Choosing a tutor is not mainly a search for the person who can explain the most. It is a search for the teaching system that best fits the learner standing in front of you now.

Parents in Punggol can compare qualifications, testimonials, class sizes, worksheets, fees and schedules. All of these matter. But the most useful questions go deeper.

What problem is this tutor trying to solve?

How will they know whether their diagnosis is right?

What changes because the class is small?

How does tuition connect back to school?

What happens when the student already understands?

What happens when the student is behind?

What happens when the child is stuck?

What happens when the child no longer needs the tutor?

These questions reveal the operating system beneath the marketing.

Maya’s mother learns this after visiting several tuition options.

One centre shows stacks of worksheets.

Another talks about acceleration.

Another promises regular testing.

Another says every class is small.

All of these sound positive.

But Maya’s problem is very specific.

She is fast, understands much of the Mathematics, and keeps losing marks at high-risk sign transitions when she compresses too many steps.

She does not need “more Math” in the abstract.

She needs a tutor who can see the mechanism, design a repair, then remove the support once the trigger becomes internal.

That changes how the family should choose.

The 90-Second Parent Route

• Ask what the tutor diagnoses before asking what they teach.
• Bring marked schoolwork. A good tutor should use school evidence.
• Ask what changes because of the class size. Three students, eight students or twenty students are only architectures; teaching must use the architecture.
• Ask how the tutor treats strong, average and struggling learners differently.
• Ask how prompts are reduced over time.
• Ask how progress is measured beyond worksheet scores.
• Ask how tuition transfers back to school.
• Ask about homework volume and total weekly cost.
• Ask when the programme should reduce, change or stop.
• Choose the tutor who can describe your child with increasing precision, not merely their programme with increasing confidence.

1. Start With the Learner, Not the Brand

The family has a child.

The tuition provider has a programme.

The job is to determine whether the programme fits the child.

Do not reverse the logic and force the child into the programme because the programme is famous.

2. “Best Tutor” Is an Incomplete Question

Best for whom?

Primary 3 Science?

Secondary 4 A-Math?

Strong writer who needs argument?

Weak reader who needs decoding and vocabulary?

Careful student who cannot finish papers?

Fit is conditional.

3. Ask: What Do You Diagnose Before You Teach?

A useful tutor should want evidence.

Marked paper.

School feedback.

Recent homework.

Student explanation.

A fresh task.

Without diagnosis, tuition easily becomes generic coverage.

4. Ask: How Do You Find the First Weak Link?

If a child is “weak in Math”, what does that mean?

Number fluency?

Fractions?

Algebra?

Representation?

Method selection?

Checking?

Time?

Use How Tuition Works | The Weak Link for the deeper diagnostic model.

5. Ask: What Evidence Would Change Your Diagnosis?

A confident tutor should still be correctable.

“We think the issue is retrieval. If a fresh delayed task shows retrieval is stable, we will revise the hypothesis.”

Good.

Teaching should update when evidence changes.

6. Ask: What Happens When the Student Is Already Strong?

More worksheets?

Or deeper reasoning?

Another method?

Transfer?

Precision?

Independence?

A strong learner needs stretch, not automatic acceleration. See When the Child Is Already Doing Well.

7. Ask: What Happens When the Student Is Behind?

Can the tutor go backwards?

If Secondary algebra is failing because fractions are unstable, will the programme repair fractions?

Or will it continue marching through the current chapter?

Dependency repair matters.

8. Ask: What Changes Because the Class Is Small?

Small-group tuition should produce more visibility.

More observation.

More individual feedback.

More opportunity for student explanation.

More independent intervals.

If the only difference is fewer chairs, the architecture is underused.

See Inside a 3-Pax Tuition Class in Punggol.

9. Ask: How Do You Prevent a Small Group Becoming a Small Lecture?

Students should produce work.

Solve.

Explain.

Write.

Retrieve.

Check.

A tutor cannot diagnose a student who is mostly listening.

10. Ask: How Do You Use Peer Learning?

Peer explanation can expose different methods and assumptions.

But the strong learner should not become a permanent assistant teacher.

Group learning needs structure.

11. Ask: How Do You Keep Every Student Visible?

Who has spoken?

Who has solved independently?

Who is waiting?

Who is hiding behind another student’s answer?

Visibility is an instructional responsibility.

12. Ask: How Do You Use Marked School Papers?

The tutor should not only look at the score.

Where are the errors?

Which are repeated?

Which happened under time?

Which are content?

Which are performance?

School papers are external evidence.

