Teachers’ Opinions About One-to-One Tuition – a Report From Poland

Abstract

One-to-one tuition is an important form of assistance dedicated to pupils who, due to their health issues, are unable to temporarily (or permanently) participate in traditionally organised schooling. In view of teachers’ scepticism towards one-to-one tuition, mostly because it fails to satisfy children’s needs of personal contact with peers, the study was conducted among educators. The results presented here are part of larger research on one-to-one education. The aim was to find out teachers’ opinions about one-to-one tuition and mandatory year-long one-to-one preschool education. The material for analysis was collected with the diagnostic poll method, employing a questionnaire technique. The respondents had to be professionally active teachers. The survey participants evaluated their experience in one-to-one tuition as a positive one. Very few provided negative opinions, these being mainly because of the financial costs or the learners’ home and family environment being unfavourable for teaching. It is optimistic to assume that the research participants acknowledge the opportunities that one-to-one tuition creates for working with school pupils. The limited contact of an ill child with peers is most often referred to as a disadvantage of this form of tuition. A change which was most frequently suggested in the organisation of one-to-one tuition was the implementation of modern technologies, the Internet, and online teaching applications. The respondents suggested that the teachers delegated to work with a student at home should be the ones appointed by the school head teacher. It was rather discouraging to discover that the surveyed teachers believed a person delegated to carry out one-to-one tuition did not need special preparation.