Professional educators

When parents first seek tutoring services for their kids, some of the biggest questions they have are whether tutoring truly makes a difference and, more specifically, whether it matters if it’s a fully qualified and professional classroom teacher. The answer, without hesitation, is “yes,” but it’s an answer with reasons that extend well beyond stating “they know the curriculum.”

But at a fundamental level, qualified educators **know how learning occurs**. Educators have invested years learning about child and learning acquisition. So if a student doesn’t get it, an educator as a tutor would not simply rewind and replay an explanation louder and more slowly. A qualified educator will first **identify an area of confusion**. Do they have a learning gap, an insecure foundation, a lack of confidence, or a learning modality mismatch. Educator intervention then becomes more specific as opposed to uncharacteristically overwhelming.

Professional educators are also experts at something called **scaffolding**, and that refers to the act of distilling learning into bite-sized chunks. Educators don’t put a student out into the deep end and expect them to make it back without help. Educators have a clear, consistent staircase that will lead them from confusion to understanding. It’s why sometimes a student will be like, “Oh, yeah. That makes sense,” after they have struggled with something for weeks.

The next unexpected benefit from academic tutoring by professional teachers from Chicago Home Tutor would be related to the smooth operation of structured and predictable routines within tutoring sessions offered by teachers. Children perceive predictability as an advantage, and so do kids who have been failing at school. Having a rhythm within tutoring sessions conducted by a teacher, including warm-up exercises and practice, leads kids to adapt and feel secured as they venture into learning without fear of failing.

The feelings are as strong as the intellect. Educators are taught to help students who are frustrated, turned around, and insecure. Professionals know what it means to see fear and avoidance and make responses based on seeing these things. Slowly but surely, kids will learn associated rewards with learning as opposed to apprehension and mortification. And parents will watch with satisfaction as a child who would hold their head in shame at assignments will turn into a child who confidently says, ‘I can do it again—I think I’ve got it.’

Professional teachers will also have an expertise born out of understanding **curriculum alignment**. They will be aware of the larger plan that encompasses a school year and will be able to prepare for challenges that lie ahead. Thus, they will be able to prevent the “crash and burn” experiences associated with new concepts introduced at school.

And finally, one reason that tutoring done by teachers is so effective is because they have **expertise and empathy**. A teacher will have worked with hundreds or thousands of students. And they will have seen every conceivable problem and every conceivable solution. So they have a confidence that inspires the students. At the end of it all, academic tutoring offered by qualified educators goes beyond boosting school grades. It becomes a process of transforming student perceptions about themselves as learners who are competent and capable, and worthy of success. When that mental shift occurs, efficacy goes beyond the tutoring session and into the future.