“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” - JFK
Nowadays, there is an increasing number of people who've considered becoming a home tutor. They can help students at primary school, secondary school, university, and even adults by offering home tutoring services in a huge range of subjects. In fact, whether it’s a German lesson, a guitar class, or even exam prep, each private tutorial or group class taught by a private tutor takes the specific needs of each student into account.Adults are no exception to this rule. They can attend private tutorials and group tutorials just like children do. Whether it’s a private tutorial at home, a support class, online tutoring, a catchup class, or preparation for exams, anyone can get better, regardless of their age. For the tutor, the teaching methods have to change as teaching adults is very different to helping kids with their chemistry homework or physics revision. You need to think about how to teach adults “well”. In this series of articles, we're looking at how you can start teaching adults, the differences between teaching adults and children, the advantages of teaching adults, and how to teach tutorials to adults in the workplace.
You really have to specialise and consider freelancing if you want to provide academic support and tutorials to adults. If you’re a good teacher, you can head down this path and start teaching even some of the most qualified students. There are a number of benefits to teaching adults as a freelance tutor, as you’ll soon see. A teacher can retrain to become a freelance tutor. (Source: 089photoshootings) It’s great being a freelance tutor, something which motivates a lot of people to do it. In fact, being a freelancer makes making these kinds of career changes much easier than they would otherwise be if you had a regular day job. Teaching older students such as sixth formers, university students, and adults is much easier if you’re passionate about what you’re doing. A passion for sharing knowledge is at the heart of private tutoring and tutors strive to help their students progress. Be it exam prep, their first French tutorial, or booster classes during the school holidays, you get to choose exactly how they work. Being a private tutor for adults is all about passion and experience. In fact, if you want to be a credible tutor, you need to have self-confidence and also a profound understanding of your subject in order to give your students the best tuition and advice. Adult students have far more specific questions than a child so you need to be ready for them! As a freelancer, you can make ends meet by offering private tutorials at a student’s home and even provide lessons at different businesses. One way for an experienced private tutor to spend more time teaching is to broaden their offering to include adult classes.
The Difference Between Tutorials for Adults and Children
There are a lot of differences between teaching private tutorials to children and to adults. In fact, even though the fundamentals of teaching will remain the same, the finer details are where the differences are most noticeable. Whether you’re looking to improve your speaking skills, find a job, or just improve your own skills, there are plenty of great reasons to get into teaching private tutorials. Whatever the age of your student, it's a good idea ensure your classes are fun and engaging. (Source: rawpixel)Teaching a child is quite different from teaching an adult. The younger a student is, the more immature, unpredictable, and spontaneous they’ll be. The questions they ask are usually more direct than those from an adult and it’ll force the tutor to change the way they conduct themselves. Adults are far more likely to ask complex questions and rely on their tutor for support, regardless of the age difference between the two. Tutoring adults relies a lot more on the dialogue between the tutor and the student than it does with children. For example, an English tutor can come up with a broader range of topics for students as they know that they'll have more life experience. In fact, this is one of the reasons one on one tutoring with adults is so rewarding. This is also really useful for teaching science and mathematics. It's much easier to explain complex topics like algebra, calculus, geometry, trigonometry, and economics to adults and biology tutors won't have to worry about explaining the birds and the bees, either. Discover online teaching jobs here.
What Are the Advantages of Tutoring Adults?
“To teach is to learn twice.” - Joseph Joubert
While we said that the fundamental teaching approaches will remain the same, there are a number of advantages of teaching adults over children. This is why there are so many business training courses. Adults don’t often need intensive lessons as often as children do, for one. An adult differs to a child in a number of ways. However, you goal of teaching them remains the same. (Source: Free-Photos) Unlike a child, adults choose when to get their private tutorials, which means they’ll be more attentive and focused than a child who may have spent the whole day studying. The rapport between the tutor and the student is more fluid and natural, allowing the lessons to be more constructive. An adult student will be better at assimilating new concepts than a child. This means that adults can learn in distinctly different ways to children. The key advantages of teaching adults are:
Ease of learning
The speed of assimilating new concepts
Curiosity
A genuine interest in their own progress
A passion for what they’re being taught
A real dialogue with their tutor
Etc.
