Private Tutoring as a Problem of Pedagogical Science and Practice
The article presents an analysis of such a phenomenon as private tutoring. Since it had a mass character during last few years, it has been suggested that private tutoring should be gradually becoming a part of the learning process. The interpretation of the part of the legislative documents of modern education is presented so as to clarify the fact that the term «Private Tutoring» does not contradict with the legislative base of the Russian Federation. The conclusion is made about the obvious existence of the problem of the need of learners in private tutoring and the tendency to recognize tutoring as a legitimate part of the learning process. In the article the author gives explanations of existing definitions of this phenomenon and suggests her own definition of tutoring. The author analyzed the results of the content analysis of practicing private teachers’ questionnaires from different regions of the Russian Federation on the identification of the main directions of tutors’ work. Interpretation of their own results is based on the published research of the Higher School of Economics on the effectiveness of tutors in training senior pupils for the USE (Unified State Examination) and the author's view on the conclusions of this project is presented. The conclusion is drawn about the effectiveness of classes with the tutor of weak learners despite the low score of the Unified State Exam; and also the role of the tutor is stressed in the preparation of high school students for the exam. As a result of the study, the directions of work of private teachers were formulated and ranked. The analysis of detected directions allows us to consider additional lessons for students in the subjects of the school curriculum with private teachers as an auxiliary learning process which affects the quality of education improvement and the level of education of children. Positive and negative aspects of such a learning process were considered. The comprehension of the goals of additional classes, characterized as «coaching», was carried out. The dependence of private tutoring from the formal education system was stated.