Muhammad Ikram

1. Empathetic: Understands what it’s like to be a student who may lack confidence, feel
stressed, be overwhelmed or just not understand the material.
2. Honest: Don’t hesitate to say that you do not know about a particular concept. Trying
to bluff your way through will only hurt the student and your reputation in the long
run.
3. Enthusiastic: If the tutor does not display a love for the subject they are tutoring, how
can they expect the student to enjoy it. Come to the lab with a positive attitude that
will rub off on the students.
4. Good Listener: The tutor should develop good listening skills so that they will better
understand students’ misconceptions and errors.
5. Asks good, open-ended questions: The tutor should ask the student questions in order
to evaluate a students’ understanding (see section on probing questions).
6. Encourages independence: You do not want the student to rely on you at all times. Let
them know that they must put forth an effort to benefit from tutoring. Give students
strategies to be independent and more effective learners by having student look at
how they think and learn, how they study, and how they manage their studies with
the rest of their life.
7. Patient: This is probably one of the most important characteristics of a tutor. Never act
annoyed that the student does not know something. Even if they ask the most basic
question, always demonstrate your patience.
8. Maintains confidentiality: Any personal information such as medical conditions,
handicaps, test scores should be between you and the student.
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9. Motivator: encourages students to strive to be the best they can, to reach their goals,
to recognize their strengths, to focus on learning how to learn so that they will be
successful in the future. (metacognition)
10. Encourages the students to identify several alternative study strategies from which to
choose.
11. Allows for periods of silence. Avoid feeling like you have to interrupt a moment of
silence by talking. Allow the student to reflect on the subject at hand before going on.
12. Shows respect for students as persons. Try to understand their struggles.
13. Maintains professional boundaries; a tutor is a professional and person of authority,
who represents the college;
14. Non-judgmental; doesn’t make assumptions about students; treats all students as
individuals who want to learn and have the ability to learn no matter what their
personal background or circumstances are
15. Desire to help, make a difference; gets satisfaction seeing others succeed.
16. Can explain material in multiple ways; understands that not all students understand
concepts the same way and the first time; can sense when students do not
understand and willingly tries another approach of presenting the material