Regardless of the subject, the tutor is teaching, they can create a more constructive relationship through deeper exchanges with their student. Whether they’re teaching Italian, maths, or IT, a tutor can delve more deeply into their subject when they’re teaching adults. Adults are generally more respectful in the classroom, too. They understand why they need to succeed and why they're being tutored, made the decision to get private tuition, and are ready to listen to your coaching and guidance.
Our Advice for Teaching Tutorials in Businesses
Providing private tutoring in businesses in becoming increasingly common. From general classes to specific skills such as team-building exercises and working in groups, anything can be taught in a business.Teaching adults in their place of work is a dynamic and enjoyable line of work. (Source: rawpixel) When you provide tutoring in a business, your goal is to give a group of professionals a new skill they can use in their working lives. You’ll act as a supporting figure and a guide in order to provide them with these new skills and knowledge. A lot of businesses want to find a tutor to provide instruction to a small group of their staff in order to make them more competitive. In most cases, these businesses will look at tutoring companies to help them. However, there's nothing stopping the best tutors from getting their foot in the door of businesses as a freelancer or independent educator and scheduling some lessons at a company. You need to have self-confidence and a mastery of your subject as the people you’re teaching will also probably already know quite a bit about it. A tutor teaching in businesses needs to be both a master of their subject and an impeccable teacher. In fact, when you’re teaching adults in a business, it’s important to maintain a regular dialogue. You need to know how to talk to adults and make sure they don’t feel like children when they’re being taught. That said, you can sometimes be surprised by how little knowledge people retain from school. The main goal of teaching these types of classes is to help the students progress. After all, the business wants their staff to become better, which will make the business more competitive. As you’ll have understood, teaching adults is a rewarding line of work which can be both complicated and stimulating at the same time. The tutor will find themselves faced with teaching challenges and the students will have to re-familiarise themselves with the idea of attending a class, something which they mightn’t have done for quite some time. Who said teaching was just for kids? If you're interested in teaching adults, you can create your profile on Superprof quickly and easily. You just have to state what subjects you teach and where you teach them. This will allow potential students and businesses to find you. You can also teach online tutorials via webcam using software such as Skype. This is a useful way to save on travel costs and allows you to offer tutorials at a more competitive rate to students.
The Quick Guide to Modern Teaching “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” - Bob Talbert Teaching, regardless of what you teach, is far from a piece of cake. Between the complicated process of becoming a teacher, preparing lessons, correcting exercises, and disciplining students, you can’t just become a […]
Introducing Games to Foreign Language Classes “It's important to have balance in your life between work and play.” - Bobby Flay Learning a foreign language is a challenging endeavour and introducing games to classes can be a great way to help learners develop language skills without them even realising how much they're learning. That said, you […]
Ways To Become A Yoga Teacher "The good teacher is the one who suggests rather than imposes, and who gives his pupil the urge to teach too" Edward Bulwer-Lytton This quote summarizes the principle cycle in the spiritual discipline that is Yoga: to transmit, to move, to guide. But like any personal project (or professional retraining), […]
All You Need To Know About How To Qualify As An Art Teacher Wanting to give courses in painting and drawing is a good start, but having the know-how is even better! How much should you charge for a drawing course? How do you plan your artistic workshops? How do you become known as a drawing teacher? There […]
How To Become A Chinese Teacher Is becoming a Chinese teacher your dream job? It’s definitely a job with growing demand! High school and college students, professionals, and precocious children…Chinese is a language that’s popular with every age, and the statistics speak for themselves… Almost a quarter of a million k-12 students in the US […]
Teaching Spanish: everything you need to know to become a tutor What’s your dream career? Have you ever considered teaching? What about teaching Spanish? Are you passionate about the works of Cervantes and Spanish & latino culture? Perhaps you’re a college student, or someone looking for a whole new career. Learn about all the ways […]
Babysitting Vs. Tutoring — A Detailed Evaluation Private tutoring or shadow tutoring is gaining popularity globally at a rapid pace. For example, more than one-fourth of secondary school students in the UK and some 28.39% of pupils in the US have taken private tutoring at least once. This is because tutors – whether for the […]
