How to find a good math learning center?
Frank Ho
Ho Math and Chess Learning Centre
BC certified Teacher
Vancouver, BC, Canada
handchess.com” target=”_blank”>www.mathandchess.com
Children’s after school learning center and tutoring is at very high demand, math tutoring is the highest demand subject of all after school subjects.
How to find a good math learning centre? The most two important ingredients are the teaching material and the instructor. There are many math learning centers who have not developed materials in a systematic and consistent way, they simply collect each tutor’s lecture notes and bind them together and call them ”the most valuable material developed by a group of outstanding scholars”. Some math learning centers copied materials form different sources then turn around and tell parents the material have been developed to meet local teaching curriculum. Some learning centers use drill worksheet method but gives this drill method some big names such as ”self-learning” method or even “innovative” teaching method. Some elementary children who went to these drill learning centers and then come to my class criticized this method as boring and call it the worst teaching method they ever experienced. If only parents would listen to their daughter’s or son’s plead, the children would be much happier in learning math.
Don’t be fooled by the colorful worksheets and the teaching methods some learning centers claim, think how often the author is willing to update the colorful workbooks? It does cost a lot of money to print all those worksheets in multiple colors and they have to be in large quantity to get some kind of discounts. If this is the case then how often are they willing to update their material?
- Examine the learning center’s teaching method. Do we expect each child’s understanding ability is at the same level as everyone else? Why school teachers always tell us the ratio of students/per teacher is very important in deciding the quality of teaching? If this “teaching” time and ratio is so important then why some math learning centers are still cramming as many as 10 or 15 kids in one room and teach them in a lecture style? I do not understand it other than the owners seem to know it maximizes the profits. Ho Math and Chess Learning Centre researched the ration of students to teacher and found an optimized number to provide the best teaching environment.
Watch carefully how the tutor marks your children’s homework and check if the tutor actually follows it up if the student did not do it right. Did the tutor check the computation procedure or simply only checked the answers? All these are signals if the tutor is a caring or responsible person. If there is no caring then it is a waste of money by paying big buck for their names or qualifications.
The genuine concern and caring must come from the heart of the tutors. Are the tutors concerned about the upcoming tests for your children? What efforts has the tutor done to prepare for it? If nothing was done, then it is the time that you change the tutor. Is the tutor willing to listen to your concern as a parent or the tutor seems to like to spend time to lecture you?
What is the owner’s management style? Approachable? Is there any convenient business hours that you could talk to teachers? Is there any make-up system for missed classes? Is there any refund and withdraw policy?
Take into account all of what I have mentioned above, you would have a better chance of finding a better math learning centre.
About Author
Frank Ho, a Canadian certified math teacher, coined the learning centre term Math and Chess and he also founded the world’s first math and chess learning centre by creating the world’s first math and chess integrated workbooks for elementary students in Vancouver, Canada. He invented Frankho Symbolic Chess Language, intriguing Frankho Chess Maze, and also an unique new chess teaching set. He published math and chess teaching theoretic basis in a Canadian math journal. The USA Illinois research data has shown statistically significant that Ho Math and Chess teaching method increases children’s math marks and also improves children’s critical thinking skills. The Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set can improve children’s memory by playing half-blind chess. More details, please visit www.mathandchess.com.
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