It’s no secret that tuition is embedded in our national identity — to the point where the question asked by inquisitive parents isn’t “Does your child have tuition?” but rather, “Which tuition centre does your child go to?” Singapore is a results-driven nation, evident even in our education, and tuition is essential in paving a way for students to thrive in such a system.
Consider this — teachers typically manage a class of 40 students in a limited amount of time, and their primary objective is to ensure that the class is on track to complete the subject curriculum. While most teachers do their best to leave no student behind, the reality is that their attention is divided amongst 40 students, and the onus is on each student to keep up.
This is where tuition comes in handy. It serves as a supplementary reinforcement of topics and concepts that a student might not be able to fully grasp in school, but is unable to receive adequate attention from their teachers to address their questions.
Advantages of Tuition
Syllabus Familiarity
One of the most essential factors in effective revision is familiarity in the subject syllabus, which tuition teachers are required to possess. This ensures that tuition teachers do not digress from what they’re actually supposed to teach. It’s also comforting for students to know that they’re in the hands of professionals outside their schools who know the ins and outs of their respective subjects just as well as their regular teachers.
Real-Life Subject Application
Most, if not all tuition teachers already have substantial experience applying subjects in a higher education or even an industry setting. This experience helps tuition teachers gain a better perspective on the subjects they’re teaching that goes beyond academic results. To that effect, they’re able to help students better visualise the bigger picture of the subjects they’re taking, leading to a more holistic approach in their learning journey.
Pioneers in Results
In all actuality, tuition teachers are basically pioneers in academic success. At some point in their education journey, they mastered their subjects in school and know exactly how to perform during examinations. They’re therefore in an ideal position to give advice and tips on subject matters that even schoolteachers might not be aware of. In short, when you engage a tuition teacher , you’re receiving expert and often unorthodox help from experts in their respective fields who have been there and done that.
What Makes a Good Tuition Teacher?
With tuition being such an important part of everyday life, you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting the right tuition teacher. Apart from having the appropriate credentials and background, which Distinction Tutors rigorously verifies to curate its pool of tuition teachers, there are other characteristics that you should look for.
Passionate in the Subject
A tuition teacher’s drive to teach a particular subject should come from the heart — a love for the subject, the desire to impart knowledge, and a determination to help students perform better, even beyond tests and examinations. This passion is manifested in the way a tuition teacher teaches, and the willingness to above and beyond to help their students succeed.
Meticulous in Teaching
Apart from being familiar with the curriculum, tuition teachers should also be aware of how subjects are being tested in examinations, and ensure that their lessons cover those aspects. When tutoring a student in English, for example, a tuition teacher should not only focus on the written, but also the listening and speaking parts of the language. In short, all bases should be covered.
Mentorship on top of Tutoring
It’s easy to recite scripted lesson plans, but tutoring/teaching is so much more dynamic than that. A good tuition teacher is able to accurately identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses in their respective subjects, and tailor each lesson to suit their needs.
Tuition teachers also need to help students understand the reason they’re learning the subjects that they’re learning, and nurture an interest in them in order to fully embrace and appreciate each lesson. Effective learning is not about how many ten-year series papers a student can memorise, but the identification of the role each subject plays in their lives years down the road.
Distinction Tutors can help
When it comes to hiring tuition teachers, we do our due diligence in ensuring that only qualified professionals make the cut. This is down to the fact that in an industry as vast as tuition, there are unregulated tuition teachers who slip by.
Our team vets each individual thoroughly, verifying their professional profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, as well as their academic certificates, and even their personalities as tuition teachers. We also work with industry partners to manage blacklisted tuition teachers who are put there for false credentials and undesirable characteristics like constant tardiness.
When you request a tuition teacher with us, you can be assured that they have been scrutinised and are more than qualified to help each student realise their potential.