Setting your Rate for US-Based Private Tutor Jobs As an educational tutor, have you ever wondered how much should I be charging? Well, as of 2018, according to Payscale, an Educational Tutor in the United States earns on average $18.31 per hour, with the median hourly rate set between $10.16-$40.40p/h. Compared to the national wage, a full-time tutor's […]
Become A Private Tutor: The Ultimate Guide Are you interested in helping others improve their algebra skills? Do you want to earn extra cash on the side, teaching kids how to play the guitar? Are you a patient listener and able to adapt to new developments quickly? If the answer is yes to all those […]
How can you Get Set Up to Tutor Online? While private webcam tutorials have existed for a number of years now, some tutors still aren’t sure how to get started with teaching what they know to students! We’re here to help you get started with tutoring! Who is the Typical Student? More often than not, […]
Tips for tutors: Using Learning Maps Looking for some inspiration? Willing to try something new in your lessons? Many teachers and tutors have told us that they recommend Learning Maps (also known as Thinking Maps), so we thought that you may want to learn more. The purpose of this article is to explain what they are, […]
How Are Higher-Order Thinking Skills Defined? It was long held as true that humans are the only animals capable of thought. Only recently has that idea been debunked; studies into non-human animal behaviour indicate that animals evince episodic memory and the have the capacity to navigate terrain using landmarks. Some animals have even displayed non-verbal […]
Differentiated Instruction: What it is and How it Impacts Students, Teachers and Tutors Of all the buzzwords in education today, differentiated instruction is making the most waves – yet few teachers or school administrators in the UK know exactly what it is. Is it a new way to promote student learning? Does it involve major […]
Follow These Tips to Give Lessons in Portuguese The ability to speak more than one language is marvellous! Not only because of the wonderful mental and psychological benefits being multilingual brings but because of the positivity it brings to us as individuals and our communities. What's more, how great is it to have these native […]
Advice for Teaching Abroad “Teaching isn’t a career choice, it’s a life choice.” - François Mitterand The former French president is right. When you decide to teach, it’s because you want to transfer your passion for a given subject to other students. Currently, the number of teachers in the US is at its lowest since […]
How To Deliver Group Classes “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” - Confucius Providing academic support, group classes, or private tutorials requires a lot of knowledge and without private tutors, a lot of students would struggle at school. The tutoring market in the UK is valued […]
Tutoring Jobs: Everything You Need to Know to Start your Home Tutoring Business So, you want to become a tutor, eh? Private one-to-one tuition is known to be the most effective and productive method of learning at all levels of academic or creative development. It helps students build skills, confidence and enthusiasm in their subjects, three […]
How Do You Know Where to Teach a Student? “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” - William Arthur Ward Academic support tutorials are making a comeback for good, which is great for private tutors everywhere. Not only that, but they can be taught almost anywhere! […]
How Do You Teach Children who Need Additional Learning Support? “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” - Christopher Reeve We often say that teaching is the noblest profession in the world. It’s true that teaching requires impeccable values. When you teach students, […]
Ways to Teach the Drums So, you’ve been beating out paradiddles on your Ludwig or Pearl drum set for a while now, and you’ve gotten pretty good at playing the drums. You may have played at this year’s summer festival – provided it hasn’t been too hot to have one, and maybe you’ve even joined […]
Your Guide to Cooperative Learning Standardized education, in general, has long been under fire for several reasons; perhaps the main one being the unrealistic expectation that every student will absorb, retain and be capable of using the information presented to them in the traditional teaching model. The standard model of teaching – teacher talks, students […]
What To Do To Make Your Tutoring Sessions Fun? "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." - Albert Einstein The United Kingdom has seen a sharp rise in private tuition in the recent years. In 2016, at least 25% of all British pupils have had a private tutor, […]
Life After Teaching: How to Leave the NTS & Find Jobs for Ex Teachers Leaving the National Teaching Service is rarely ever an easy decision for teachers who feel that their time serving as a certified teacher in UK schools, colleges and universities has reached an end. Coming to the difficult realisation that teaching is […]
Ideas for Personalising Academic Support Tutorials There’s a Maori proverb that goes: “My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, as it was not individual success but success of a collective.” Keep this in mind when thinking about academic support with a private tutor. There’s nothing wrong with getting help in order to achieve […]
