John

I am a Classics teacher and Theology graduate student based in Oxford, where I first came to study Classics before working in Parliament and the Civil Service.

After four years of full-time teaching in a senior school, I tutored some wonderful students through First Tutors during my second BA in Theology and Arabic at Oxford. I spent the past two years studying for a Master’s degree and teaching in the USA, and have recently come home to Oxford to continue my teaching and research here.

When not teaching or studying, I am usually to be found spending time with friends, running, reading or singing in choirs.

Tutoring Experience

I have four years of experience as a Classics and Religious Studies teacher at independent senior schools in Oxfordshire and North London, as well as several years of experience as a private tutor in Religious Studies, Latin, Greek, French, Politics, and Classical Civilisation. During my Master's degree in the USA, I taught Theology & Religious Studies also at university level as a teaching assistant to my supervising professor.

Tutoring Approach

My approach to tutoring is based on listening to and respecting the student, aiming always to build independence and confidence on their part.

Seeking to understand the world and its people is what drives my research, and helping others to develop their own understanding is what drives my teaching. I generally find, however, that the subject matter most truly comes alive for me in dialogue with the student, whose questioning will often change the way I see a text or a topic we are studying, just as I seek to develop and challenge their understanding. In this sense, I see tutoring as a genuine exchange: while the tutor knows much that the student does not yet know, the tutor nonetheless learns from the student.

Once we have studied a topic together, I often use the revision technique of asking the student to assume the role of teacher, and to teach me a topic as though it were new to me; through this, both student and tutor come to see the strengths and weaknesses in the student's knowledge and understanding of a topic.

Including as much active learning as possible is a key part of my tutoring in Classics: in Greek and Latin language work, I place more emphasis than many on composition into the language as a means of strengthening knowledge and understanding.

In Religious Studies, Politics, Classical Civilisation, Ancient History and the literary elements of Latin and Greek, I strive always to provoke a student to question accepted orthodoxies and to reach their own evidence-based and clearly expressed conclusions rather than teaching 'right answers' parrot-fashion. My experience is that this produces enjoyment and success for students in equal measure.