13. Ask: How Do You Connect Tuition Back to School?

School is the main transfer environment.

Tuition should make school more usable.

Better understanding.

Better corrections.

Better questions.

More independent work.

Better performance.

14. Ask: What Happens if Tuition Work Is Excellent but School Work Is Not?

This contradiction is important.

Maybe tuition is over-scaffolded.

Maybe school papers are more mixed.

Maybe time pressure is the difference.

A serious tutor investigates instead of dismissing the school result.

15. Ask: How Do You Test Transfer?

Change the numbers.

Change the wording.

Change the context.

Remove the chapter label.

Delay the retest.

Reduce prompting.

Transfer needs unfamiliarity.

16. Ask: How Do You Fade Help?

First:

prompt.

Then:

partial prompt.

Then:

silence.

If the student still succeeds, the teaching has moved inward.

17. Ask: What Does Independence Look Like Here?

Can the learner start?

Choose a method?

Execute?

Check?

Recover when stuck?

Finish?

These are useful independence markers.

18. Ask: What Happens When the Student Gets Stuck?

Immediate answer?

Hint?

Question?

Wait time?

Change representation?

A tutor should know when to intervene and when to preserve productive struggle.

See How Tuition Works | The Intervention Threshold.

19. Ask: How Do You Teach Recovery?

A student should not collapse when one question refuses to open.

Clarify.

Retrieve.

Represent.

Try.

Mark.

Move.

Return.

Recovery is a transferable skill.

20. Ask: How Much Homework Do You Give and Why?

Homework should have a job.

Retrieval?

Fluency?

Transfer?

Writing?

Exam practice?

Volume without purpose is not rigour.

21. Ask: What Happens During a Heavy School Week?

Can homework adjust?

Or is the programme rigid regardless of school projects, tests and CCA?

The learner lives in one week, not separate institutional calendars.

22. Ask: How Do You Know When Practice Has Reached Diminishing Returns?

Five questions reveal.

Ten stabilise.

Thirty may add little.

A good tutor knows when to change the cognitive job.

23. Ask: What Do You Do Instead of More Repetition?

Transfer.

Explanation.

Creation.

Mixed practice.

Timed work.

Alternative method.

Depth.

24. Ask: How Do You Measure Progress?

Marks.

Yes.

But also:

error frequency.

prompt level.

homework friction.

school transfer.

retention.

independence.

See How Parents Can Tell Tuition Is Working.

25. Ask: What Would Make You Change the Plan?

If the answer is “nothing”, be cautious.

Teaching should be correctable.

26. Ask: How Often Do You Review the Current Job?

Six weeks?

End of term?

After the next school assessment?

Recurring tuition needs decision points.

27. Ask: When Should Frequency Reduce?

If foundation repair stabilises, perhaps weekly intensity becomes maintenance.

Support should adapt to success.

28. Ask: When Should Tuition Stop?

This is one of the most revealing questions.

Good answer:

when the original job is complete, school is stable, and the learner can operate independently enough without the programme.

See How Tuition Works | The Exit Ramp.

29. Ask: What Happens if Tuition Is Not Working?

Change method?

Frequency?

Format?

Tutor?

Stop?

A serious provider should be able to imagine redesign.

See When Tuition Is Not Working.

30. Ask: What Tuition Should Never Replace?

Sleep.

School.

Independent learning.

Family.

Reading.

CCA.

Play.

See What Tuition Should Never Replace.

31. Ask About the Tutor’s Continuity

Will the same experienced tutor see the learner over time?

Continuity can improve diagnosis because the tutor compares the student against their own history.

But continuity only matters if the model keeps updating.

32. Ask How the Tutor Records Learning History

What was the old weak link?

What intervention worked?

What returned?

What is now stable?

A learning system benefits from memory.

33. Ask How the Tutor Avoids Freezing the Child Into an Old Label

“Always careless.”

“Always weak at writing.”

“Always slow.”

Children change.

Good tutors update descriptions.

34. Ask How the Tutor Handles Fast Students

Maya moves quickly.

Does the tutor slow her everywhere?

That would destroy a strength.

Better:

add friction at known high-risk points.

35. Ask How the Tutor Handles Deep Students

Hana sees many possibilities.

Does the tutor praise endless elaboration?

Or teach scope, evidence and completion?

Depth needs control.

36. Ask How the Tutor Handles Creative Students

Jia Jun generates ideas.

Does the tutor force formulaic writing?

Or give creativity enough structure to finish?

Strong teaching protects the strength while repairing its risk.

