You are interested in what the Student has to share with you. You are a peer – a student as well – who has agreed to help support a Student by guiding them to understand what they do not yet understand. What does the student want to accomplish? Work on accomplishing the task at hand.
How can I help you?
Any of the following questions continues the “small talk” and provide you with information on how to proceed:
- How are you doing in the class?
- How do you feel about this class? Is it hard or easy?
- Are you struggling with one specific topic or the course overall?
- What are the topics you are having difficulty in the class?
- What topic is being covered and what don’t you understand?
- How is this problem/topic related to the concept covered in class?
- What methods have you tried to understand this problem?
- What sources have you already looked at to find the solution?
- Can you show me the steps that you have taken to get through this issue?
Asking the Student what they understand about the fundamentals of the topic is a good starting point:
- Tell me, what do you know about this topic, or explain to me what this topic is about…
- What is not clear to you as yet about this topic?
- What is this topic connected to?
Example: Computer Systems
- How does a For/While loop work?
- What are operators, variables and data type?
- What are the expected inputs to implement and the output?
Example: Computer Science
- What are all the even numbers from 1 to 35? Can you print them out?
- Student: I know that the numbers that can be divisible by 2, but how do I print all the even numbers from 1 to 35, how can I do that ?
Example: Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering
- What do you know about Ohm’s Law?
- What is the definition of Ohm’s Law?
- What’s the formula?
- What are the units?
- Here’s the formula: P=IV
- What’s the relation between current and volt?
- What is “P”?
- What if on a test you saw: V = P or I – how would you solve this?
- Here’s the formula: P=IV
Example: Biology course
- What are the differences between Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic Cells?
- What are the similarities?
Student: Just looking at the question, I can tell they are both cells…
Tutor: Right, which shows they have similarities and more differences.
Example: English course
The student comes in with a research paper to be completed. The conversation may take a bit of time and work, but fear not! We can approach this situation by finding out what it is the student is interested in writing about, and what research is needed, as well as why they are interested in approaching the topic.
- Tell me about the topic you are considering. What is it and why did you choose this topic?
- What have you found out about your topic?
- What citation method does your professor want you to use?
- What have you read about this topic so far?
- Why is this topic interesting?
- What is one thing you can tell me about from what you have read?
Why questioning techniques help learning
Tutoring is a conversation between the Tutor and the Student, with the goal of helping the Student understand the problem, or able to write an essay, as well as to learn concepts behind the problem or the ideas behind the essay.
Asking questions draws out what the Student knows already, what they may have misunderstood, where their way of thinking differs from the instructor’s explanation. There are many levels of questioning. The simplest technique for the Tutor is to ask questions that begin with What or How or Why. Avoid questions that can be answered with only Yes or No….because what will be your next question?
