Ask Micki: Do tutoring/learning contracts work?

Question: Hi, Micki. I am pretty new to the world of math and science tutoring and was wondering whether I should bother with a learning contract. Do they work, or is it a waste of time?

Thanks!
Joe, a math and science tutor from Northern California.

Answer: Hi, Joe - thanks for the great question! I've been hearing quite a bit about learning and tutoring contracts lately, and I happen to think that they can be a great tool for your tutoring sessions.

A tutoring or learning contract is basically an informal document that the tutor and tutee (and/or tutee's parents) sign. It is a written promise that the tutor will provide stellar tutoring, and that the tutee will put in his or her best effort, do all of the tutoring assignments, be at the tutoring sessions on time, participate in the tutoring sessions, etc.

Essentially, it helps keep the tutee accountable for learning the material, taking an active role in the tutoring sesisons, and giving 100% at each tutoring session. It also (from the tutee's point of view) keeps the tutor accountable for providing the best tutoring possible.

Some people also choose to incorporate the business contract (i.e. pay rate, when the tutor will be paid, etc.) into the learning contract, but I choose not to do this.

In my opinion, it is a better idea to keep the business contract separate from the learning contract. The tutoring/learning contract should be all about learning, not clouded by business details.

It is also a great idea to make a copy of the contract so that you, your tutee, and (if needed) your tutee's parents all have the document to reference at a later date.

There are some great learning contracts available in the ITA Resource Bank, so take a look around, and try using one of these great tools out at your next tutoring session!

Good luck and, as always, happy tutoring!

Change is in the air for the ITA blog!

Just a quick entry to let you all know that the ITA blog is undergoing some exciting changes.

After receiving a lot of email requests, and doing quite a few interviews, we have decided to entrust most of the blog postings to 2 of our resident ITA experts.

Of course, there will still be postings by the staff here at ITA, but a lot of our posts will be from these two fantastic contributors:

So who are they?

- Micki Henson has been a tutor for 15 years and tutors a wide variety of subjects and age groups, from adult ESL to grade school mathematics. Micki will be handling our new ITA Blog feature known as, "Ask Micki," an advice column that tackle all of the questions that come to us every week. She can be reached at MHenson@itatutor.org.

- Charlie Ryan has been tutoring for nearly 10 years now and specializes in mathematics, computers, and engineering. Charlie will be the blog contributor who discusses tutoring as a business, session tips and techniques, and tutoring issues in general. He can be reached at CRyan@itatutor.org.

We are very excited about these recent changes and hope that you will be, too!

And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us or ask away on Twitter.