37. Ask How the Tutor Handles Careful Students

Ethan checks everything.

Does the tutor simply say “faster”?

Or teach risk-based checking and movement thresholds?

Care should become efficient, not disappear.

38. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Describe Different Learners Differently

If every student receives the same diagnosis, the system lacks resolution.

39. Ask How the Tutor Uses One Discriminating Question

Sometimes one question can separate two causes.

“Can you do it if I read the question aloud?”

If yes, subject knowledge may be present while reading access is the bottleneck.

High-resolution diagnosis saves time.

40. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Say “I Was Wrong”

This is a strength.

Evidence changed.

Model updates.

Education should be correctable.

41. Ask About Subject-Specific Expertise

Primary English, Secondary Mathematics, A-Math and Science demand different knowledge structures.

General teaching skill matters.

So does subject expertise.

42. Ask Whether the Tutor Understands the Current Singapore Curriculum and Examination Context

Families should expect teaching to align with the student’s actual school stage and current assessment demands.

Outdated examination assumptions create noise.

43. Ask How Early Exam Pressure Enters the Programme

Primary 1 should not feel like Primary 6.

Secondary 1 should not feel like Secondary 4.

Each developmental stage has its own job.

44. Ask How the Tutor Transitions From Learning to Performance

Early:

understand and practise.

Later:

mix, retrieve and transfer.

Exam period:

time, completion, checking and recovery.

See How Examination Performance Works.

45. Ask How the Tutor Uses Past Papers

Not simply:

more papers.

Use them to diagnose mixed recognition, timing, answer form and error distribution.

46. Ask How the Tutor Prevents Memorising the Paper

A paper repeated too soon can produce a false score.

Fresh evidence matters.

47. Ask How the Tutor Trains Time

“Work faster” is not a system.

Section budgets.

Movement rules.

Checking order.

Question selection.

See Exam Time Management.

48. Ask How the Tutor Analyses Careless Mistakes

“Be careful” is low resolution.

Skipped sign?

Wrong base?

Answer changed without evidence?

Copied number?

Mechanisms matter.

49. Ask How the Tutor Prioritises

When five weaknesses exist, which is first?

Frequency.

Dependency.

Mark impact.

Time impact.

Repairability.

See How Tuition Works | The Priority Queue.

50. Ask How the Tutor Decides What Not to Teach Today

This is a sophisticated question.

Good teaching is selective.

Not every weakness deserves equal attention at once.

51. Ask About Student Talk Time

How much of the lesson does the student explain, reason, write and solve?

Learning requires production.

52. Ask About Tutor Talk Time

Direct explanation is valuable.

But constant explanation can crowd out learner thinking.

Balance should follow the task.

53. Ask About Wait Time

Does the tutor give the student enough time to think before rescuing?

Strong learners especially may need intellectual space.

54. Ask About Question Quality

Why?

How do you know?

What else?

What would make that wrong?

Can you explain another way?

Good questions make thinking visible.

55. Ask About Feedback Quality

“Wrong.”

Too little.

“The method is correct; the error begins when the original quantity is replaced by the new base.”

Useful.

56. Ask Whether Feedback Produces a Next Action

A comment should change the next attempt.

57. Ask Whether the Tutor Retests the Feedback

Correction today.

Fresh task next week.

No prompt.

Did it stick?

58. Ask How the Tutor Handles Student Confidence

Overconfidence needs calibrated scepticism.

Underconfidence needs calibrated trust.

The aim is confidence aligned with evidence.

59. Ask How the Tutor Handles Anxiety Around Mistakes

Students need enough safety to reveal uncertainty.

Hidden mistakes cannot be diagnosed.

60. Ask How the Tutor Handles Perfectionism

High standards need completion conditions.

Strong work should finish.

61. Ask How the Tutor Handles Avoidance

Is the student avoiding because of weak routine?

Because the task is genuinely blocked?

Because the week is overloaded?

Diagnosis again.

62. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Behaviour From Capability

“Did not do homework” and “cannot do the concept” are different problems.

63. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Content From Performance

Knows the method but runs out of time?

Do not reteach the whole chapter.

Train performance.

64. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Fluency From Understanding

Understands slowly?

Perhaps practice.

Fast but shallow?

Perhaps depth.

Same score can hide different mechanisms.

65. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Reading From Subject Knowledge

If the child answers correctly when the question is read aloud, that matters.

66. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Memory From Method

Cannot retrieve formula?

Different from not understanding why it applies.

67. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Method From Selection

Knows three methods but chooses the wrong one?

