Isaac
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: University of Cape Town, South Africa - Bachelors, Economics and Law
Graduate Degree: University of Witwatersrand, South Africa - Masters, International law and Economics
Basketball, reading, soccer
College Economics
High School Economics
IB Economics
IB Economics HL
IB Economics SL
Macroeconomics
What is your teaching philosophy?
Depending on how comfortable the student is with the material, I have a preference for explaining concepts in completion and then working through specific questions that test understanding of the various complexities of what we have just discussed. I believe in finding as many real world examples as possible to ensure that the theory can be linked to current issues that we can both relate to.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I would ask the student to explain to me concepts that they would like us to cover so that I can gauge how well they understand the material. I would then look to explain the concepts in their entirety, paying specific focus on the gaps in understanding. I would then look to go through questions that address the concepts with the student.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
I would give some extra problems to work through before our next session, with the expectation that they would explain their reasoning and applications to me at our next session.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
I think that giving real world examples and helpful articles that discuss current issues would be a helpful way to do this.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
I would try find alternative ways to explain the concept, and find out which is the most intuitive and helpful to the student.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Speaking of economics, we would work through similar questions that are worded differently to identify the concepts that examiners are looking for in the questions. Hopefully this would help a student get a general sense of what they are required to know, and spot the concepts that are at play in various questions
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
Finding out from the student how they are finding the course and what grade they are looking to attain has been a helpful gauge for me to understand what the foundation that we are working from is, as well as what the expectations we can build moving forward.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
Finding relevant and current articles is something that I have found to be helpful. I currently subscribe to the Economist, and I have found it to be packed with helpful articles that I can send to students from time to time as a real-world application of the work we are going through.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
I regularly ask students to explain concepts back to me, and go through thought experiments that explain the content as we go about our discussions.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
Working through questions based on our current discussions, once we have established understanding, helps because the material is fresh and the understanding cemented. Students generally do better with these sorts of questions that we go through together, and I have found that this helps to build confidence from where we can start working on more integrated and complex questions.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
The discussions are usually very informative, because with having the student explain concepts back to me, I can gauge their level of understanding as well as their interest in the material. This helps me evaluate what the student will need during our sessions.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
I always try to see which sorts of explanations or discussion structures help the student most, and endeavor to mold my approach in this way. Some students need to do questions every few minutes just to make sure that they are understanding the concepts, while others would rather have a discussion for two straight hours to ensure that they have fully mastered the work before attempting any questions. I always seek to learn how best to understand how particular students learn and adapt my teaching style to that.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
I don't use too many materials during the session. Generally, I will draw a number of diagrams as we go through the concepts, and I am attempting to have a list of prepared questions that I can send to students before our meeting that they can look over and we can go through during and after our discussions.