As Malaysian parents, we love seeing our children excel. And by excelling I mean performing well in school, acing each and every minor and major examinations. This phenomenon even developed into a culture, known as being ‘kiasu’, which literally means afraid of losing out.
No offence, but I have to admit that it’s rather true that Asian Malaysian parents have rather high expectations for their kids, academically. It’s okay if others misunderstand us and make fun of us, calling us egoistic and a braggart, because deep down, we know that it’s all for our children’s own good, wanting them to secure a stable life as well as a promising future. To us, good results equal a bright future.
Nevertheless, let’s face it. Not every child is like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton or Thomas Edison. Instead, most of them are born ordinary with normal learning capabilities. To enhance one’s learning abilities, tuition is one of the most prevalent measures parents adopt. However, don’t choose a tuition centre based on your intuition. There is a myriad of factors that you have to look out for when deciding on one to make sure that it’s effective for your children and your money does not go to waste. Enough of babbling, let’s go straight to the point!
Class Size
In school, there are approximately 30 students in a class on average. That class size is BIG. With that many students in class, teachers can only rush through the syllables. They won’t have ample time to answer each and every student’s questions. Also they’re unable to make sure that all the students followed through and understood the lesson. That’s a flaw of schools and you won’t want your children to experience the same thing in tuition centres again. Therefore, go for one with a smaller class size, preferably not more than five in a class. This provides a conducive learning environment as well as more individual attention for your children.
Experience
Tuition teachers do not necessarily possess a degree in education. For instance, a Science tuition teacher could major in Pure Biology, Chemistry or Physics and a Mathematics tuition teacher could be a graduate of Actuarial Science. Undeniably, they are equipped with the necessary knowledge. However, they certainly lack in terms of experience. This is because whatever they have studied in the university were for them to apply in their respective fields. They’ve never learnt how to communicate with students, what more imparting knowledge efficiently to them. Also, they are not well-versed with the current syllables and exam formats. Hence, they won’t know how to guide the students to strategically tackle the questions, which is important if what one wants out of tuition is to score. Ergo, look for an experienced tutor, preferably an ex-teacher.
Teaching technique
In general, there are three common learning techniques, namely visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. You should identify your children’s learning technique before sending them off to a tuition centre. Firstly, if your child is a visual learner, the tuition teacher may use colourful flash cards and creative mind maps to facilitate learning. Secondly, if he’s an auditory learner, the tuition centre may have the teachers to either read passages aloud or play interesting recordings to capture the students’ attention, rather than letting them read from their textbook and take notes directly from the whiteboard. Last but not least, if he’s a kinaesthetic learner, he would definitely prefer hands-on activities, such as carrying out science experiments rather than copying lab reports. If you’re greedy just like me, opt for one that incorporates all three! For instance, a history class may be conducted in a way whereby the teacher first makes a mind map of the historical events (visual), play recordings from the event (auditory), and then either make them act out the scenes or bring them to relevant historical buildings (kinaesthetic). This sounds so fascinating that even I feel like going back to my student years. Just kidding. But you get my point.
At I-Tuition, we ensure our students master the right skills to do well in their school. Get quotation from us below and our tutor will get in touch with you shortly.