Teach recognition and decision, not another method.

68. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Checking From Over-Checking

Some students need more checking.

Others need less.

69. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Challenge From Overload

Hard work can be useful.

Permanent saturation is different.

70. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Distinguish Stretch From Acceleration

Depth, transfer, creation and independence can all stretch without racing ahead.

71. Ask About the Weekly Load

Class time.

Travel.

Homework.

School commitments.

CCA.

Sleep.

Tuition must fit the real system.

72. Ask What Happens During Examination Season

Does tuition expand uncontrollably?

Or become more selective?

Late-stage learning should often compress.

73. Ask What Happens After Examinations

Recovery?

Review?

Immediate escalation?

A healthy system has seasons.

74. Ask What Happens During Holidays

Repair?

Stretch?

Rest?

A good tutor should understand that not every available hour must become tuition.

75. Ask How the Tutor Protects Reading

Especially for English.

Do not let worksheets crowd out the language exposure that helps create strong readers.

76. Ask How the Tutor Protects Sleep

If the class only works by regularly pushing bedtime late, the family should count that cost.

77. Ask How the Tutor Protects School

Tuition should complement, not force the student to choose which teacher’s system to follow every day.

78. Ask How the Tutor Protects the Child’s Own Learning

See What Tuition Should Never Replace.

79. Ask About Communication With Parents

Enough information to understand current job and progress.

Not so much that parents become remote lesson managers.

80. Ask What a Useful Parent Update Contains

Current weak link.

Current intervention.

Current evidence.

Next retest.

Simple.

81. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Explain Progress Without Hiding Behind Marks

Marks matter.

But if a score is flat, what else changed?

Completion?

Prompt level?

Error type?

Difficulty?

Interpretation matters.

82. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Explain a Rising Mark

What mechanism improved?

Can it repeat?

Was the paper comparable?

A score should have a story.

83. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Explain a Falling Mark

Harder paper?

New topic?

Old dependency?

Time?

Overload?

Do not jump immediately to “needs more tuition”.

84. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Say “No Tuition Needed”

This is another revealing question.

A responsible tutor should be able to imagine that school and independent learning are sufficient for some students.

85. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Recommend Another Format

One-to-one?

Another group?

Specialist assessment?

No tuition?

The child should determine the format, not the business model.

86. Ask Whether the Tutor Has an Exit Ramp

Good support should have a way to become less necessary.

87. Ask Whether the Tutor Has a Failure Condition

If no transfer after the agreed review period, what happens?

A programme without failure logic can continue forever.

88. Ask Whether the Tutor Has a Success Condition

What would make the current job complete?

89. Ask Whether the Tutor Can Change Jobs

Foundation repaired.

Now perhaps exam performance.

Strong student stabilised.

Now perhaps stretch.

Make the transition explicit.

90. Ask How the Tutor Uses the Child’s Strengths

Strong oral language can support writing.

Strong visual reasoning can support Mathematics representation.

Strength is instructional capital.

91. Ask How the Tutor Prevents Strength From Becoming Risk

Speed becomes rushing.

Depth becomes excess.

Creativity becomes drift.

Care becomes slowness.

Training should add control.

92. Ask How the Tutor Builds Metacognition

Can the student say:

what went wrong?

why?

what to do next?

This is a powerful long-term outcome.

93. Ask How the Tutor Builds Self-Diagnosis

At first, adults see the problem.

Later, the learner should see more of it.

94. Ask How the Tutor Builds Priority

When several issues exist, what gets repaired first?

The student should gradually learn this too.

95. Ask How the Tutor Builds Review

What changed?

What remains?

What should retire?

Experience should alter the plan.

96. The Learning Loop

Read → Diagnose → Prioritise → Repair → Practise → Connect → Perform → Review.

A strong tutor should be able to explain where the learner currently sits in this loop.

97. Read

Collect evidence before intervention.

98. Diagnose

Name the mechanism.

99. Prioritise

Choose the highest-leverage job.

100. Repair

Teach specifically.

101. Practise

Stabilise without drowning the student.

102. Connect

Vary context and representation.

103. Perform

School, homework and examination.

104. Review

Update the learner model.

105. Parents Should Hear This Logic in the Tutor’s Answers

Not necessarily these exact words.

But the system should be visible.

106. The Best Consultation Is Not a Sales Pitch

It is a fit conversation.

What is the child like?

What evidence exists?

What problem is active?

What support would help?

107. A Tutor Who Asks Good Questions Before Talking About Their Programme Is Giving Useful Information

They are trying to understand the learner.

