Tuition Archives - iMatter Learning Centre. Tuition Centre in Yishun. Small class size

08Feb 2024 by Principal

Is Tuition only about doing Worksheets? Or is there more to Tuition?

Cognitive skills, News, Opinion, Tuition

By Mr Kwok Recently, we have received many queries from parents about our teaching methods. Do we just give out worksheets to our students to complete, mark and return to them? How are our lessons structured? Do we give homework - how often and how much? Do we give our students a break in our lessons? Understandably, these are reasonable questions in the minds of parents before they sign their children up in any tuition centre. I will attempt to answer them in this post and in the process, provide a clearer picture to the reader of how we teach. (You may also check out Our Teaching Philosophy here.) Using Worksheets as a Complementary Tool in our Tuition Lessons We do not simply throw out worksheets to our students to…

20Sep 2022 by Principal

Why do students perform poorly in their studies: Getting to the heart of the matter

News, Non-cognitive skills, Opinion, Tuition

By Mr Kwok This is a continuation of our earlier post, A Checklist of Reasons Why Students Perform Poorly – Are you looking at the right ones?. In it, we discussed the various reasons that could have led to a student's poor performance. They are all important reasons no doubt but the more we reflect upon them through the lens of our teaching experiences, the more convinced we are that a recurring reason stands out. As in Lord of the Rings, it is the one ring that controls the other Rings of Power. It is also our belief that when this single most important factor is rectified, all other issues will fall into place like a chain of dominoes. What is this all-important factor then? The heart of the matter…

05Oct 2021 by Principal

Why Science is the Most Interesting Subject

Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Science, Tuition

"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."— Albert Einstein By Mr Kwok In Science, one of our favourite quotes is shown above. We always stress to our students that there are gaps between textbook knowledge and real life applications so it pays to get hands-on to have a firm grasp of the subject matter. Therein lies the reason why Science is the most interesting subject - hands-on work in Science engages the learner like no other subject can. How often do you get to apply the theories you learned at so many different levels - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and even taste (if you are working on Food Science)? Establishing these many connections among various centres in the brain can only enhance long term…

24Apr 2021 by Principal

A New Normal? Some Things in Education Never Change

Opinion, Tuition

The 8 “C”s of Teaching COVID-19 has been with us for more than a year. The term, New Normal, has been used over and over to tell us that we have entered a new era in which we have to adopt a new mindset (think online learning) as the old ways no longer work (say congregating together for a practical session in a packed laboratory). However, the more “New Normal” plays like an overused jingle in various media, the more I ponder on the things that do not change, especially in the field of education. These are the principles that endure the test of time, notwithstanding the technologies of time and place. I first came across The 8 “C”s from my mentor when I started out as an educator. These…

31Mar 2021 by Principal

A Checklist of Reasons Why Students Perform Poorly – Are you looking at the right ones?

Cognitive skills, English, Non-cognitive skills, Opinion, Tuition

Over here in iMatter, we make use of this simple checklist to evaluate our students against their performance in school. Through discussions with our students about their learning, It enables us to at least have a grasp of the possible issues they are grappling with. Though this post is aimed at students performing poorly, it can very well be used as a checklist to explain why students excel in school by reversing the viewpoints below. (We have a longer and more descriptive version of this checklist guest posted at Singapore's Finest website. It includes several suggestions on how some of these reasons can be managed.) A Caveat Many factors/reasons tend to overlap one another and determining the underlying cause(s) may not be easy as the obvious reason may not be…

26Feb 2021 by Principal

Grand Prix with Toy Cars – Learning Science Through Play

Science, Tuition

In iMatter, we are strong advocates in experiential learning involving experimentation, hands-on work and the use of real world examples to reinforce the content we teach in class and what the students learn in school. For our PSLE Science students, Forces and Energy are taught in their syllabus and will definitely feature in their year-end national examination. Learning these two topics can be challenging for some as Forces and Energy are essentially abstract concepts and certainly invisible. However, their effects are very real, ranging from the feel of wind in our faces to the destructive aftermath of an explosion. Experiential Learning To study these two topics in a realistic yet playful and safe manner, we ran our very own Grand Prix with.... Toy Cars! Admittedly, we do not have a…

24Dec 2020 by Principal

Project Solar House: Experiential Learning for Our Science Students

Physics, Science, Tuition

Despite COVID-19 stealing the limelight in our daily news, climate change is still very much alive in the world's consciousness. Being a strong contributor to the mitigation of climate change, Solar Power is all the rage as society moves towards greener energy sources. As we make a global shift away from carbon based energy sources (read Combustion), solar power is the next natural step as it is cleaner and renewable. Solar panels used to be reserved for those with deep pockets but now we see them everywhere, from the apartment rooftop to the cell phone charger. In our Science lessons, we introduce to our students how solar energy works and get them to work on an individual project to construct a miniature solar house that harnesses solar energy to light…

04Dec 2020 by Principal

Parachuting Cats into the Borneo jungle – a cautionary tale for Science

Biology, Chemistry, Opinion, Science, Tuition

This is one of those stories that approach urban myth status. We have not found corroborating evidence to prove the veracity of the story. Interestingly, Singapore is briefly featured in the story. If you have not heard of it, here's a link to an online video. To avoid giving out any spoilers here, we will only touch on the barest of background information. Regardless of how historically correct the story is, we shall focus on the lessons for our readers and students. The story was set in 1950s Borneo where malaria ran rampant. Unfortunately, the solution was not as straightforward as planned and brought about many unforeseen consequences. 4 Lessons from the Story In Science, one of our favourite quotes is from Albert Einstein, "In theory, theory and practice are…

08Sep 2020 by Principal

When your child does NOT need tuition

Opinion, Tuition

Parents enrol their children in tuition for various reasons. The 2 most common ones are: My child is weak in subject X so I want him to do better; my child is good in subject Y but I want him to do even better (i.e. I want a guaranteed distinction for him). Scratching below the surface However, parents often do not look beyond the surface to find out exactly why their child is not doing well. (We shall leave out the 2nd reason of obtaining a distinction for the purpose of this post.) This investigative step is critical as it is the key to solving the problem of poor grades in the child. Could it be due to a lack of understanding? Unfortunately, such an explanation is still vague so…

19Aug 2020 by Principal

Experiential Learning of Acidity in Science through Experimentation

Chemistry, Science, Tuition

By Mr Chen In iMatter, Science is a passion among our tutors and we work to inculcate it in our students. Perhaps sounding cliched, we wholeheartedly believe that Science is Everywhere. Science is not a subject to be studied solely by theory. Book knowledge has to be reinforced and nurtured through hands-on experimentation and observation. If the Science student has the opportunity to conduct field work, more power to him! The Trouble with COVID-19 Unfortunately, the past few months of the COVID-19 situation has somewhat dampened the experiential aspect of Science. Schools and their laboratories were closed. Public venues e.g. Science Centre, Marina Barrage were likewise closed to the public. A student interested in biology, hydrology or ecology could not even visit our parks and nature reserves to observe Science…