7 Things to Consider Before Hiring a Tutor for your Child

I shared this photo to my Instagram feed recently as a reminder to parents that hiring a tutor for their child means the opposite of failing as a parent. It means you understand your child's need for additional support in order to achieve success. Now that we've acknowledged this, there are a few things to consider before making the decision to hire a private tutor for your child.

Your Child’s Needs

Taking your child’s needs into consideration should be of utmost importance when thinking about hiring a private tutor. It might be best to ask your child which of their needs aren’t being met at school so that the tutor could attempt to fulfil them. Don’t assume you know exactly what your child needs.

Perhaps they require a more hands-on experience or differentiated instruction. Consider things like their learning styles, motivation and engagement levels, or learning difficulties/disabilities.

Specific Goals for Tuition

Far too often, when parents are confronted with the question “What are your goals for your child?” during one of our registration sessions, vague responses like “To improve” or “To get better at Math” are given. It’s important to be as clear and specific as possible when setting goals for private tuition.

Your goals for your child can be short term (performance goals) or long term (learning goals). If you’re interested in your child simply passing a test, that’s a performance goal. A learning goal, on the other hand, will impact your child’s ability to understand a concept and make real-world applications. Ideally, the aim should be to utilize tutoring as a means of achieving both performance and learning goals. So, identify your SMART goals then seek out a tutor that’s well-equipped to help your child achieve those goals.

Tutor’s Teaching Ability

This might be surprising to some but it’s not all about a tutor’s academic qualifications. What’s more important is what I like to call the 4 P’s; pedagogy, personality, passion and patience. Pedagogy is just a fancy word they teach you at university which refers to a person’s method of teaching.

If a tutor doesn’t have the right methods for tutoring your child, coupled with a personality to effectively interact with kids, a passion for educating and tons of patience, the B.Eds., Masters or PhDs won’t be as useful. This isn’t to say that content knowledge isn’t an important factor when hiring a tutor. After all, the purpose of hiring a tutor is to bridge those learning gaps faced by your child.

Cost of Tuition

Even though there's a cost attached to our tutoring services at Des Ed. there are also free options available. For your benefit, I'd suggest exploring those options if you don't have the room in your budget for private tuition. This might include afterschool help from school teachers or peer tutoring programs.

Otherwise, find the most reasonable costs that your budget allows for or that you're willing to pay for a tutor. On average, private tutors charge anything from $50TT per hour to $75TT per hour for each subject. It's likely that a more experienced tutor might cost more. Some tutors even have tutoring packages that might be more appealing than the individual subject costs. Be sure you are clear about all payment requirements and policies regarding cancellations etc. before finalizing your decision to hire.

Availability of Child/Tutor

Another very important thing to consider before hiring a tutor for your child. Both your child and the potential tutor should have schedules that align. Ensure that your child doesn't have prior engagements at the same times you'd like to register them for tutoring. Tutoring should be included in your child's schedule as a priority, but it shouldn't completely take away from activities that your child enjoys.

You'll also want to consider if the availability of the tutor is efficient to reach the intended goals set for your child. Would your child require multiple sessions per week? Or perhaps a weekly 1-hour session will suffice?

Parental Involvement

If your child requires private tuition because they're struggling in a particular subject area simply hiring a tutor isn't enough to help them improve. You're going to have to show interest as well. Ensure your child is putting in the effort. Ensure they show up to sessions on time. Ensure they're studying the material given.

Outside of tutoring sessions, the onus is on you to be as involved in your child's improvement and success as possible. Even if you don't quite understand the work, have them explain it to you out loud. Children tend to learn best when attempting to explain a concept to someone else.

Reasonable Expectations

There is no guarantee that private tutoring will automatically turn a D student into an A+ student. There are several factors that contribute to a student's success, most of which are outside of the tutor's control. Classroom instruction, home environments, and a student's access to resources, for instance, all play a role in their success.

Achieving the required results of private tuition also highly depends on choosing the tutor that is best equipped to achieve the goals set for your child. If an unsuitable tutor is chosen or goals aren't identified beforehand you may be setting yourself and your child up for disappointment and perhaps even failure.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

At Des Ed. we provide a one-on-one virtual tutoring experience for primary school students at the Standard's 1-3 levels. The only requirement for our sessions is that the student has access to internet, and a laptop, tablet, or computer. Book a session today if you think Des Ed. works best for your child.