How to become better in A level Geography tuition Singapore?

Whether you're a seasoned tutor or new to the A level Geography tuition world, you're going to know that each student is different, and what works for one doesn't work for another. This blog post is intended to give you some ideas on how to mix and match your tutoring.

• Cater the lesson to the student’s learning style: Most learners are reflective; they like to practice extensively before each tutoring session and like to have access to the material to be discussed in the class in advance so that they can go through it several times and feel confident about the subject you are going to cover. Others may be the complete opposite; by doing, they like to learn. For example, they may prefer to perform a chemical experiment on the structure of molecules in a laboratory rather than swat for hours.
• Keep it fresh: A Geography lesson plan of two or three lessons that may be interesting will cease to be so once the novelty wears off. Surprise your student by introducing new activities in a class (e.g. games checking their map pointing skills, songs describing a recently studied theme or poem, or a brand new app that helps them to put into practice what they've learned).
• Take a look at innovative new ways of teaching: Read about the latest learning developments; take the best of these new teaching methods and use them in your tutoring sessions. Spaced Training is a modern way of reporting great success. A typical class involves introducing a subject to students (usually through a 10-minute Powerpoint presentation) followed by a 10-minute break during which students partake in a physical activity such as playing a sport. Students watch the same Powerpoint presentation after the action-packed stage, this time with blanks they need to fill in. Three ' data output ' sessions are separated by two ' active ' 10-minute breaks during a typical class. The program may be new, but by embracing it, its supporters receive significant benefits. Clearly, the secret lies in creating new memory consolidation connections in the brain. Another new method of teaching is Engagement; It includes encouraging students to visit local businesses so that they can see what real-life topics they are studying relate. There's no reason why you can't integrate these systems into your tutoring sessions as a qualified tutor. You should not end your interest in your student as soon as the hour-long tutoring session is over.
• Learn from alternative education methods: The newest is not necessarily the best for some students. Find out tried and tested approaches such as the methods of Steiner-Waldorf and Montessori that are still attracting rave reviews from both teachers and parents.
• Be patient, be innovative: Many students can understand concepts faster than others. Don't despair when you notice you have to repeat things that you've already spent a lot of time describing. When you think your students having issues with remembering knowledge, consider using memory retention methods such as mind maps to synthesize and memorize large amounts of information using a visual approach.
• Be tech savvy: Many students now have an almost intuitive technology relationship; indeed, almost 100% of Singapore youth own a smartphone, laptop or iPod. Think about how these devices can be integrated into your tutoring sessions. There are thousands of devices, from Geography to History and even literature, on almost every subject you can think of. Don't spend the whole gadgetry session, but introduce them to a productive class as a nice wrap-up.
• Ask your student how you can improve: Sometimes it's worth getting to the point and finishing a tutoring course by telling your student if you think you could make it more helpful for them. Many students are going to ask for more variety; others are going to tell you that you are going too fast and they have to spend more time on the basics. You can also suggest ways at this point that you think your student can make the most of what you teach them by additional tasks that they can complete in their own time. And, finally
• Make it personal: You may remember a school teacher who changed your life, encouraged you to become more professional, or gave you the gentle push you needed to make it into college or your choice course. Perhaps the personal interest they took in you was what made this educator so special; their gentle appreciation of your situations, challenges and goals. Perhaps this teacher or mentor walked the extra mile to give you a book that you wanted or tell you how much they believed in your potential. It's incredible how the biggest weakness of a student can be something as basic as a lack of confidence in one's own skill and abilities.

Try to become your student's source of inspiration. Point out the areas in which you feel they are really talented; if they express themselves well, encourage them to write, start their own blog or try to publish their work. Often, the only thing we need to reach for the stars is something as basic as telling the student they're great.

One thing is to teach students to pass an exam. Developing critical thinking skills for students, helping them develop their knowledge of how to look at a problem and analyze it requires different skills.

The concept of critical thinking comes from ancient philosophers like Socrates, who encouraged his students to analyze the validity of their arguments by answering a series of questions that in their initial assumptions often exposed contradictions.

Critical thinking incorporates Socratic methodology these days, but it goes beyond that, attempting to apply conclusions made during discussions, solving current issues or even creating new models at the beginning of the class / discussion had not been envisaged by the participants.

So what is critical thinking?

