What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is to engage my students’ interest in the learning process based on their specific personality by exposing them to my own learning style and knowledge. In that sense, I try to trigger my students’ capacity to teach themselves by assessing their particular learning style, and connecting their own interests to the subject matter. On the practical side, I try to limit the range of intellectual exploration to the immediate goals outlined by the student (i.e. a specific outcome such as exam performance) unless going beyond that will help the learning process.

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

I usually have three goals during the first session: (1) clarifying the student's needs and creating realistic goals, (2) making sure the student understands the general idea governing the subject matter, and (3) identifying the student's learning style and intellectual personality.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

The best way is to help the student understand his/her own learning style and arming him/her with learning tools that will resonate with their style and personality.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

That depends on the student. In my experience, every student is very aware of why a certain subject or task is boring and he/she will be open to telling you what is not working if given an honest chance to speak up. It is the tutor's task to remain vigilant and sensitive to identify those reactions and to engage the student in a timely manner.

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

In those cases, it is better to step away from the subject matter to see why the student is struggling. The idea is to deconstruct the mechanisms the student finds difficult to process to understand why he/she is finding them challenging before trying a new approach.