How to Judge a Tutor

"A good camera can influence the outcome of your

photographic efforts better than a good set of

clubs can influence the outcome of your game.

That's provided that you have learned to use

either one."

Good photographers do not necessarily make good

tutors, mentors, teachers or coaches. They must

posses the skills of Pedagogy - or more to the

point, the skills of Andragogy, which refers to

teaching adults.


Pedagogy (pèd-e-go´jê) literally means the art and

science of educating children and often is used as

a synonym for teaching. More accurately, pedagogy

embodies teacher-focused education.


In the pedagogic model, teachers assume

responsibility for making decisions about what will

be learned, how it will be learned, and when it will

be learned. Teachers direct learning.


The great teachers of ancient times, from

Confucius to Plato, didn't pursue such

authoritarian techniques. Major differences exist

between what we know of the great teachers' styles,

yet they all saw learning as a process of active

inquiry, not passive reception. Considering this, it

is surprising that teacher-focused learning later

came to dominate formal education.

My courses are very visual (because 83%

of what we learn and retain comes through the

visual sense,  - as against the use of any other

sense.) I use or develop state-of-the-arts visual

aids. Similarly, I encourage active student

participation and promote inquiry.

John Dewey believed formal schooling was falling

short of its potential. Dewey emphasized learning

through various activities rather than traditional

teacher-focused curriculum. He believed children

learned more from guided experience than

authoritarian instruction. He ascribed to a learner-

focused education philosophy (instead of the

teacher focused education.) He held that

learning is life not just preparation for life.


Adult education, too, fell victim to teacher-

centered models. In 1926, the American

Association for Adult Education began and quickly

started researching better ways to educate adults.

Influenced by Dewey, Eduard C. Lindeman wrote

in The Meaning of Adult Education:

Our academic system has grown in reverse order.

Subjects and teachers constitute the starting point,

[learners] are secondary. In conventional

education the [learner] is required to adjust

himself to an established curriculum....Too much

of learning consists of vicarious substitution of

someone else's experience and knowledge.

Psychology teaches us that we learn what we

do....Experience is the adult learner's living

textbook.


Unfortunately, only some of Dewey's and

Lindeman's theories seeped into modern

classrooms for children or adults. A century after

Dewey proposed learner-focused education, most

formal education still focuses on the teacher.

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It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy

in creative expression and knowledge.

— Albert Einstein
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As a result, many learners leave school having lost

interest in learning. Even good-intentioned

educators can squelch naturally inquisitive

instincts by controlling the learning environment.

By adulthood, some people view learning as a

chore and a burden.


In an attempt to formulate a comprehensive adult

learning theory, Malcolm Knowles, in 1973,

published the book The Adult Learner: A

Neglected Species. Building on the earlier work of

Lindeman, Knowles asserted that adults require

certain conditions to learn. He borrowed the term

Andragogy (and-rè-go´jê) to define and explain the

conditions.


Andragogy, initially defined as "the art and science

of helping adults learn," has taken on a broader

meaning since Knowles' first edition. The term

currently defines an alternative to pedagogy and

refers to learner-focused education for people of

all ages.

Make sure that the tutor that you choose meets

this criteria.