What is your teaching philosophy?

My approach to student education requires achieving a comprehensive understanding of each student's needs to establish a plan of action to meet those needs. One-on-one work emphasizing areas where an individual student sees the greatest weaknesses is essential to improving student performance.

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

In a typical first session with a student, I would go over areas where the student feels they perform the worst, and why. I would ask for recent grades or test scores and a comprehensive breakdown of instructor feedback, or examination feedback to understand more completely how I could best help the student. If the student had specific questions already, I would certainly address them in the first session.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Students can be aided in independent learning by teaching concepts in a way that is applicable to multiple test-taking or classroom situations the student may encounter, rather than teaching a student to answer only one, highly specific question. For example, teaching the principles of writing a good essay is more important to a student's overall education and ability to achieve success in the future than is teaching a student exactly what points to include in an essay on George Washington.