Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Tutor vs. Teacher

Welcome to Week 10!!! We made it!
This week's blog is a challenge. Teacher vs. Tutor; how do you define the two? According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary, they are very similar.
Definition:  teach·er (noun):a person who teaches, especially in a school.
            tu·tor (noun):a private teacher, typically one who teaches a single student or small group.
 UCC Success Center


I found the definition of the two terms to be very interesting. I have heard many tutors say, "we are not teachers, we are just tutors," According to the definitions, we are both. 

Personally, I am going to college to become a teacher, so I found the previous statement to be controversial because as a tutor, we should be teaching.  These students are expecting us to teach them! In some ways, tutoring is easier; we don't have to set up lectures, create assignments or grade homework. On the other hand, our job is more difficult because we have to teach students how to understand the material in a different way than the teacher.

As a tutor, we are expected to have a higher understanding of the material being taught. We should be able to help a student understand the material and explain in several ways how to approach the subject. Most important of all, we need to be able to show the student how the process works in a way that the teacher could not.

 I would love to hear how everyone defines the two terms. Please leave a comment :)



Side Note:
The Doodle polls will be sent out on Tuesday morning to all tutors to get your availabilities so that Daniel can create a schedule for next term. If you receive a message from Doodle please respond by Thursday if you plan to tutor next term so that we can get a day that will work for most people that need it.

10 comments:

  1. A tutor is a person in a 'teaching' role at the moment, trying to figure out with the student how to solve the issue, and without the formalities of a teacher.

    A teacher is a person in a 'teaching' role for more than a moment, teaching the students how to do X, and with the formalities.

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  2. A teacher is as the definition states and a tutor is a more on an individual level as far as the teaching method is concerned. But both are more than that as well, they both in their own way do what they can to help students overcome individual struggles that may interfere with the learning. In some cases they even help build confidence and a desire to learn more.

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  3. The defamation of a teacher enplanes what they are.
    A tutor is similar, but teaches the student how to teach themselves the needed information for the subject.

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  4. I've always found when you're tutoring you are teaching students. In order to help a student you are re-teaching material that was already taught to them, but that you have to teach that information in a different way. The way that the teacher showed them didn't "click" so you have to try to explain it in a way that does.

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  5. I'm going to school to be a teacher as well so I have always felt that tutoring is great practice. We are like teachers, just with a lighter workload!

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  6. Teacher shows and explains most of the concepts and new by himself to a students. But tutor just help student to figure out and remember some of them, IMHO.

    PS, have a great finals, guys!

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  7. I guess it depends on how far back in time you want to go with the definitions! In modern times, I understand "teacher" as somebody who never gets out of the role of introducing others to their knowledge. A tutor is a part time teacher, somebody who serves as reinforcement to students. As peer tutors, however, we are not experts in the areas we tutor, we are merely students who have succeeded in those areas.

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