How to Find Sewing Jobs “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” - Rachel Zoe Singer sewing machines are doing well. In recent years, the brand has seen an increase in sales thanks to more people getting into arts and crafts and wanting to learn a new skill. Not […]
Steps to Becoming an Economics Tutor Surely you have a love for numbers, statistics and analysis; otherwise, you might not have selected economics as your major, nor would you anticipate building your career around economic principles. Whether you abide by them in your computations for a company or teach them to eager minds, you, more […]
How to Become a Personal Trainer? Teaching people to feel better in their skins and their life and helping them progress in the sports of their choice might be one of the best jobs there is. A fitness coach, whether they work at health clubs or offer personal fitness training at home, is something of […]
Life After Teaching: What Alternative Careers for Teachers Exist in the UK? Are you thinking about getting out of the teaching profession, in search of a change? Not sure what alternative jobs for teachers are out there that you can apply for, where to start looking for jobs, or even what you want to do? […]
Do You Want to Become an Art Teacher? "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. " Salvador Dali You might not be Van Gogh, but if you have an advanced level in painting, why not pass on your knowledge to budding artists? A study sponsored by the Guggenheim Museum proved that students […]
Reasons that will Drive You into Personal Training Personal training is a win-win relationship. Personal training is often focused on the advantage of students who receive this mentoring; very rarely is any emphasis placed on how the personal trainer benefits. Who wins? The student who seeks to get back into shape and acquire new skills, […]
Becoming a Personal Trainer is Easier than You Might Think Unfortunately, we can't just wake up one morning and poof! suddenly become a fitness professional after seeing a TV report the night before. The initial inspiration might come from there, but to truly prepare for this exciting career, you'll have to pursue it in a […]
How Can You Teach Dance as a Choreographer? A lot of Brits dream of being able to live off their passion for dancing. Thousands of dancers in the UK could earn a living by becoming an educator and finding teacher jobs. On Superprof, you can put together a profile in just a few clicks and start […]
How To Become A Drama Teacher, And A Good One At That? About Teaching Drama Many joke about the quote, "He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches", but ironically any teacher will tell you that teaching is far from easy and you need more than just basic skills. Yet, despite how tiring, emotional, bumpy and […]
A Guide to Cooking Lesson Preparation Have you thought about teaching your own cooking lessons? Do your friends and family often tell you what a great cook you are? Do you have a passion for both cooking and teaching? If you know a lot about cooking and teaching and want to share that culinary knowledge […]
5 Great Reasons to become a Tutor Whether you’re an IT expert, an avid cook, or professional pianist, everyone has a skill they can share as a tutor! Every day thousands of people in your local area search for passionate personal tutors to help them meet their goals and expectations and expand their skill set, for […]
How to Become a Tutor for German? So you speak English and you've decided you want to teach private German tutorials to English speaking students. You’ve mastered your second language or you're a native speaker and a teacher with a passion for passing on knowledge. The choice to teach private tutorials was an obvious one. Make […]
How Do You Become a Violin Tutor? Being able to play the violin (either as a soloist or part of an ensemble) is quite the achievement. The violin, which is often thought of as an instrument for the elite, has a bit of an image problem. Being a violin teacher is quite different to being […]
The Complete Guide to Starting Photography Teaching Jobs If you have a taste for the arts, why not become a photography teacher for beginners and start online tutoring jobs? You don't necessarily need any degree, a photography tutor is a job for those simply wishing to pass on a passion. In a few sessions, your student will […]
Tutoring: A Great Job for Portuguese Speakers There is a growing interest in the Portuguese language worldwide. It's the fifth most spoken language in terms of number of speakers, and has great prospects for growth. Unesco considers that its potential as an international language is particularly important in Africa and South America. By 2050, the […]
What You Need to Know if You Want to Teach Chinese There are 1.3 billion Chinese speakers, China is the 2nd world power, There are approximately 3.8 million Chinese people in the United States, Chinese is the 5th most learned foreign language (Mandarin Chinese)... For academic, professional, and even cultural reasons, every year, more and […]