108. A Tutor Who Immediately Recommends Maximum Frequency Before Seeing Evidence Deserves More Questions

Maybe the recommendation is right.

But it should have a reason.

109. Parents Should Bring the Child’s Actual Work

One marked paper can be more informative than a long description.

110. Parents Should Bring the Child’s Actual Week

School.

CCA.

Other tuition.

Travel.

Sleep.

Fit includes time.

111. Parents Should Bring the Child’s Actual Goal

Pass?

Stabilise?

Move subject level?

Prepare for PSLE?

Improve A-Math?

Stretch?

Build independence?

Goals change design.

112. Parents Should Bring the Child’s Own View

Especially for older students.

What feels hard?

What feels repetitive?

What help do they want?

113. The Child’s View Is Evidence, Not Absolute Truth

Use it alongside school work and adult observation.

114. The Parent’s View Is Evidence Too

Homework time.

Arguments.

Prompt dependence.

These are real signals.

115. The School’s View Is Evidence Too

Teacher comments.

Marked work.

Assessment pattern.

Tuition should triangulate.

116. The Tutor’s View Is One More Evidence Source

Not the only one.

117. Strong Decisions Use Triangulation

Child.

Home.

School.

Tuition.

When several sources agree, confidence increases.

118. What if the Tutor Says the Child Needs More Time?

Ask what leading indicators should change first.

Diagnosis clearer?

Prompts reducing?

Homework friction falling?

Target error frequency changing?

Patience still needs evidence.

119. What if the Tutor Promises Fast Results?

Ask which specific capability can plausibly change quickly and how it will be measured.

Learning timelines vary.

120. What if the Tutor Says Every Child Improves?

Ask how improvement is defined and what happens when a student does not.

121. What if the Tutor Has Excellent Testimonials?

Useful signal.

Still ask about fit for your learner.

122. What if the Tutor Has Strong Qualifications?

Important.

Still ask how expertise becomes instruction.

123. What if the Tutor Has Beautiful Materials?

Useful.

Still ask how those materials change according to the child.

124. What if the Tutor Has a Famous Programme?

Fine.

Still ask whether the programme is a tool or a cage.

125. What if the Class Is Very Small?

Ask what the tutor does with the visibility.

126. What if the Class Is Large?

Ask how individual errors are detected and feedback delivered.

127. What if the Tutor Is Very Experienced?

Experience can improve pattern recognition.

Ask how they stay current and how they update learner models.

128. What if the Tutor Is Younger?

Age alone does not determine quality.

Look at subject knowledge, teaching skill, diagnosis, communication and evidence.

129. What if the Child Likes the Tutor?

Good.

Trust matters.

Still look for learning change.

130. What if the Child Dislikes the Tutor?

Investigate why.

Challenge?

Mismatch?

Embarrassment?

Too much homework?

Do not decide from one emotion alone.

131. What if the Child Is Quiet?

Ask how the tutor gets evidence of thinking.

132. What if the Child Talks a Lot?

Ask whether talk is producing learning or avoiding work.

133. What if the Child Is Strong but Unmotivated?

The issue may be challenge design, autonomy or overload rather than academic weakness.

134. What if the Child Is Weak but Highly Motivated?

Excellent starting condition.

Find the dependency and repair precisely.

135. What if the Child Is Weak and Avoiding?

Build enough success to reopen engagement while still addressing the real gap.

136. What if the Child Needs a Different Specialist?

A responsible tutor should recognise boundaries and recommend appropriate support where necessary.

137. Parents Should Notice Whether the Tutor Claims Every Problem

No single tuition format solves every educational need.

138. The Best Tutor Can Sometimes Say “This Is Not My Job”

Clear boundaries are professional.

139. Parents Should Ask About Communication Boundaries

When can questions be asked?

What happens outside class?

Who owns homework?

Clear boundaries reduce dependence.

140. Parents Should Ask About Missed Lessons

How is continuity maintained?

What is genuinely necessary to catch up?

141. Parents Should Ask About Materials Ownership

Can the student use notes independently later?

Good materials should support self-study.

142. Parents Should Ask Whether Notes Are Tools or Scripts

Can the learner reconstruct ideas without reading every line?

143. Parents Should Ask Whether the Tutor Teaches Students to Use Their Own School Notes

One coherent learning system is usually better than four disconnected systems.

144. Parents Should Ask About Digital Tools

Technology can create variants, explanations and retrieval.

It should not erase learner judgement.

