EEF’s trainer-of-tutors has privately tutored STEM since 2006. He now also trains other STEM content experts, who usually haven't studied how to teach their STEM expertise, to tutor STEM to financially-disadvantaged gritty students in these students' journeys from high school through to early college. The stipulation: EEF provides the STEM experts free training in how to tutor if the STEM experts provide free tutoring to underrepresented premeds.

 

For public Colleges

Most colleges already employ STEM peer-tutors, who of course already know the content of the courses they tutor. (After all, in order to qualify to become a peer-tutor, they must have aced the courses they tutor.) Just as importantly, thanks to their having recently taken the course at the college, peer-tutors are already familiar with the courses. Moreover, peer-tutors are often even familiar with particular course professors' prioritization of specific content in the courses. Such peer-tutor familiarity with the course can prove invaluable to the peer-tutors' students.

However, what peer-tutors don’t necessarily know, is how to teach their course's content to others. This is where my 2-session peer-tutor trainings come in.

Training Session1:  Tutoring Generalities

This session is usually online, 1-to-1 or 1-to-many, through a video-conferencing program that enables me to share documents I’ve composed that elaborate the following general principle of tutoring:

  • interactively assessing the student’s needs, then tailoring tutoring to these needs

 

Training Session2:  Tutoring Specifics for the Peer-Tutor’s Specific Course

This session must be in-person, during which:

  • I observe – and take notes through – an actual tutoring session that the peer-tutor has with a student.                                                (I of course get both the peer-tutor’s and student’s permissions to do this observation. I also emphasize to them that I’m only an adviser, wielding no administrative power over the peer-tutor.)

  • After the tutoring session, alone with the peer-tutor:

    • We discuss the notes. Though I address the weaknesses I observed, I make sure to also point out the strengths I observed.

    • We role-play (I play tutor while peer-tutor plays student) on how to tutor – and integrate textbook study – for a specific practice problem that was asked about during the tutoring session.  

 

For Individuals

Please see the "Volunteers (Online)" and "Volunteers (In-Person)" pages in the “Take Action” section of this website.