Improving as a Tutor

[mathiverse]

I want to become a better tutor. I tutor computer programming classes and computer skills classes. I can generally help students who bring me code and have problems getting it to work. I can debug their code and explain what they were missing. I can also answer particular questions people have. For example, if someone asks me what the difference is between a for-loop, while-loop, and do-while-loop, then I can walk them through the differences and give them enough practice that they understand the concepts.

I have trouble helping students who seem really behind and who have no idea what to do on their work when they come to me. They haven't tried and don't have any specific questions that are blocking their progress. The analogy I would use is that I have students who want me to help them with calculation heavy calculus problems when they don't understand algebra. I don't know where to start with helping these people. The best I can do is to do their homework for them which is fine with most of them, but some of them get upset and complain that I'm not teaching them how to do it themselves.

What would you do in this situation? So far, I've started telling the people who complain that I can't help them, but maybe there is something better I could do for them. Also if there is some particular skill I can get better at so in the future I'm less stumped on how to help the complainers who want to be better, I'd love to know. I'm still learning how to be a decent tutor.

Extra context: I'm not a private tutor. I sit in a tutoring center and people taking courses at the school can come and ask for homework help. I'm not a TA or tutor for a specific class. Nor do I have long term tutoring relationships with these students where I teach them a curriculum.

[daylen]

One approach that helps build rapport is connecting with the tutee's interest. The associated skill being to translate their interest into byte-sized examples that relate to the problem at hand. Often this involves utilizing props or your surroundings to either paint a picture or tell a story (or both).

For instance, if I were tutoring loops then perhaps it may be worthwhile to tell the story of how to make a sandwich, fold a paper airplane, drink from a glass of water, or anything you can fumble.. preferably within their bubble of interest. This may even require you to ask them about their interest and learn from them. This can be excellent practice for blurring the line between tutor/tutee and mutual citizens of earth sharing skills, strategies, and understandings.

[ertyu]

I would say, manage expectations. By now you probably recognize it from the get-go when someone hasn't put in the effort to pay attention to lectures or the course material and now wants you to teach them 2 months of class in 15 min so they can do your homework. So, I would explicitly state that you can't teach them 2 months of class in 15 minutes. Tell them what you -can- do instead. Honestly, what I would do is do their homework for them while explaining very slowly what you're doing at every step. It will still be doing your homework for them, it would still teach them nothing (bc they haven't done it themselves) but it will make them feel like you've "taught" them and it will get them off your back.

[Crusader]

The problem might be that you are making some basic assumptions about these people that you are not connecting with, and as a result, they are not learning anything. I remember when I first started my programming job. People assumed I knew what a "debugger", "stack", "heap", the difference between a "static" and "non-static" method, "dynamic polymorphism" is... etc. And I would be too afraid to ask questions and so people I was speaking with had no idea that I was not understanding half of what they were saying.

So, if this a problem, I would suggest fostering a culture of it being completely OK to ask questions without them feeling like they are stupid. And, when they do ask questions, have incredible patience to explain over and over again (even if they ask the same questions all the time -> every time you explain, a little bit more will stick).

[jacob]

The problem is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

You must basically become an expert in "what students don't know". You need a theory of mind for someone's ignorance: "How does someone who does not know [their] A, B, C... think about this problem." This gets harder and harder the greater the distance between your mind and their mind.

Out of personal curiosity, am I completely off in assuming that the students seeking tutoring come in two different varieties. One is A-students who want an A+. The other is F-students who need a D to pass.

[ffj]

I would say that one of your most important skills will be determining where to apply your finite energy. Sounds like you already do this somewhat.

And learn when to cut your losses early, something new tutors/teachers/instructors have a hard time doing sometimes. There will be people that will try to take advantage of you and some that clearly are not ready for your course and both types need to be dealt with quickly. Because they will ruin your flow and attitude towards other students. Remember the tutor/student relationship is a two-way street and if the student is unwilling or unable to perform their end of the bargain then it's time to terminate the contract.

I was a fire instructor for new recruits for five years and I quickly learned you can be too forgiving in wanting to help people. Set a standard and stick to it and understand that because some people will be unable to be helped it is not always a reflection upon you. They have responsibilities too.

Unfortunately I don't know much about computer programming but I do know that many people learn through association and clear actionable example. You know, real world examples. Pressing button A will produce result B, similar to how something works on ones car, for a simple example. Visualizing models can help too. You could also develop a simple test to see where your students fall on their basic skills, which will affect your teaching style. And finally, learning some background on the students can help too. Where they came from affects their learning style as well as their personalities.

[mathiverse]

Thanks everyone!

Ertyu, you're probably right that I need to set expectations better. Your description of someone wanting me to explain two months of classes in 15 minutes is pretty accurate.

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Yeah, maybe this is a curse of knowledge problem. I have never been as helpless and incompetent as some of the students I see, even when I was first learning to program, so I can't relate to their struggles or see a path out of it other than intense one on one private tutoring with someone scaling the problems to their skill level which I can't offer to any of them. However, the fact I don't see any more targeted way forward may be due to me having a bad model of where they are at. For some, there are probably smaller obstacles that could be overcome if I had a more detailed understanding of what kind of mental model they have for programming.

