Basic Philosophy of Tutoring

Understanding Your Role

Tutoring can be a very rewarding experience. It can give you the opportunity to make a real difference in a person’s life, and enrich your own. TLE will provide you with training, resources and on-going support.

Your goal in volunteering with The Learning Exchange is to tutor adults in essential literacy skills. This tutoring is accomplished through a series of successful learning experiences. These experiences give students a more positive self-image that is based on greater self-confidence, increased autonomy and improved competence.

Tutoring should be a relaxed, friendly experience. Be honest and sincere. Be yourself, take the time to be both patient and understanding… these qualities provide the basis for a good student-tutor relationship.

Favorable characteristics:

Volunteers often find these qualities and characteristics helpful in tutoring:

• Patience, gentleness, understanding and fairness
• An open mind
• A positive outlook
• A desire to help others and share a skill or knowledge
• Empathy
• Initiative
• Enthusiasm
• Reliability
• Confidence

Making the Match

Matches

Matches between a student and tutor are made based on the following considerations:

• Schedule and availability
• Compatibility
• Interests, experience, and skills
• Requests