The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) describes it as: "Critical thinking often considered similar to higher-level thinking involves individuals to participate in more complex processes, often related to the upper realms of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy: observation, synthesis, and assessment. This kind of thinking helps people in their search for greater understanding and responsible, independent inquiry.

Critical thinking frameworks

Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy may sound like a complex piece of reading, but it is, in fact, a highly practical set of learning goals developed by a group of educators in the United States in 1956, aimed at helping educators exchange resources. In fact, the context of this paper was much wider than they would expect, as it demonstrated the need to engage students in classes and tutoring sessions that went beyond basic topic handling.

Sadly, most classes concentrate only on knowledge and understanding, particularly at primary and secondary school; We refuse to dig into deeper analyzes, claims and experience gleaned usage. According to Bloom, learning must go much further, encouraging students to synthesize what they have studied and create entirely new ways of thinking and innovative solutions to problems. Furthermore, students should be encouraged to determine the validity of their proposals and the often-heir quality work based on set criteria.

Using this table to assess the level strengths of your student, concentrate on keywords and ask the right questions is a handy way to use Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy in your tutoring session. Simpler questions, for example, may simply involve checking the knowledge and understanding of your student – e.g. "When was Parliament established? How would the House of Commons be contrasted with the House of Lords? "It's easy to answer with simple factual facts.

More complex issues would include applying the expertise of the student – e.g. "What would happen if the House of Commons election process was changed?

Discussion – "Which arguments explain the House of Commons ' existence?”

Synthesis – "What changes are you going to make to the current government?

Evaluation – "Which information have you used to say this?

The Toulmin Model of Argumentation is another important model for educators and tutors in the classroom. It can be used in the writing of essays and is made up of several ' phases. ' The first stage is the pre-writing phase: the teacher / tutor will present a question / argument to students during this process and help him / her unpack it by asking more questions to make sure they understand what it means. Tutor and students must analyze the subject during this step and gather evidence.

Tutor and student will use the Toulmin template to make a claim, explain the claim's context, provide evidence to support it, and demonstrate how the evidence supports the claim. The third phase involves assessment: verification of meaning clarity, depth, relevance and accuracy.

Things you can do today to develop your students critical thinking skills

These methodologies will be very useful to help you structure your tutoring sessions, although you may want to warm up your student first by simply teaching them to delve deeper into higher-level thinking.

There are a few simple ways to do this:

Ask questions with more than one answer. One of the foundations of critical thinking is to understand how many concepts and statements that we regard as inexorable truths are often underpinned by subjective considerations. Socrates was a true champion of getting his students by logical argument to reassess their values and beliefs.

Encourage thoughtful discussions on your student's important topic. Your job as a tutor is not only to help your student achieve specific academic goals, but also to encourage them to think about a variety of issues, ideas and institutions in a more informed, responsible and profound way.

To promote critical thinking, incorporate topics that will always be discussed and ruminated by your pupil, even after your tutoring days are over.

Use important games of thought to pique the interest of your pupil. Many fun sites include Riverdeep Interactive Education, Don't Buy It (which encourages children to learn the news and make smart purchases) and Free Thinking Games for both children and adults.

Give examples to your student: Show your student a good piece of writing at the end of a tutoring course that shows outstanding critical thinking skills.

Teach your student introductory phrases that show critical thinking, such as "We must ask ourselves, however, if this is a universal truth" or "This statement may or may not be proof of ..." etc.

Be your student's model: there's no better way to lead than by example. Inspire your student with questions and study of your own higher order.

Encourage healthy discussion: If you tutor a group before or after going through a topic in depth, assign students to two different groups arbitrarily and ask them to argue for or against a topic. The best thing about this type of debate is that it challenges a participant to consider reasons that they might not agree with in real life. This encourages them from multiple conflicting angles to address one question.

If you're in a group session, ask students to evaluate the claims of each other and point out the latter's shortcomings. They should be given objective criteria to help them assess their peers.

The key thing is not to act like Socrates by the teacher, by pointing out gaping holes in the work of their pupil. Rather, it is to enable students to ask interesting, appropriate, valid questions, which for the rest would make them deep thinkers.

It's not always easy to teach. If a student is dissatisfied, you need to get to the heart of what makes them frustrated and disillusioned if you have a problem working with them and making progress.

I hope in this blog post you've found some inspiration. If you want to know something specific about A level Geography tuition Singapore, we’ll be sure to cover them later.