Nowadays, schoolchildren can take advantage of online tutoring in most subjects, regardless of whether they lack text comprehension, the binomial formulas are not correct or Ohm’s law is a puzzle. But in which subjects do children and young people have problems most often?
As many parents probably already suspect, there is a high demand in mathematics. As an analysis by Studienkreis Online-Nachhilfe, which evaluated data from the past four years, recently revealed, around 34 percent of the lessons booked there are for math. offers on the web.
Languages are the most important behind math: English with 18 percent, German with eleven percent and French with nine percent. Together with other foreign languages such as Spanish, a good 50 percent of all tutoring hours are language classes. Natural sciences such as chemistry, biology and physics make up nine percent.
When asked by the news agency spot on news, Tobias Lampe, operational manager of Studienkreis online tutoring, explains why so many hours are spent on mathematics and languages. On the one hand, it is because “maths and German are among the core subjects that are taught at all levels of instruction. That’s why parents understandably have a special interest in enabling their children to perform well and understand the content in the long term. And where more schoolgirls and students have a subject at school (including foreign languages), so the need for tutoring is of course particularly high.”
But there are also other reasons why mathematics “is by far the subject with the greatest need for tutoring. Every student has their own learning pace. In mathematics, where one learning content builds directly on the next, you can quickly learn lose touch. The desperation and frustration that builds up in many students because they don’t follow along then leads to demotivation and in the worst cases to resignation – the typical ‘I just can’t do it’ (that’s how I felt when students too, by the way).” A tutoring offer could, however, “reach for needs-based support”.
According to the company’s evaluation, the number of organized lessons doubled between the beginning of the corona pandemic in 2020 and January 2021. Especially after the start of school and after the half-year reports, there is a significant increase in bookings. And the current demand is still high. “The hours of instruction actually completed in the first half of 2022 amount to more than 3,000 hours per week,” explains Lampe. “This is a noticeable increase compared to the same period last year.”
High school students in particular (58 percent) take advantage of the online offer. 16 percent of the hours are allocated to students and 15 percent to pupils at comprehensive or junior high schools. Virtually no online learning support is booked for secondary school students. With regard to individual subjects, there is also no clear difference between students. Only in the natural sciences is the proportion of women around two thirds.
An online offer is in no way inferior to classic tutoring on site and it is not a question of which form of tutoring is better or worse, says Lampe. Both when it comes to support via the Internet and at a specific location, “the personal interaction between tutor and student and needs-based, individual support” are important.
The location independence is meanwhile a “significant advantage of online tutoring”, since, for example, longer journeys are eliminated. This is particularly “relevant in more rural regions, where the offer of physical tutoring is traditionally lower”. Last but not least, online tutoring offers “greater flexibility in terms of time”. Parents and their children are therefore not dependent on how to get there or on specific opening times.
In addition, the online version enables a larger selection of tutors, which means that the wishes of the children and young people can be better addressed. Lampe explains: “If, for example, there is no available language teacher in the student’s location, online tutoring offers the alternative of getting together digitally from two different locations.” For example, there are also tutors from abroad, which is particularly exciting in the language area. “The only important thing is that they are native German speakers or speak German at native speaker level.”
“Private tutoring is and remains a sensitive issue in families,” says Lampe. Parents should therefore “take children by the hand and arrange tutoring with them, not against them. A positive mindset is essential for the success of tutoring, regardless of the form.” One argument in favor of online tutoring could be location independence, for example, because if there is no need to travel, this means more free time for the child.
