Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 0

TUTORING TIPS FOR CHEMISTRY IN HIGHER GRADES

FRANK PADIKKALA

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com
Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved
Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 1

Frank Padikkala

28 September 2010

Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades

Chemistry in general provides a unique learning opportunity to children. Chemistry

which is quite so many times called ‘The mystery of Chemicals’ remains to be one of the

difficult subjects encountered. Tutors who are proficient in chemistry are therefore presented

with an opportunity. This is a practical guide of suggestions based on personal experience in

tutoring Chemistry.

Chemistry as a subject is a highly conceptual subject. Unless high end lab facilities

are given to the students visual understanding of the subject is very difficult. Another

common issue with learning process is that school teachers and personal tutors are all

bound by the time restrictions which leaves us with the very difficult scenario of having to

impose rote learning or more commonly , the ‘learn it somehow’ attitude as opposed to

taking the student through the proper mind process.

Some of the common complaints that students have are:

1) “I am not able to remember what was taught in class inspite of paying attention”

2) “I understood everything that was taught in the class but couldn’t recall anything

today”

3) “I remembered the portion of the class from which the question in the exam was

asked. I was not able to give a definite answer though. Couldn’t remember the

exact answer”

These may seem as very common answers. Teachers mostly respond to these

issues by re teaching that portion or in some instances state that the students need to spend

more time studying. This may seem very frustrating to the student who has put in ample time

in studying the subject without much success.

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com
Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 2

An ideal strategy for ensuring a proper understanding of the subject is discussed in

the following section. Methods listed are not definitive and will need to be improvised and/or

personalized based on the aptitude and learning capacity of the student.

o Segregation of topics based on difficulty

When tutoring Chemistry it is always essential to ascertain the topics that are difficult.

It must be understood that different topics will be met with different levels of understanding

and a unique pattern of difficulty should be identified for each individual student. Some of the

tools from which such information can be gathered are existing test paper/examination

results, parent feedback and so on. An ideal way of ascertaining the students level of

difficulty is always go through an overview of the topic before actually starting the lesson is a

good idea. Questionnaire’s or simple questions from the lesson maybe used to gauge the

student’s response. Visual indicators for difficult topics would be yawning, fidgeting or even

evident drifting by the students.

If a communication channel can be established with the regular school teacher of the

student, the information and feedback that they provide can be quite valuable to the teaching

process.

All this information has to be used while devising a lesson plan with additional time /

resource allotment for the difficult topics.

o Mini – Modules within lessons

During the course of my teaching I have found it most effective to break up a 1hour

tutorial session into 15-20 minute modules after which the student is given a 1-2 minute

allowing them to mentally playback the lesson that was taught. Such teaching methods have

been endorsed by many modern psychologists as it prevents overload of the student.

Careful attention has to be given to the student during each learning section. Questions in a

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com
Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 3

re-affirming tone such as “Would you like me to go over that again with you?” and so on

have been found to be very effective.

o Use of visual aids / simple examples

When explaining concepts in Chemistry it is absolutely paramount to ensure that the

students have understood the concept. A simple nod or ‘Yes’ does not mean that the student

has understood. Basic Chemistry concepts have to be taught with extreme care with the use

of visual aids and simple examples. For example: Using ping-pong balls to show the atomic

structure and the movement of electrons or the comparison of the atomic structure to the

solar system. Another way of explanation would be the use of white boards to actually draw

and explain concepts, formulas and other topics.

o Constantly Re-emphasizing Learned topics

It is very important that tutors come up with a regular plan where there is space for

daily revisions, weekly and monthly tests. Students who understand certain topics have to

spend time revising the topics. The lack of practice is one of the main reasons why good

students end up getting grades lower than their expectations. It would be ideal to get the

parents/guardians involved in this process as they can provide the necessary motivation for

students to meet deadlines and such tests.

Constantly monitoring the student’s scores would give us a fair idea of the progress

and would also point towards areas that would require more effort and time. This is also

motivating to the student as he keeps tabs of his own achievements.

Summary

The techniques mentioned above are meant like little pointers in the direction of ideal

tutoring. Chemistry is a vast and beautiful subject. In order to become successful as a tutor,

one has to start understanding and seeing the subject from the perspective of a student.

One of the unfortunate things that I have noticed is that teachers at-times are themselves not

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com
Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 4

fully conceptually clear on the subjects they are tutoring and hence resort to a “I Read – You

Learn” style of teaching as opposed to the more strong “We Learn” philosophy. Tutors have

to understand that inspite of being experts in a field tutors will still need to hit the books and

it is not embarrassing to admit that to a tutee. It rather emphasizes to the student that

learning is a continuous process.

A special thanks to all my dear students who with their efforts vindicated my findings.

Good luck on your Chemistry Tutoring experience!

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com
Tutoring Tips for Chemistry in Higher Grades 5

Works Cited

Sirhan, Ghassan “Learning Difficulties in Chemistry” September 2007

(http://crins08lerberg.wmwikis.net/file/view/Sirhan.pdf)

Grow, Gerald O. (1996). "Serving the Strategic Reader: Reader Response Theory and Its

Implications for the Teaching of Writing," an expanded version of a paper presented to the

Qualitative Division of the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass

Communication. Atlanta, August, 1994. Available on-line at:

<http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow>. Original paper available as Eric Documentation

Reproduction Service No. ED 406 644.

Online Wikipedia (http:/Wikipedia.org) Search Terms include

o Cognition (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition)

o Chemistry (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry)

o Learning (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning)

Copyright © Frank Padikkala 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this maybe used without author’s written permission. For details
write to frankap@gmail.com