How I approach Tutoring
Think like a Scientist
‘How do you eat an elephant?’
‘ – In small bites’
What does this saying mean? how does it relate to being a scientist? When faced with a problem you may have not faced before – like ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ – many people would not know where to start, so they don’t try. However, a Scientist would first think “how big is that elephant?”, “What tools do I have available?”, “Have I faced a similar challenge before, and how did I solve that?”, until coming to the conclusion of taking ‘small bites’. Will that Scientist necessarily be able to eat that elephant? probably not. However, they would make leaps and bounds of progress compared to someone who did not try.
So what makes a Scientist better at problem solving? No, they are not inherently smarter or better than the average person (I’m flattered you think so). What sets scientists apart is their use of the Scientific method: To put it simply, approaching problems analytically by first gathering information and then breaking the problem down into solvable steps. You may already utilise this method yourself in other aspects of your life, for example when baking a cake using a new recipe or ingredients you haven’t tried before.
Going back to the original question- ‘How do you eat an elephant?’
You may never have encountered this problem before and may have no idea what the solution might be but there are many things you do know, such as how big an elephant is. By gathering information you set yourself on the right path towards the answer, and can gain easy marks in exams. Thinking like a Scientist can give students the edge needed to achieve a higher grade, but also provides an invaluable skill set to carry forward in life and future employment.
Understanding over Memorising
Both understanding and memorising are valuable tools in education. but what happens when more emphasis is placed on memorising?
Some students excel by regurgitate a model answers with no understanding of the content. This method may result in apparently ‘good’ exam results if you are lucky, but what if those model questions don’t show up in the exam or are phrased slightly differently? What will those students do in the real world where there are no model answers?
And what happens to those students who have bad memories, like myself? How are we meant to have a chance at succeeding if all we have is half-remembered nonsense with no context or understanding?
Memorising can only get you so far without context and understanding behind it.
In recent years, mainstream education has moved away from this memorisation method of learning towards more of an understanding based approach. Trends in teaching methods fluctuate often, and many students today are still taught using this older method of memorisation.
having a good memory is useful, but understanding topics will give you a versatile skill set to tackle any problem coming your way.
Mistakes encouraged
No one likes making mistakes.
But what students – and people in general – need to learn is mistakes are fine to make as long as you learn from them.
There is no such thing as “stupid questions”
One day while working as a teaching assistant, I watched a student sit silently staring at the same page with their pen hovering above a question.
After a minute of this I asked “Do you need any help?”.
The student squeaked “No.” before continuing to stare blankly (with an ever furrowing brow) at the question.
Another minute passed before I asked again, adding this time “It is OK if you don’t know how to answer this question, we can work through it together.”.
The student thought for a moment- then, very timidly, agreed.
Rather than asking for help, this student chose to sit quietly struggling, until I intervened. This paralysis is a trend I have noticed with students a lot in my work, with the reason being a fear of asking “stupid questions” – questions that make them appear “stupid”. What many students don’t realise is there is no such thing as “stupid questions” and having the courage to ask questions is a great skill. In a larger class setting this struggle may be missed, leading to knowledge gaps and lower exam outcomes. What I aim to do in tutoring is to encourage students to ask as many questions as they can, to give them the courage to continue learning and asking questions in wider life.
Inclusivity
In England, 2.9% of girls and 4.4% of boys have Special Education Needs (SEN) associated with a learning disability, according to the Office for Health
Improvement & Disparities (2025). These statistic does not take into account that ~40% of children with a learning disability are not diagnosed in childhood according to UCL’s Institute of Health Equity (2018). The support that is being offered in school on an individual basis can be life changing, but on the whole is not meeting families expectations or providing improved outcomes for children according to NAO (2024).
In the UK, adults and children with learning disabilities were placed in institutions up until the 1970s. Society has come leaps and bounds since then, but people with learning disabilities still face a lot of stigma and discrimination:
On average, people with learning disabilities have worse physical and mental health, and die ~20 years earlier than people in the general population according to Mencap (2023). In England, Only 6% of adults with a learning disability known to their local authority were in paid employment (NHS Digital, 2018), compared to 76% of the general population of working age (ONS, 2019), according to Mencap (2019). That 6% then face a the median disability pay gap of 12.7% according to the 2023 census, while people with autism experienced the widest pay gap at 27.9%, similar to that of epilepsy (26.9%) and specific learning difficulties (20.3%).
This is an issue which is quite close to home for me, having struggled through school before a diagnosis of ADHD and Dyslexia at 23 years old, as well as having a brother with Autism. A learning disability should never be a boundary to success, and I am happy and willing to make any reasonable adjustment that I can to support your learning.
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