School Teachers Working as Tutors

[madmaths]

snoopy:

We are quite similar !!! :lol: My \"study time\" with my boy is from 730-9pm daily! My tutor is from a neighbourhood school. I scream at my boy because he makes the same silly mistakes over and over again.... :x If I don't exert pressure on him, he doesn't bother to register it in his head! If your tutor is good, do recommend to me! I am actually looking for someone to coach my kid in eng, esp compo writing/creative writing & comprehension.

pressure dont make us do the right thing, esspecially for kids, it makes them do the most natural thing, even if it is wrong. knowing certain grammar rules doesnt mean the child will naturally know what to do. it may seen so stupid to us to not learn such a simple thihng but in the child's perspective, he is also thinking why are you getting so upset over such a small thing?( like a spelling mistake) :scratchhead:

[jamestancx997]

The vast majority of tutors out there do not teach with a system in mind, and hence their tuition lacks direction and FOCUS.


A lot of them are also, frankly, unable to teach the subject properly.

Seriously, parents, I know the kind of people teaching your kids right now in schools. I know many of them personally. Just because someone is MOE or ex-MOE does not necessarily mean he or she is going to be a good tutor for your child. I know the good ones who were my peers before, and I can count them on the fingers of one hand, compared to the ones who seriously are incompetent.

A moment’s thought will make this clear: if MOE/NIE training is so credible, then why is Singapore a tuition nation? Why are the students having trouble in school in the first place with various subjects? Who are the people who are actually teaching in MOE right now?

I will now share my very frank answer to all that, because this is something people really need to know. I have a 1st Class Honours degree. I also have a track record of pulling up students’ failing grades to As in record time. So I have the knowledge, and I have the teaching ability. Most – not all! – but most of the people that MOE has been accepting all this time are the ones who get Cs in university where I get As. They pass with a normal degree, and some in fact don’t even have a degree. When they come out into the schools to teach, is it any wonder their teaching is substandard?

So, I just want to ask, why do you parents still think that being MOE-trained is still necessarily a marker of credibility? Also, some parents I have encountered clearly overestimate their ability to judge the merit of the tutor.

It’s worked to my favour before, but I would still always get a slightly bad taste in my mouth, when the tutor I replace is denigrated a bit unfairly by the parent. Honestly, parents, tutors do not claim to be experts in your own fields, so when you engage them, why do you claim to be able to judge if they are "any good"? Unless of course your own background is in education, but a parent who uses only the Singlish patois is clearly not in such a position.

[pixiedust]

jamestancx997:

..So, I just want to ask, why do you parents still think that being MOE-trained is still necessarily a marker of credibility?...

I speak for myself : because I expect a MOE-trained aka NIE-graduate teacher, to have knowledge of CURRENT PSLE syllabus and marking guidelines. Period. This, to me, is especially important for LANGUAGE componets eg. EL and CL compos.

[jamestancx997]

Hi pixiedust,


That is considerably less important than one might think for Language components at the PSLE level. It would be extremely relevant for topics such as GP, or other humanities subjects where the focus undergoes a sea-change from time to time, e.g. History, Social Studies, etc.

The exam requirements for languages, however, take considerably longer to change in a significant way, because language itself takes very long to evolve. If someone is good at English, he or she will score well, regardless of whether the exam is taken in 1990, 2000 or 2010. The minor alterations to the marking scheme are completely negligible, even for GP. If you knew of someone who took the exam in 2001 and won an Angus Ross prize, do you suppose that if today he or she were to write another GP essay, it would not be of a similarly high standard?

This "time-sensitive" component is very much overrated, especially when weighed against the reality that firstly, MOE teachers are generally harassed and overworked, and thus unlikely to prove the best tutors one could find for the money; and secondly, that in many cases, the MOE system is the cause of the problem in the first place.

I was very lucky. I came under the tutelage of perhaps the single best GP tutor in the whole of Singapore. My other schoolmates in JC were not so lucky. Whenever I compared my notes to theirs, I would feel a strong pang of sympathy, that was how bad some of that "official" teaching material could get.

[Chenonceau]

I beg to differ on 2 points.


(1) Compos are marked according to some very rigid criteria that one must know. Not all good writing consistent with the slow changing rules of the language will score well. Many parents are handicapped in not knowing these rigid marking criteria.

(2) Whilst language takes time to evolve, exam boards can ratchet up expectations very quickly. It is still the same language, but fast changing expectations.

Having 2 kids go through the system, I can't help but note that PSLE standards are as dynamic as the Dow Jones, with the difference that the Dow Jones often drops but the PSLE standards don't.

But I do agree that MOE teachers dunno how to teach writing. I am not an MOE teacher but I am able to teach writing. I just need to know the marking criteria and that is not difficult to find if you keep bugging the school. My son's English Teacher write sentences like \"I hope XXXXX fairs better next time.\"

[ridcully]

pixiedust:

I speak for myself : because I expect a MOE-trained aka NIE-graduate teacher, to have knowledge of CURRENT PSLE syllabus and marking guidelines. Period. This, to me, is especially important for LANGUAGE componets eg. EL and CL compos.

I agree.


Also, I consider the ability of a teacher/tutor to relate to and motivate children to be of utmost importance.

Assuming a core knowledge, it is not terribly important that a teacher/tutor has a first class honours degree; I would prefer HUMILITY and PASSION.

Rgds
R

[ridcully]

jamestancx997:

If you knew of someone who took the exam in 2001 and won an Angus Ross prize, do you suppose that if today he or she were to write another GP essay, it would not be of a similarly high standard?

If the person does not practise, then I would expect his/her standard to deteriorate.

[ridcully]

jamestancx997:

I will now share my very frank answer to all that, because this is something people really need to know. I have a 1st Class Honours degree. I also have a track record of pulling up students' failing grades to As in record time. So I have the knowledge, and I have the teaching ability.

Self-promotion. Be especially careful as there are people contributing to this forum who have higher qualifications and do not self-promote.


:celebrate:

[smurf]

Hi Chenonceau,


‘fairs’ is wrong meh?

[Chenonceau]

Yeah lor… "fairs" is salah…