Tutors can directly influence their students, impacting not only academic growth and achievement, but also self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Part one of this discussion focused on student self-awareness. The discussion continues here, shifting to the impact of tutors on student confidence.
The Self-Confident Student
Self-confidence and self-esteem are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Self-confidence refers to one’s belief in his or her own abilities and judgment; it is about trusting oneself to engage one’s abilities to overcome challenges and achieve personal goals. Students can grow in self-confidence, and tutors can help.
Confidence is necessary for student success. It is a motivator that helps students feel comfortable about trying new things. It helps them to be more resilient when they experience failure: they don’t dwell on them as much because their confidence helps frame those failures simply as learning events. Self-confidence also betters student relationships because students are less concerned about others’ perceptions of who they are; this, in turn, strengthens their overall sense of self-worth and personal value.
Self-confident students can more easily concentrate on their performance, which they do in a circular way: their confidence motivates them to work hard so they can overcome challenges; that feeds and grows their confidence further. They are more willing to face assignments and tasks that might be daunting, to take on personal responsibility for their education and personal growth. Self-confident students rise to new challenges, seize growth opportunities, and manage difficult situations; they spend their time focused on developing skill sets and increasing knowledge. Self-confident students try new and different things that can help round out their experience and understanding of the wider world, and they learn to accept failures as lessons rather than indictments, which they can use to inform their future efforts and endeavors.
Self-confidence can be developed. Tutors can play a positive role in fostering student confidence. If their students have consistently underperformed on academic tasks and have received poor grades and negative feedback from teachers, their self-confidence might be low; these things heighten student anxiety and undermine their confidence. Tutors can help by encouraging students who lack confidence to practice the skills that are problematic in a safe arena with a non-judgemental learning guide. Working on those skills is key to building (or re-building) self-confidence. Further, tutors can guide students towards consistency and accountability as they teach positive work habits and help students to develop processes so they can focus as they work; they help by cultivating problem-solving and organizational skills that will impact students positively inside and outside of the classroom. Tutors can also encourage better interpersonal communication to help build student confidence. They understand that being able to communicate efficiently and effectively is key in reducing anxiety when it comes to students learning to identify and address needs on their own; self-confident students who have developed their communication skills can take responsibility for their education and their lives in general (also an extremely valuable asset they will be able to use in the real world once they complete their academic journeys). If students are given the chance and the agency to address their problems in this way, they will become more self-confident.
Self-esteem is related to self-confidence, and plays an important role in student success, too. It relates to belief in one’s abilities. In part three of this discussion, the focus shifts to how tutors can help improve the self-esteem of their students.
Students need the opportunity to shine. If you feel your child has deficits that are holding him or her back, a caring tutor can help. Tots ‘N Tutors, a professional tutoring company that serves students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and college, provides students the skills necessary to achieve their academic goals and grow in self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Tots ‘N Tutors is ready to offer quality educational services through structured tutoring tailored to your child face the challenges of learning during the current pandemic and beyond. Our learning guides meet with students individually or in small groups to help students with comprehension of information in all subject areas. Contact Tots ‘N Tutors today to discuss the in-person and virtual availability of tutors who are committed to helping your child stay on track throughout the educational journey.