Teaching Tips

Here's some guidance on teaching to help you get started:

Encouraging learners to contribute

Your learner may be excited and enthusiastic, but may also be overwhelmed at the prospect of one-to-one attention focused on their abilities and efforts.

Potential Issues

Here are some of the barriers you may need to overcome in order for lessons to be successful:

Difficulties communicating. Your learner may struggle to explain what it is they are finding difficult or what they want to achieve.
Your learner may also feel a little intimidated and need encouragement to contribute until their confidence has been established.
Your learner may be unclear how to work with a teacher on a one-to-one basis.

How to encourage learner contributions

You can help learners to engage by ensuring:

They feel comfortable with you and happy to ask questions
Respect is shown and support is given
Learning is seen as an exercise you do together for fun
They feel their participation is valued
Any goals you set are realistic and achievable
Contribution and ideas are encouraged

How to open a lesson

Ensure your learner has a sense of how the lesson will be directed by giving a brief introduction to your planned activity and then asking open questions to confirm the learner has understood.

As the lesson continues

Ensure you:

Give friendly feedback
Encourage focus
Correcting misunderstanding

How to feedback to a learner:

Comment on use of particular skills
Encourage practice of neglected skills
Give constructive feedback and try to link to specifics
Be encouraging and friendly when commenting on work

Finishing lessons on the right note

Try to gauge your learner felt about the lesson by asking a few light questions such as "What has been the most useful thing you have learned today?" or "Do you have any questions following what we have talked about today?"

Evaluating your teaching

As you work with more learners you may wish to start contemplating what worked/what didn't, in addition to any feedback First Tutors: Arts & Crafts receives from learners. Below is some "food for thought" to help you in the process.

How well did I .....?	Very Well	Satisfactory	Could Be Better
Prepare for the session
Get the session underway (establish aims, etc)
Ask questions and prompt the learner
Handle the learner's comments and questions
Respond to the learner as an individual
Keep the focus on the main topic
Help sustain learner interest
Provide help when learners encountered difficulties
Ensure key points were drawn out
Bring things to a close and set out practice homework