The fourth step of the tutoring process is “Identify the thought process” which, in computer science can be amazingly difficult. The content we type into a page on a laptop can be instantly decoded into a step by step process by the computer but for students, it can be much harder. The first obstacle is that as with any field computer science has its own unique vocabulary which students have to comprehend before a tutor can really even explain things effectively. Second, in my personal opinion there is a certain logic unique to computer science which for me and others I’ve talked to came as a sort of “Eureka!” moment and causing this to happen for a student is no easy task. We can only hope that the student has some basic grasp of how problems should be approached in the right way. The right, and really only way for beginning computer science is to look at a problem in the way the computer does, line by line in a direct order. I like to start by looking at what my client has written thus far towards solving a problem so I can identify the steps they tried to take. One problem I faced was that my client would come in with a problem, no direction, and no visible prior thought, and just say “help me”.
As for Step 5, this has always been the easiest step for me. My primary client persistently comes in with an assignment or problem he would like to work on or receive help with. The problem arises when we reach step 6 and actually go to solve the problem. My biggest frustration is that when we go to solve the problem, I realize that he does not understand any of the fundamentals needed to solve the problem correctly. At which point it really becomes necessary to provide at least a rudimentary explanation of the concept so you can make some headway in solving the problem. With one of my clients it is incredibly difficult because there such huge gaps in this person’s knowledge that it is very difficult to explain anything new or make any forward progress.
Step 7 and 8 also are very frustrating for me. My client is very negative and while at the time of the appointment, he is capable of explaining the steps that we went through, he has difficulty using and applying that knowledge for other problems even though I tend to skim over the approaches that should be tried for problems we were not able to get to in the session. However, my client is very negative about his future expectations, and so, when he is summarizing, he states that he understands a problem but is never very confident about the future problems.
