Tutoring style

First and foremost, I understand that different people have different backgrounds and have different levels of familiarity and confidence with maths and physics. As such I tailor my lessons to each individual student using prior experience of what works well and adapting as I get to know a student and how they work. I am patient and encouraging, always working on the belief that anyone can understand and enjoy maths and physics with the right support.

I take an encouraging and student-centred approach, meaning I use discussion and collaborative problem-solving to work with the student to discover and understand concepts, rather than telling them what to do and what is “right”. This places the focus on developing a strong understanding of mathematical thinking and physics intuition, not just memorising formulae, an approach I have found to be significantly more effective in the long-term: not only is a solid conceptual foundation laid, but the skills developed (problem-solving, analytical and critical thinking, estimation and verification) are useful far beyond mathematics and physics themselves. My approach is informed by pedagogical theory and refined through my years of experience based on what I have found works well.

I prefer to let my students choose the focus and direction of lessons, so that we can directly target the topics and issues most helpful to and engaging for them. This might include the student bringing exercises or questions on material they are currently finding challenging, or taking time to explore a question that arises during the lesson. However, I will also use my experience to discern weak points that a student might be unaware of, and so guide a lesson in a particular direction to tackle these. I find this student-centred approach most productive, but I can also provide a more rigid structure if that is preferred. This latter case might be especially relevant for strong students wishing to stretch themselves beyond their current courses. Nevertheless, I will still take a partially exploratory approach, encouraging the student to engage with ideas themselves.

Lesson structure

I am flexible in how I structure lessons, always adapting with the student’s best interests in mind. However, I often use a structure similar to the following: 

1. Brief check-in on how classes are going and the desired focus of the week (if not already decided).
2. Review of any work assigned from the previous lesson (if relevant).
3. Address new material, either through a guided discussion of concepts or through an exemplary problem. This may build on any weaknesses revealed from step 2 or on the focus discussed in step 1.
4. Apply what has been explored to carefully chosen example problems to reinforce understanding and familiarity.
5. Wrap up by discussing future plans and any assigned work (if relevant).