Learning Centers vs At-Home Tutors: A Sports Analogy
Along the road of crazy growth in supplemental educational services we’ve seen two major models arise: learning centers and at-home tutors. Although the underlying goal of helping students succeed in the classroom remains constant, the approach to accomplish just that is actually quite different. It can be tough for parents, already stressed out with the academic struggles of their child, to navigate the aggressively growing industry. We have the pleasure of working with both models of service and here’s what we’ve learned along with creative analogies:
Learning Centers
A helpful frame of mind is to think of learning centers as a sports team. The students are the athletes, and the instructors are the different level of coaches.
Most centers retain a student-teacher ratio of 4:1 or less. The way students are groups varies from center to center. Sometimes students are grouped by age and grade, other times by subject of focus, and in some case simply by students who seem to work well together. Compare this to how a coach places athletes into positions on the court or field. Once students are grouped, the instructor will begin leading the students through a learning system. Every center has their own system, but the system is created to add a structured way of looking at the learning process. The idea is to teach students a framework they can take with them into the classroom. Think of this as a set of drills that a coach has constructed over years of coaching. Once a player has learned to master the drill, they can apply that framework for the different game scenarios they will encounter.
At-Home Tutors
One-on-one tutors that come to a student’s home are similar to a personal trainer.
The tutor's process begins with an evaluation or assessment of some kind. This may be a formal test or an informal conversation. By understanding what the student struggles with and what has been tried in the past allows the tutor to construct their own plan to teach the student. Trainers begin the same way by having their client perform a physical fitness test to set some sort of foundation to go off of. The tutor then begins teaching the student using custom and unique teaching methods that they have determined most fitting to that specific student. A trainer that works with an athlete with an injured knee will use exercises designed for that athlete to regain strength.
Comparison
The question we are often asked: well, which is better? The same way some athletes gain more strength playing on a team for a coach than being trained with a trainer while others do not; it just depends! Claiming the superiority of one of the other wouldn’t do any justice. Students learn in unique ways and struggle at different places along the learning process. Rather, I’ll state the case for both models and allow you to choose what fits your student more:
Learning Centers: Teach students in an environment similar to the classroom and cover problem areas using a proven learning framework that they can take with them into the classroom.
At-Home Tutors: Remove students from the classroom setting to decipher problem areas and focus on improvement using unique methods for that specific student.