Ramsay

Mainly only doing online tutoring at the moment.

I have a Bachelor and Master degree in Physics from the University of Groningen, and a Bachelor degree in Philosophy from the University of Lancaster.

Alongside academic things I have a few hobbies including hiking, writing and rock climbing.

Tutoring Experience

I have a 130 hour certificate for teaching English as a foreign language from the organisation TEFL Scotland which I studied for and attained in 2013. I worked as an English-as-a-foreign-language teaching assistant in a school in Italy from 2014 to 2015 and fulfilled the same role in a school in Switzerland from 2015 to 2016. A lot of this time consisted of independent teaching of groups of students for whom I prepared the lessons. I have references for both of these jobs.

At the University of Groningen I have worked as a Physics teaching assistant to undergraduate Physics students in 2019 and 2023, and also as a Mathematics teaching assistant to undergraduate Chemistry students in 2022.

Tutoring Approach

When it comes to English as a foreign language, one-on-one sessions allow me to adapt my sessions to the needs of the student quite a lot. I have a large archive of previous lessons and materials, alongside a hobby of creating new activities in advance of lessons, to alter and adapt to suit to what my student needs or wants to learn, and also to what they find enjoyable. I tend to slightly prioritise functional ability with a language over more abstract grammatical matters as in my experience it is easier to master the latter when someone already has at least a basic grasp of the former. On the other hand, I also have some experience in making the more stereotypically 'boring' sides of language-learning, such as grammar and vocabulary, fun.
When it comes to Mathematics, Physics or Philosophy I prioritise grounding my students' learning by giving them an intuitive understanding in the questions being asked, and their own opportunity to form their own ways of understanding the concepts. While they need to learn the relevant names and theories, I find that grounding in this way gives a better ability for Philosophy than simply expecting students to memorise and regurgitate lists of names, formulae or facts about an idea with no opinion or understanding of their own on it.