What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe in collaboration and letting the student find the process that works best for them. The teacher is there to help round out the student's understanding.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

I'd like to ask a few general questions to get comfortable with them, then a few specific questions to get a profile of their learning style and grasp of the subject. I would then get to the material pretty quickly because that's ultimately how I'm going to learn the most about the student's needs.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

My goal is to constantly develop this ability by asking the student the types of questions that facilitate the proper analysis, and to, in turn, help them think of the right questions to ask themselves.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I would try to set the solutions aside and treat the process as a series of smaller questions for the student to explore how much they already know and where they can go to learn more. Also, breaking things down into smaller pieces makes the whole idea seem less daunting.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

I probe them with questions to find the most similar concepts that they do understand, and use those to help direct them to hone their further understanding.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

I would break down the reading into the elements that they do understand, and have the student put the pieces together until it makes sense to them.

What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?

I test the student until they demonstrate the ability to handle the material on their own.

How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?

A student's confidence can be bolstered by allowing them to work with what they do know and understand and using that to incrementally enhance understanding, periodically stopping to take inventory of how far they've come.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

To evaluate a student's needs you need to ask incisive questions and spend more time listening and observing them than merely just giving demonstration.