your child's self-esteem. Each stage or level of courses ends with a control lesson, based on the results of which you can also judge how successful your child is in studying the subject. Assessment in courses, as a rule, is more objective than that of a tutor.
Disadvantages of courses
1. You pay for the entire training period. If lessons are disrupted due to your fault (the child got sick or left on the day of class), no one will return the money you spent. But even if the payment is taken into account in the next billing period, the child will have to make up for it on his own.
2. The courses always have a clear schedule. Classes cannot be rescheduled to a time convenient for you. They cannot be repeated if the child did not understand or missed something.
3. Since the courses are group classes, the teacher’s attention is distributed to all students. Yes, there are much fewer of them than in a school class, but this does not eliminate the problems of strong and weak students. Those who are talented will have to move at an average speed. But this “average speed” may well be too high for your child.
4. Courses cannot come to your home. If you choose courses based on prestige, topic or price, it may turn out that the classes are too far from home.
5. When working with a tutor, the latter will take into account all your requirements. But while attending courses, you cannot make changes to the program. So, if your needs are too specific, you will have a hard time finding the right option. It is also problematic to eliminate individual gaps in a child’s knowledge during courses. You cannot demand that he be taught only what you need.
6. Classes may be too reminiscent of school lessons. If your child has already grown to hate standard learning, he will not enjoy it and will not try hard out of habit. Therefore, this type of training is not suitable for everyone. Courses help to structure the knowledge acquired earlier, but are not able to motivate those who are tired of school.