Tutoring gifted students might seem like an oxymoron. If a student is doing well in math or reading, then why should they need a math tutor or a reading tutor? It may surprise you, but there are a lot of reasons why tutoring gifted students can be beneficial for their entire educational experience.
1. Tutoring gifted students allows them to have personalized lesson plans
Imagine how frustrating it would be to sit in a classroom where you are asked to listen to a lesson or do an assignment that you already know how to do. Gifted students often times get bored and lose interest in the school subjects that they excel the most in. By tutoring gifted students in those subjects they can work at their own pace by doing lessons that are geared specifically to their level of learning. Personal tutoring sessions will help develop their skills as well as their love for the subject (instead of causing them to hate it due to boredom.)
2. Tutoring gifted students helps them reach their full potential
Some students do not need to work hard or apply themselves in order to master a particular subject. This situation can affect the amount of effort they put into learning other school subjects as well. Tutoring gifted students in their strong subjects can help them to develop those skills and feel a sense of satisfaction instead of giving up on the subject because it does not challenge them enough. If a tutor can provide the appropriate level of instruction that helps the gifted student to develop and expand their skills this will help them reach their full potential.
3. Tutoring gifted students to help them become active learners
If gifted students have been in situations where learning new things is easy they might never have a chance to develop useful learning skills. The early school years might be easy for gifted students, but if they have been able to do well by sitting passively in class then this could pose a problem once they enter secondary and University level courses that require them to know how to learn more difficult material. Tutoring is one way for gifted students to learn how to learn more difficult subjects outside of the classroom. Tutoring sessions help develop study skills that will help the student once they continue on to higher education.
4. How can tutoring gifted students benefit the rest of the classroom?
Some gifted students struggle with behavioural issues at school because they are not being challenged by some of the school subjects. Being bored in class might cause them to become a ‘know it’ all or to talk with their friends during lessons. Acting out in class does not only affect the gifted student, but it also becomes a distraction to the rest of the class. By arranging tutoring for the gifted student they can have their own individual assignments to work on possibly during class time. This type of arrangement would first have to be discussed with the classroom teacher.
The stigma around tutoring is that it is only for students who need help with a particular school subject that they struggle with. As you can see from the four points listed above, there are a lot of reasons why tutoring gifted students can be beneficial as well. If you have a gifted child or you know of some gifted students who are struggling in school, finding a private tutor for them could make a huge difference!
