Thursday, February 27, 2025

Why is group tutoring better than individual tutoring?

Most parents want their students to have individual tutoring, this is great, but group tutoring provides 3 benefits that individual tutoring cannot provide.  

First, group tutoring is a much cheaper option than individual tutoring, which means a student can have more sessions during the week for the same cost.  If we think in terms of a month, it could be the difference of 8 sessions in a group verse 4 sessions individually.  The more a tutor can meet with your student the quicker the desired results can happen.

Second, group tutoring motivates students to come and participate in tutoring because students enjoy learning with their peers.  It is like training for a marathon.  When I had a partner to train with, I made sure I showed up to our scheduled running times, but when I trained by myself, busy days pushed the run to the next day.  I see this a lot with tutoring.  A student will tell their parents they do not need tutoring today because of all the other schoolwork they have.  So, they cancelled, and these are my clients that never really see much improvement.  They use tutoring to finish homework, which provides instant results (finished assignment), but lack long term results (mastery of the material).

Lastly, learning is the most successful when questions are answered.  Sometimes struggling students help each other understand the material better than a teacher or tutor can because they understand where the other is confused.  

I highly recommend finding a group from your students’ peers that are just as motivated and hiring a tutor to bring about the math results your desire.  Groups provide a great learning environment that will bring about long-lasting results for a fraction of the cost.