Why As a Tutor You Should Not Take on Every Student

English: A tutor with this students in the classroom of a plantation house. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Daniel Ceccon

As a tutor, you will regard your professional career as your biggest asset.

With it comes your reputation both with students and your academic peers. This reputation is the most important thing you have.

While qualifications can be earned relatively quickly to improve your skills, your reputation is much tougher to change if you have encountered professional problems which affect it.

One way to protect your reputation is to be proactive in choosing which prospective students to accept. A potential student is likely to consider which tutor they want very carefully, and you should do the same with them. A student who doesn't fit well with you can not only be a burden on your teaching job, but it can also harm their chances of getting the most out of their education.

It is part of your duty as a tutor to look out for the best interests of your students, and so if you feel that the personalities of you both do not fit well together then you must take the step of refusing that particular piece of work.

This can be better in the long run for both you and the student. There are lots of tutors available in today's marketplace so the student will be able to find a different and more suitable teacher for their educational needs.

It is certain that over your teaching career you will encounter people who have personalities which clash with yours. It is very difficult to reconcile such problems, and may be best for you to decline to teach that individual. Your long-term career prospects are more important than your short term jobs.

If your students don't trust your teaching ability they are unlikely to pay full attention to what you try to teach them. This lack of listening will lead to a very poor learning experience. If you are teaching in a multi-student environment, a small segment of students who have this kind of problem will negatively affect the rest of the class.

It is your duty as a teacher to make sure that all your students receive the best educational experience possible from your classes, even if this means that some of them are better suited to being in other classes with other tutors.

It can be difficult to know how to tutor some students - and these problems can grow over time. If you spot a problem student early on then it is much easier for everyone to rectify the issue at that stage rather than let it develop and grow into a bigger hassle later on.

Experienced tutors will tell you that problem students can lead to you spending 90% of your time with 10% of the people you teach, and this leads to worse academic performance for your entire class.

As a premium tutor you must be willing to decline to teach students who are unsuited to your teaching style, personality or the level of teaching you provide in your subject.

As your teaching career progresses, you will become better at seeing problems early on and taking proactive steps at that stage. If you're just starting out as a tutor then do not hesitate to speak to colleagues about any issues you are concerned about.

The way to enable yourself to become a premium tutor is to use a service such as tutor traits. TutorTraits.com have developed up a system that allows you, as a tutor, to position yourself in the market at the premium end of the tutoring market, in your own local area.

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