Eileen

Certified Tutor

Hi, my name is Eileen Oak, and I would like to tell you about an online tutorial service that I am offering to A- level students which I think will be useful to you. I offer online tutorials for students undertaking A-Level Sociology and History for the AQA Exam Board, and I specialise in exam revision and exam techniques geared to enabling students attain a level 5 or level four grade in their A level exam. I am passionate about history A- level thanks to Henry Ford who famously once said: " History is bunk but, without it there is no future". I interpret that to mean that unless we (society) know and analyse our past, we are destined to repeat the mistakes over and over. I am particularly interested how history is written by the winners, as the cliche goes, and how throughout the 19th and 20th century, historians took for granted the portrayal of Richard III, thanks to 16th century Tudor propagandists, who would put the Kardashian social media machine to shame. Likewise my passion for sociology, is to explore the intersection between globalisation, and the intersections of race, class and gender and how they affect and are affected by power relations and ideologies.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
For the past 23 years I have taught sociology and social sciences in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, at Salford university, the Open University, then Massey university (NZ) and University College Dublin (ROI) and for the last five years I have taught Sociology and Psychology on the BSc and MA social work programmes, at a university in the northeast of England. For the past 5 years I have tutored A-Level History and Sociology students privately in the form of one-to-one online, and I have a 92% success rate in students attaining a level 5 or level 4 grade in their Sociology and History A-levels and I currently act as an AQA Examiner. I have a BA (Hons) in History and Sociology (2:1) and Masters and PhD, in Sociology and I have written a textbook for undergraduate, social work students entitled "Social Work and Social Perspectives"(2008) which highlights the relevance of sociological theory to social policy and social work. These experiences and qualifications have given me extensive specialist knowledge in the fields of History and sociology.
MY APPROACH TO TEACHING
Apart from teaching students how to understand learning objectives A01, A02 and A03, for Sociology and History, foster their critical analytical skills; I do not have a set approach to teaching. I believe every student is different and I have a very good understanding of pedagogy (child centred learning) and andragogy (adult centred learning) and I see it as my function to enable A- level students to make the transition from child centred learning, to, adult-centred learning , which is learning through problem solving, and in this way students can take responsibility for their own learning and develop their critical analytical skills which will enable them to work more independently when undertaking their revision and be more proactive learners when they attain their A-levels and go into higher education.
I have extensive experience of modular teaching and tailoring each session to the student's individual needs and designing and delivering online courses using Canva lectures, Adobe Connect, Blackboard Ultra, Zoom and Microsoft Teams and designing podcasts, as well as student self-directed activities relating to the key learning points of each session and get them to complete a session reflective, diary sheet, on how the session relates to learning objectives A01, A02 and A03. Current research demonstrates that no matter how academically able a student is, or how good the learning materials are; after about 45 minutes, a student's concentration wanes and they retain less critical understanding of the subject matter, than in the first half hour. To address this problem, all my 1-hour tutorials are broken down into 4 x15 minute segments, interspersed with student activities and quizzes and podcasts so they can recap on key points, to develop their critical understanding.