Next time I'm tutoring and have some extra time with some of the students I have trouble with, I'll spend some extra time understanding what they know, where they are stuck, and what their background is. It seems like my problem might be that I don't spend enough time developing a theory of mind about the students I currently can't help.

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@Crusader: I'm willing to explain things, but I don't know how to figure out what someone knows or not especially if they won't ask specific questions or if they won't stop me when I say something beyond their skill level or knowledge. The students I can't seem to help are those who show up and don't know what kind of help they need and leave me to figure it out without any information. This goes back to a need to improve my theory of mind. It also points to a place where I can improve my questioning and probing skills.

Out of personal curiosity, am I completely off in assuming that the students seeking tutoring come in two different varieties. One is A-students who want an A+. The other is F-students who need a D to pass.

Yeah, either someone who knows what they are doing and have some small issue to sort out or some small concept they want clarification on OR someone who has no idea what the heck they are doing and seems to have missed learning anything in any prior class they've taken and/or missed learning anything in any prior lessons in the current class.

[IlliniDave]

Along the lines of what ffj said, one of the better teachers I ever knew insisted that students approach him with specific questions. The "I don't get it, show me how to do it," requests were weeded out that way. I used to do that with my daughters, and although it initially made me unpopular, 9/10 times in order to formulate a reasonable question figured out what they needed to know to do the work.

[7Wannabe5]

I have similar problems with tutoring math. What I usually do is help them with the much too difficult bits, but make them chime in at what I perceive to be their actual level. Another rule of thumb is to try to teach each basic concept three different ways.

The problem is that even with a subject such as math, which is believed to be building block like, the extent to which students are relying on scaffolding, pure rote memorization, or some actual comprehension of the underlying concepts can be all over the place. And, if you don't believe that AI is eventually going to take over, then you haven't witnessed the number of Gen Z pre-calc students who never learned to multiply without access to a calculator.

[mathiverse]

Thanks for chiming in 7w5! I know you do a lot of teaching, so I was hoping you'd respond. Hopefully, I can get better at the split level helping once I get better at understanding the actual level of the students who I have trouble with. Math definitely has many of the same problems that come with programming classes. It's hard to teach programming and math without those building blocks from the early classes.

@IDave: I will try this approach for some of the students. There are some students who may be too stubborn for such an approach to work, but I think there is at least one student who I might be able to help better if I force him to formulate a question.

@ffj: Your point about the 10% students who are frustrating resulting in worse performance by me for the 90% of students who are trying rings really true. I will think more about prioritizing and also I appreciate the skills test idea. I could probably come up with a few skills tests to help understand where students are at with respect to programming.

[jacob]

Along the lines of what ffj said, one of the better teachers I ever knew insisted that students approach him with specific questions. The "I don't get it, show me how to do it," requests were weeded out that way. I used to do that with my daughters, and although it initially made me unpopular, 9/10 times in order to formulate a reasonable question figured out what they needed to know to do the work.

To generalize that or provide the student's side of it:

When I was working on my phd, expecting my supervisor to already know the eventual solution to whatever I was working on would not work---well, that's just not how research works---so I would usually only approach him if I had a specific question, which happened about once per month. The specific answers were generally not that useful, but the process of presenting my case and me figuring out how to formulate a specific question and then trying to explain my problem him often worked to unlock the snag. His answers were generally not useful but the process was. I still wonder if this was intentional on his part or just a lucky accident from the combination of our two approaches.

For research, it's usually much easier to find good answers than it is to find good questions. So that's basically what he helped me to do.

[bostonimproper]

I used to do a lot tutoring in high school/college.

If a student is super behind, you really need to build up their knowledge and understanding starting from where the gaps are. So if the student is iffy on algebra but in a calc class— honestly you gotta start with the algebra.

Some students will engage with you and be thankful someone is FINALLY helping them “from the beginning” instead of letting them slide through only half understanding what’s going on. For those students, extra sessions are useful to get them up to speed. But with that they’ll largely be able to self-direct and at some point won’t need you any more once they have a good foundation.

If a student is not engaging— it’s useful to figure out if they are not motivated (do they not actually care about learning the material and just need to pass the class for XYZ reason?) or are they overwhelmed?

If the former, you have two choices: cut your losses (honestly these students suck to work with) or figure out some good rules of thumb to memorize that help them skate by on tests or assignments as much as possible but don’t worry too much if they ever actually “learn” the info. I had a lot of student athletes fall into this bucket. It was… disheartening.

If a student is overwhelmed and that’s why they are not engaging— help build up their confidence frequently with little wins. Be persistent. Follow up promptly about rescheduling sessions they miss (often purposefully because of anxiety/embarrassment/etc) and tell them how great they are doing and how far they have come. These students are the ones that most need help because of the mental blocks associated with doing a hard thing.

In terms of tutoring methodology, I prefer the three step method of: show one example, do one together, oversee as tutee does one solo. Always let the student figure out the answer themselves if they can instead of telling them the answer. Socratic dialogue method is very effective.