James Barron

My first experience of teaching was in 2016, when I was asked to deliver a talk to a group of 16-year-olds on what it was like to start your own business. I immediately knew I wanted to become more involved in teaching but I didn’t know where to start as I had not previously considered a career in education. A few weeks later I agreed to teach a class of Chinese students from the Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics and Information, who had travelled to the UK to learn English and Software Engineering, after that I was hooked. Within the next few years, I taught hundreds of students of many different nationalities, aged from 16 to 60, and from levels 2 to 6. I focused my time teaching with Bath University and Bath College for several more years until I felt a change was in order. For the last few years, I have taught remotely with several private training organisations, provided dedicated one to one coaching sessions, provided consultancy on teaching and assessment practices and written about my experiences as a teacher. I plan to continue with my current activities for the foreseeable future but I’m always open to new teaching experiences.

Skills and qualities

The Skills and Qualities Required for a Personal Tutoring Role

Leave a Comment / Student Support /

In order to be an effective personal tutor, there are some important skills and qualities that the tutor must possess. These include logistical and curriculum planning, good organisational and communication skills, pragmatic and diplomatic abilities. A good tutor must also be knowledgeable, friendly, respectful, patient and a good listener, as well as having many other […]

The Skills and Qualities Required for a Personal Tutoring Role Read More »

students wheelchair

Modifying Systems and Structures Which Do Not Promote Equality and Diversity.

Leave a Comment / Equality and Diversity /

In many teaching organisations the learners are only entitled to 15-minute tutorials, this is very often insufficient. Personally, when I have deemed it appropriate I have let the tutorial session run long, deliberately adding particular students to the end of the session that I suspect will require additional support. Unfortunately, this isn’t a practical solution

Modifying Systems and Structures Which Do Not Promote Equality and Diversity. Read More »

personal tutor

How Values, Behaviours and Attitudes can Impact on the Personal Tutoring Role

Leave a Comment / Behaviour /

As a tutor, areas that you focus your attention upon will experience most of the change, for example, if you believe that grades and qualifications are the most important aspect of educational life, it is likely you will spend the majority of your time as a tutor focusing on setting academic based targets, thus giving

How Values, Behaviours and Attitudes can Impact on the Personal Tutoring Role Read More »

tutor communication

The importance of communication in a personal tutoring role

Leave a Comment / Communication /

The importance of effective communication within the personal tutorial role is incredibly important, even more important than that of the lecturing role. In order to fulfil many of the required skills and qualities of being a tutor effective communication is required. Being respectful, friendly, diplomatic, a good listener and to be able to build a

The importance of communication in a personal tutoring role Read More »

diversity

The impact of Socio-economic, Cultural and Personal Background, Work History and Educational Achievement on learners.

Leave a Comment / Behaviour, Student Support, Teaching and learning approaches /

A learner’s socio-economic, cultural and personal background will have a significant impact on their education, including the aspirations, needs and decision-making process. A very large number (approximately one in five) of families within the UK are deemed to live in poverty, research has shown people who live in poverty face daily challenges that affluent children

The impact of Socio-economic, Cultural and Personal Background, Work History and Educational Achievement on learners. Read More »

responsibility

Why it is Important that Learners Take Responsibility For Their Own Learning

Leave a Comment / Behaviour /

It is extremely important for learners to take responsibly for their own learning as they will gain a wide selection of benefits. Students responsible for their own learning will have a deeper understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as they will have first-hand experience of them, rather than being told their strengths and weaknesses, which

Why it is Important that Learners Take Responsibility For Their Own Learning Read More »

transferable

Why it is Important that Personal Tutoring Programmes Support the Development of Learning and Transferable Skills

Leave a Comment / Student Support /

It is essential that tutors support the development of learning and transferable skills as tutors see the progress of students across all classes, this allows the tutor to offer guidance with the full perspective of the student’s progress so far. Tutors are in the best position to create an individual learning plan as they have

Why it is Important that Personal Tutoring Programmes Support the Development of Learning and Transferable Skills Read More »

Professional and ethical

The importance of acting according to ethical and professional codes and standards in a personal tutoring role.

Leave a Comment / Ethics /

While it is important that, as a tutor, you are available and willing to assist students, it would be unprofessional, unethical and impossible to assist students with everything. A simple example of this is while you want your students to perform well on the course and are willing to provide guidance on assignments, providing too

The importance of acting according to ethical and professional codes and standards in a personal tutoring role. Read More »

communication equality diversity

Communication Strategies to Promote Equality and Diversity

Leave a Comment / Equality and Diversity /

I use a selection of communication strategies to promote equality and diversity within my lessons, a very easy method of embedding equality and diversity is to create a starter activity that shows imagery demonstrating either the promotion of equality and diversity or the undermining of equality and diversity and then follow this with a discussion.

Communication Strategies to Promote Equality and Diversity Read More »