145. Parents Should Ask How Generated Answers Are Verified

Fluency is not evidence of correctness.

146. Parents Should Ask Whether the Child Can Explain the Answer Independently

If not, output may have outrun learning.

147. Parents Should Ask About Values in the Classroom

Integrity.

Empathy.

Critical thinking.

Responsibility.

How are mistakes handled?

How are peers treated?

How is uncertainty discussed?

148. Integrity in Tuition

Say when evidence is weak.

Say when the child guessed.

Say when a method failed.

Honest evidence creates better teaching.

149. Empathy in Tuition

Different learners need different paths.

High standards and dignity can coexist.

150. Critical Thinking in Tuition

What evidence?

What assumption?

What alternative?

Students should learn to examine claims.

151. Responsibility in Tuition

Bring work.

Attempt.

Correct.

Ask.

Review.

The learner participates.

152. Choosing a Tutor Is Choosing a Learning Relationship

Not only buying content.

The tutor will influence how the child responds to mistakes, difficulty and help.

153. The Relationship Should Increase Agency

Over time, the learner should need less external control.

154. The Relationship Should Increase Resolution

“Bad at Math” becomes a specific, testable learning problem.

155. The Relationship Should Increase Transfer

Tuition learning should travel.

156. The Relationship Should Increase Recovery

Students should know what to do when the first route fails.

157. The Relationship Should Increase Self-Knowledge

What are my common errors?

What helps me start?

When should I check?

When should I move?

158. The Relationship Should Eventually Need Less Relationship

This sounds paradoxical.

But successful teaching internalises parts of itself.

159. The Tutor’s Voice Should Become the Student’s Inner Prompt

“Read the condition.”

Later, the student remembers without hearing it.

160. The Tutor’s Method Should Become the Student’s Method

Then the learner can carry it elsewhere.

161. The Tutor’s Diagnosis Should Become the Student’s Diagnosis

Then self-correction accelerates.

162. This Is Why Exit Logic Matters

The goal is not to create a permanent external controller.

163. The Punggol Family Tuition Handbook

Use The Punggol Family Tuition Handbook for the wider family decision system.

164. The Need-Tuition Route

Use When Do Punggol Students Need Tuition?.

165. The Timing Route

Use When to Start Tuition?.

166. The Evidence Route

Use How Parents Can Tell Tuition Is Working.

167. The Change-or-Stop Route

Use When Tuition Is Not Working.

168. The Boundaries Route

Use What Tuition Should Never Replace.

169. The Strong-Student Route

Use When the Child Is Already Doing Well.

170. The Overload Route

Use When School Starts Taking Too Long.

171. The Small-Group Route

Use Inside a 3-Pax Tuition Class in Punggol.

172. Ten Questions to Ask Before Joining Tuition

1. What exact learning problem do you think my child has?
2. What evidence supports that diagnosis?
3. How will your teaching change because of that diagnosis?
4. How does the class size help you teach this learner?
5. How will you know whether the skill transfers back to school?
6. How will you reduce prompts as the child improves?
7. How much homework is necessary and why?
8. What evidence will you show me that progress is happening?
9. What would make you change the plan?
10. When should this tuition reduce, change focus or stop?

173. The Consultation

Maya sits beside her mother with the marked Mathematics paper.

The tutor does not begin with a brochure.

He looks at the paper.

“Show me what happened here.”

Maya explains.

He gives her a similar problem.

She solves quickly.

Another one.

This time the negative sign is placed differently.

She compresses two lines and makes the same mistake.

The tutor does not say:

“You need more practice.”

He says:

“I think your speed is good. The problem is that you hide the exact place where the risk changes. I want to test whether showing that transition removes the error. If it does, we will then remove the reminder and see whether you trigger it yourself.”

Maya’s mother asks:

“How long will that take?”

“I don’t know yet. But within the first few weeks we should at least know whether the diagnosis is right.”

This answer is less impressive than a guarantee.

It is more useful.

There is a hypothesis.

An intervention.

A retest.

An independence condition.

And a willingness to change if the evidence disagrees.

That is what the family is choosing.

Not simply someone who can do the Mathematics.

Someone who can see the learner, teach the mechanism, test the transfer and gradually give the work back.

Choosing a tutor is therefore not mainly about finding the loudest promise, the thickest worksheet pack or the smallest advertised class.

It is about choosing a learning system with enough resolution to understand your child and enough discipline to become less necessary when the job is done.

eduKatePunggol

Properly Taught Kids Shine a Bright Light Into the Future.