How Does One Become a Japanese Language Tutor? Practiced by more than 127 million people, Japanese is today the 9th most spoken language in the world. Thanks to its impressive cultural growth, Japan is attracting more and more American people, who flock to discover the country's latest technological inventions! Many of our compatriots (and especially […]
Do You Want to Become a Private Spanish Tutor? You want to become a foreign-language teacher, and you’re thinking of teaching Spanish? The most popular foreign language in the United States, that means there are a lot of Americans who want to improve their foreign language skills! According to research on the linguistic skill of […]
A Guide to Starting Arabic Teaching Jobs Are you a native Arabic, from a country where Arabic is the official language? If Arabic is your mother tongue, then why seek a job? Yours may already be chosen: teaching the Arabic language in the US! What is the level of education required to become an Arabic […]
Teaching Piano Classes: Everything You Need to Become a Piano Teacher You love interacting with students and passing your skills as a pianist on to them. This is how you know that you'd love it if teaching piano were to become your main activity. So you're now looking to become a piano teacher with a […]
An Adventure in Private Guitar Lessons In the field of guitar lessons, there are several ways to indulge your passion while providing quality lessons to motivated students. Between traditional or online teaching methods, there are many possibilities to suit all kinds of teacher. 1st Step: Working Out the Prices of Guitar Lessons A music teacher, […]
How do You Become an IT Teacher or Find IT Tutor Jobs With computer technology becoming a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives, it’s hardly surprising that more and more jobs that make use of the computer as a productivity tool and everyone should at least learn some basic computer skills like using […]
A Guide to Providing Vocal Training & Starting Singing Tutor Jobs If, unlike many people, your passion for singing exists outside of the comfort and flattering acoustics of your own bathroom, perhaps the idea of offering singing lessons and inspiring others to learn to sing appeals to you. Sharing your passion for song and introducing […]
How to Make your Italian Tutor Jobs The Best They Can Be Giving Italian lessons is the perfect way to supplement your income if you are fluent in the language of Dante Alighieri. As a tutor of the Italian language, you would have the opportunity to instruct young and older learners – all the way […]
Easy Tips For Becoming a Yoga Tutor Yoga is your passion. Since you discovered it several years ago, it has completely transformed your life. Then one day, after a session, your Yogi asks you if you are interested in becoming a yoga teacher yourself… Excited, you decided to take part in a yoga training programme. […]
How to Get Started in Italian Tutoring Jobs More and more young people are looking to get into teaching. Certain candidates aren’t as young as the rest and turn to teaching after gaining experience by working in another sector. Whether you want to teach in primary or secondary schools or as a private Italian tutor, […]
The Manual to Becoming a Private Online Tutor Although private lessons via webcam have existed for some years now, some teachers do not yet know how to get started in their online tutoring. And it's easy to understand why! With this type of learning, everything is different: the material needed, the preparation for classes, or […]
Private Lessons Adapted to the Grades of the Child in Need In 2017, whether our educational system works is still being debated: classes are too crowded; teachers are absent, and there too many hours of classes... Who suffers the most from all these dysfunctional aspects of education? The students of course! Because they begin to […]
Tutors: here’s a handy guide to private instruction So you’d like to enter the world of private instruction and tutoring? Great news! Welcome to our group! But it’s not always easy to begin and to have confidence in yourself as a teacher… Your plan to teach is still just a project, and you still have […]
Tutors and Private Instructors this article is for you! We complain relentlessly about the deficiencies of the US education system. So we mustn’t duplicate them in the world of private tutelage! This is an important subject to discuss, as the private instruction market and tutoring services in the USA grows from year to year, attracting […]
Everything You Need to Know about Home Tutoring In depth review, targeted help for specific problems, long term support: more and more American parents are using tutoring services to help their children overcome challenges at school! How do tutoring sessions unfold? When should you choose distance tutoring over sessions in the home? What are the […]
How To Become an English Tutor Out of all the languages of the world, English is the third most commonly spoken language, the first two being Mandarin and Spanish. It is also one of the six official languages of United Nations. It is often seen as a lingua franca of the world thanks to the […]
How to Become a Maths Tutor Practical mathematics has always been a facet of human activity, as indicated by the earliest written records. Ancient societies encouraged learning Arithmetic and Geometry as a way to train the mind into logical thinking. Beyond that, maths was used by tradesmen and merchants in the course of their business. […]