It is always difficult for teachers to decide whether they should tutor children or adults because these are two completely different tasks. Tutoring adults is not the same as tutoring students. The difference in their abilities and vulnerabilities makes the methods of teaching them quite different.
You cannot walk into a classroom full of kids with the same teaching plan as the one for adult students. Even if you had to teach the same lesson to kids and adults, the approaches you’d adopt would be worlds apart.
That’s because children and adults are on two different levels of conscience and maturity. What would work for a child might not work for an adult and vice versa. While tutoring little kids demands more patience, tutoring adults requires hours upon hours of research and planning.
Some of the major differences between teaching kids versus adults have been given below:
Motivation Levels
In terms of motivation, kids are better than adults at motivating themselves. Most of the kids will walk into your class full of energy and motivation. But you will need to change your activities, again and again, to maintain their energy levels as they get bored quickly.
However, for adults, the reasons behind their motivation, or the lack thereof, may vary from person to person. Some adult students are motivated to study because of the various benefits promised by the specific degree they’re pursuing. Some of them fail to focus at times due to stress or other issues they may be dealing with.
Plus, adults are better at managing their motivation levels regardless of what they’re going through or feeling. As a tutor, you just have to do your best to tutor them. The course taught to adults is a lot more advanced and complex. It requires detailed research, planning, and a proper teaching plan.
That being said, at times, it can be hard for adults to maintain their motivation levels or to manage their emotions or mood swings. Adult students usually have a lot on their minds, and they tend to overthink as well.
As a tutor, you may have to motivate them when they are feeling down or help them snap out of whatever they may be experiencing.
Tutoring Approaches
Kids do not expect much from their teachers. They’re not mature enough to understand or assess how efficient your tutoring methodologies are. They only expect you to show that you care about them.
They will happily enjoy the activities you have planned for them and wait for you to have fun with them. So, you have to develop interesting and engaging activities through which your students can learn, such as those offered through this economics tuition provider.
Contrarily, adults expect certain things from their teachers. They expect unique teaching methods from you that will help them understand even the most complex of concepts. They take time to get comfortable as compared to kids they don’t just want to have fun. They’ll want you to be their advisor and mentor.
Dependence
Teaching kids is no different from babysitting. You can’t leave them alone on their own and expect them to learn by themselves. You have to guide them every step of the way, gently nudging them into completing their activities.
Interactive class activities go a long way in helping the kids learn. When it comes to teaching little children, you are held responsible for their achievements as well as failures.
You don’t just have to take care of them and keep them engaged and make sure that they learn something out of your interactions. Moreover, you cannot leave the kids by themselves, not even for a few minutes.
Adults, however, are mature enough to be trusted to work on their own. They can complete their task in the absence of the teacher. They would even work with their classmates and find the solutions to their academic problems by discussing them among themselves.
However, they might turn to the teacher for solutions if they were unable to solve the problems on their own. Adults understand the cause-and-effect nature of how life works. They understand the importance of education and the significance of academic achievements, as well as their impact on one’s life.
That being said, teaching demands effort just as much as any other job, regardless of how old or mature the student is. However, before you decide if you want to teach children or adults, you need to determine where your strengths lie. Some people are naturally too good at dealing with children; some others are better at teaching adults.
