Academic Coaching Vs. Tutoring: What Are The Main Differences?
Academic coaching aims to teach students how to become effective learners. Simply put, it helps students with the overall learning process. Students receive guidelines on how to approach school and useful tools that can help them tackle challenges when they occur. On the other hand, a tutor helps students with a specific subject for the simple reason that the student has performed poorly on that subject.
A student does not need to have poor grades to receive help from an academic coach. You will find that even A students have academic coaches to help them with the organization of school tasks and time management. This helps to reduce stress and improve their overall performance in school work.
Here are some ideas to help you understand the main differences between tutoring and academic coaching.
1. Preparing For Homework
You will always find some student asking for help with online writing. Most tutors help students finish their homework on time. In comparison, academic instructors help students to establish a routine to improve executive functioning skills, while setting up good study environments. In the long run, it will help them learn how to do their homework and manage their time independently.
2. Preparing For Tests And Exams
Tutors are involved in preparing students for specific tests and exams depending on the subject they specialize in. On the other hand, academic coaches teach the students tricks for studying for any exam. As a result, students are able to use the resources available, ask questions, and understand everything about the subject. Academic coaching prepares students to reach the highest academic levels of education and handle real-life challenges effectively.
3. Developing Effective Function Skills
To achieve success in the long run, students need to be taught management skills. Unfortunately, tutors do not teach that. Academic coaches understand how decision-making and function skills are important for the success of future projects. Academic coaches teach executive function skills to students to make them understand the steps needed for the process, and how to go through these steps and discover the time needed to finish a certain project on time. They emphasize the importance of breaking the big assignments into smaller manageable tasks and complete them one by one. Academic coaches also know how to provide the support needed to teach the student the basics of handling daunting projects and make them manageable.
4. Developing Effective Studying Approaches
Students with reading disabilities—such as dyslexia—may find it hard to study on their own, and some might even buy research papers online. However, with reading programs that involve coaching, they can excel at the basics of reading. When other levels of learning are involved, such as sentence structure and vocabularies, students require help from a professional specialist. If studying is about understanding in depth a certain chapter in—let's say—a fiction story, then academic coaches can be very effective. Effective reading strategies are taught by teachers who have a strong command of the English language.
5. Developing Effective Writing Skills For Essays
From time to time, students need to improve their skills in writing. Academic coaches do their best to help these students through specific tests and essays. It involves teaching them how to look for information, organize this information into logical ideas, and then write a clear argument to support their research. This requires the student to apply some project management skills. Academic coaches help them prepare for this process. They have useful academic tools that aid in teaching writing skills and help the student predict what the teacher may ask in an exam. If a student needs help to improve their writing skills, they can benefit a lot more from an academic coach than a tutor.
To wrap up, academic coaching is all about teaching students the necessary skills and policies in learning. It also requires an academic coach to support the student as they embark on the process through repeating the process over and over again until they grasp it and become confident in their learning. Tutoring is about helping students understand a specific subject so that they can perform well in that particular subject. Although the two might be confusing, this article will help you clear any doubts.
