This is a really common question and a topic that divides a lot of parents.

To be frank, there are pros and cons to either form of tuition and the option that’s best really depends on your individual child’s needs and how they learn.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the differences, advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

1:1 Tuition - The Pros

Your child gets individual attention and detailed feedback.

This has to be the greatest benefit of 1:1 lessons. However, it’s important to consider that not all tutors give feedback on a child’s performance and quite a few won’t provide feedback at the end of each lesson.

When considering 1:1 lessons, make sure you ask the prospective tutor about how much feedback is given and how frequent it will be.

Your child studies at their own pace.

A good tutor will always ensure that your child is learning at a pace that suits their academic needs. This is really important.

Ultimately, you don’t want to spend hundreds or even thousands on lessons that are either too fast paced or too slow.

Building a Home

With 1:1 lessons you have the benefit of knowing that your child’s lessons are building up gradually with the purpose of giving them a strong foundation in their key subjects.

Each lesson is a brick that lays the foundation for a beautiful home.

No Interference

Another benefit of 1:1 lessons is that your child won’t be distracted or interrupted by other students. This is particularly important for children who get distracted easily and don’t cope well around their peers.

If your child studies best on their own then 1:1 might be the best choice for them.

Cons

Whilst 1:1 lessons can be great, they do have their disadvantages.

Cost

If you’re on a budget then 1:1 lessons might not be the best choice as they are by far the most expensive form of tuition.

Academic Performance

Another disadvantage is that 1:1 lessons aren’t always better in terms of improving your child’s academic ability or performance.

For instance, 1:1 lessons inhibit the opportunity for children to learn from each other or to get tips from their peers on how to study a particular topic in an easy way.

Children often learn from their peers and 1:1 lessons take away the opportunity for your child to learn from someone their own age.

The Fun Factor

The final disadvantage of 1:1 lessons is that they aren’t always as fun as group classes.

During group lessons children bounce ideas off of each other, think creatively and have fun. The fact that 1:1 lessons don’t involve other children means that the adventure and exhilaration of learning with others is taken away.

As you can see, the choice of picking 1:1 or group lessons isn’t an easy or straightforward one. You have to weigh up the pros and cons and look at them in relation to how your child learns.

The Hybrid Solution

Personally, I believe that a combination of both tuition types tends to work best for most children. For instance, having some 1:1 lessons followed by an intensive group course provides children with the best of both worlds.

How Tutors can Influence Children's Learning?

People who spend a considerable amount of time with young children create an impact. For tutors, this impact has to ideally be about their tutees’ learning.

Creating a positive impact on learning – this is the motive behind every tutor’s curriculum. Making this possible involves several methods. It demands a certain level of experimentation in the part of the tutor.

Furthermore, tutors have to carefully consider the responses made by their tutees. These identified responses will help tutors decide if they are to proceed with their teaching schemes or hop on another technique.

The following sections explore the different schemes and themes essential in causing a positive learning-impact.

Show how fun it is to learn

Things done in the name of fun endure.

Tutors who are up against such challenge usually opt to devise a game out of quizzes. Tutees who are in love with puzzles are given puzzle-laden math problems. The amount of creativity involved in making learning fun depends in at least two factors:

Tutee’s response in these ‘fun’ learning activities
Tutor’s willingness to innovate

Show dedication

The tutees may be young, but they aren’t blind. They can see the hard work tutors spend on the tutorials. They are aware (though not fully-aware) about the time spent in creating, developing, or procuring learning resources. They might not show it, but tutees do know.

When tutees see just how much effort their tutor is pouring in tutorials, they can’t help but try their best. Several stories of dedication do create such a ripple of effect; the most famous of course is inspiration.

Exhibit critical skills

Another interesting variable that tutees could rub off from tutors are their showcased skills. As a tutor, do you make it a point to listen attentively? Are you receptive of all kinds of questions – both smart and dumb questions?

Listening, writing, and analytical skills – whatever it is worth showcasing, tutors must illustrate them. Do those in a consistent fashion and tutees won’t have a problem doing the same.

Validate virtues

At a tutee’s precocious years, they’re still bound to love hearing good feedback about their performance. But when tutors step out of the line and commend an exhibited virtue (like patience), they are doing more for the tutee.

Tutors may be bound to the rules of their own benchmarks; but they are also adults. And as an adult, their role to affirming virtues stays immovable.

Know the tutee’s learning style

To best connect with the child, tutors must see to it that they are well-oriented with the child’s learning style or styles. This information is guaranteed to save tutors from trouble. In most cases, neglect to realise the tutee’s learning style could result to a total waste of time: tutors offer a curriculum that doesn’t fit with the child’s learning style, or worse, counters it.

Making lessons that are attuned to the tutee’s learning style is not the only important factor here. Tutees must also be made aware of their own learning style. Perhaps, they could be interested with other learning styles.

Enabling the tutee to realise not just one, but more learning styles is probably, one of the greatest achievements tutors could have.

Evolve with the tutee

Finally, tutors must be able to show ‘growth’ to their tutees to encourage them to grow as well. This growth may come in the form of knowledge, skills, dreams or aspirations. In fact, a tutor can weave a path towards their own growth together with their young tutee. This path should be filled with opportunities.

In this weaving, it would be very important for tutors to prepare clear and accurate answers (in contrast to vague retorts or generalisations). With such evolution in show, tutees gain realistic insights and not just knowledge.

About the author:

James Harlan is an aspiring novelist and a young community leader. His commitment to do well at the university spans wide: he devotes his extra hours for assisting students in their essay assignments, research, and statistics. He merges traditional education with the trending online courses. He promotes lifelong learning and academic success through his contributions in the blogs, Master Dissertations and Oxbridge Dissertation.

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