We assess every student on an individual level and approach them with one-on-one tutoring that focuses on understanding core concepts for application. That is the "The Thatch Method" of assessment. Each student is unique, each curriculum developed for that student with real world concepts in mind. Read the article below for a more in-depth look into our core tutoring philosophies and program beliefs:
What is Tutoring? by Dr. La vergne Lestermeringolo Thatch
It is generally held that tutoring is an activity in which the tutor imparts education to learners. If you ask Tutors that produce results however, they will point out shortcomings in this conservative understanding of tutoring. For starters, tutoring can never be a one-way activity. So to say a tutor cannot ‘impart’ education or pass on whatever store of knowledge he / she has to the wishful learner in a predefined regiment. Instead, co-construction of knowledge is essential for the tutoring drive. A tutoring method that denies this approach will not produce viable results. In brief, effective tutors see phrases like ‘instructing learners’, ‘providing answers to the students’ and ‘telling the learners what they do not distinguish but must do’ as the non-effective traditional method.
Effective tutoring must exemplify the three golden E’s: Experience, Encouragement and Expertise. The effective tutor focuses on the ‘process’ of learning as opposed to dwelling solely on outcomes. What does this imply? It implies that an effective tutor does not follow the easy route of simply providing answers to queries. The primary goal of the tutor is to train learners to arrive at, and realize answers by themselves. Take for instance a mathematics problem, a tutor’s job must essentially extend beyond pointing out steps to the correct answer. The tutor must make certain that the learner has grasped the underlying concepts for solving that particular problem and that he / she is able to apply it.
As highlighted above, the fact that education is a two way process is for the most part left out by the conservative definition of tutoring. Effective tutoring is not simply ‘teacher as preacher’, real tutoring kicks the ‘sage off the stage’ and the tutor becomes a scaffold for the learner’s cognitive development. Development as such calls for dialogue as opposed to monologue.
Dialogics or (dialogue) in instruction can be traced back to the first scholastic thinkers. Renowns like Paulo Freire, Mikhail Bakhtin, Plato, and Krishna Kant engaged their subjects through this powerful learning process. In context, this ‘two-way process’ accepts the teachers’ role as that of greater responsibility (though not authority) amidst the two subjects involved. Along parallel lines, psychologist Vygotsky’s research model proposes that ‘learning takes place through social interactions’ and that “robust knowledge and understandings are socially constructed through talk, activity, and interaction around meaningful problems and tools.” According to this school of thought, genuine learning occurs when the tutor promotes a two-way exchange. The question to arise then: Can a teacher really work in this capacity? Keeping in mind corresponding classroom situations where teacher to student ratio is quite high. The response must be apparently negative. Thus, the model evasively professed by educationists is unattainable in conventional classrooms. The positive however, is that a supplement tutor or tutoring program remedies these shortfalls.
Unlike the teacher in the classroom, a tutor performs the Vygotskian Scaffolding Function to the fullest extent. This in turn develops the pupil’s self-assurance, thus enabling him /her to tackle troubling courses. A good tutor sets his / her tutoring goals much beyond ensuring that the learner gets good grades or passes the class. The learner’s development into a wholesome personality is at all times ultimate.
The eminent educationist John Dewey underscored the significance of a child-centric teaching environment. He argued that it allows pupils to learn from their own surroundings, interactions, activities, and experiences. Tutoring in its real sense is based on similar principles. That is, to provide the learner with an opportunity to become socially empowered through a personalized curriculum. The end goal of which is to ‘lead’ the student to amass knowledge, in addition to perfecting the skills that are essential for everyday problem-solving (instead of rote-memorization of facts, figures and concepts).
