14. Variation in student styles
Observation: when working on this Level III Certification project, I became much more observant about the general goings-on in the LSC. I began to notice more variation in students’ styles, most particularly their “duty cycle” (home much time they spend actively working, and how much idle time they spend between active work periods). Some people come very in and work intensely, whereas others come in and work at a much more relaxed pace. At the extreme, I’ve seen students that come in and work for 5 minutes, rest for 55 minutes, then repeat!
What does this mean to us as tutors? Well, to add to all the other accommodations that we must do, we need to “speed match” the person we approach to help. If they are a more relaxed, slower-paced student, then we have to meet them at that learning style. Similarly, if we approach a fast-paced student, we need to match them, lest they get bored or impatient with our slowness. The challenge for us as tutors is two-fold: first, to recognize the study pace of the student we approach, and second, to somehow shift our own pacing gears away from the student we just left and toward the student we now approach.