Friendship Groups for Enhanced Learning

This year MST has introduced group tuition to our private tuition services portfolio. One of the concepts that’s proved successful has been the idea of friendship groups.

I thought it would be a good idea to clarify what friendship groups are and are not, and how they differ from regular group tuition.

As the name suggests, these learning groups are made up of friends who also class mates. This arrangement works particularly well for 3 key reasons:

• It opens the door to private tuition when 1 to 1 tuition is not possible
• Friendship groups put students at ease, especially younger students, as they are with friends
• Each student is studying the same syllabus, enabling a deeper investigation of common subject matter

Friendship groups are usually limited to 3 students.

When I am approached by a parent for group tuition, I will often suggest a friendship group for the reasons outlined above. It is at this point, that the onus moves to the parent to help find 2 other students that may also like to participate in additional tuition.

This is usually easy to achieve once somebody makes the first move!

With regular group tuition, a student is enrolled in a tuition group made up of students of similar age and perceived ability, although of course they may not know their new learning colleagues in advance. As daunting as this can be, it also provides an ideal scenario to gain fresh perspective, and to make new friends.

Friendship groups engender a fun learning environment. There is still in-depth focus, and the relaxed atmosphere encourages more questions, which in turn accelerates learning!

Another side-effect of this enhanced learning environment is the confidence instilled in each student. This is something that happens surprisingly quickly and continues to serve the student in all walks of life.

And, the fact is, some students simply do better in a peer group than in a 1 to 1 setting, for a variety of reasons.

I know it’s early August, but slots do tend to be snapped up quickly. Therefore, if this is something that’s of interest to you, please get in touch to reserve your slot.

You can contact me via the Contact page, by emailing ma@mathematicsandsciencetuition.com or by calling 0207 686 4307.