John Gethin
History and Humanities Tutor
For A-Level/GCSE/IB/General Interest
My Approach
My Pedagogy
A slightly pretentious word I know, but "my approach to education", just wouldn't fit in the button on the left. Essentially, I believe that a tutor is providing a service to a client, and must therefore be prepared to adapt to the client who is in this case the student. I work for the student first and foremost (although I am aware that it is not typically the student who is the fee-payer!) I cannot abide with an authoritarian approach to education where the student is somehow expected to be obedient to the teacher.This might be necessary when a teacher is in charge of 30 or more pupils, but I do not think it appropriate in the far smaller group work we do online. I want to encourage students to be inquisitive, and confident enough to develop their own lines of enquiry and explanation. Indeed I believe these skills of autonomous thought to be essential for the subjects that I teach.
I use Zoom and ClassIn virtual classroom environment for my tutorials.
These platforms allow us to communicate in real time, allowing an emphasis on dialogue and collaborative work.
I am able to interact with students and upload all manner of documents that can then be annotated by both student and tutor as the lesson proceeds using a range of tools.
I am also happy to correspond with students through email and will mark work outside of our class time.
Most of my tutorials are one to one but I have no objection to small groups of students approching me and spreading the cost of their online tutorials between them.
Online
Tutorials
Did you know?
If you look on Wikipedia it will tell you that the word "pedegogy" refers to the Ancient Greek practice of a slave who would "lead" the family's children to school. There is a lesser known alternative derivation, that proposes the word comes from the philsopher Aristotle's teaching practice. Aristotle did not like conventional classroom teaching and much preferred holding discussions with his students as he "led" them around the cloisters of his school called the Lyceum. I much prefer this derivation!