I have learned from students who have tutoring experience, that the tutors’ job was mainly helping the student with his/ her homework, and teaching the material their tutee didn’t understand ( bad idea). The tutor is not a teacher. The teacher lectures and the tutor tutors. When the tutee didn’t know how to solve a homework math problem, the tutor showed all the steps needed to solve the problem and then the tutee solved a similar problem by mimicking the steps that he or she learned from the tutor. In short, I learned from these students that many, too many, parents and students equate a tutor with “a homework machine.” Parents and tutees consider a tutor to be a good tutor when the student’s grade improves. In these situations we need to remember that a huge part of the points the tutee gets on homework is not the tutee’s points, but the tutor’s points. Tutors as described above are really doing the students’ homework themselves which is a disservice to the tutees.
The main goal of tutoring is to help a tutee to become a lifelong independent learner. Mimicking the steps shown by a tutor will not help a tutee become an independent learner and will not help the tutee learn critical thinking skills.
