Thinking tutor and mentorI work as a tutor/mentor/coach for young people and adults. Although I have worked to support pupils with exam curriculum content for GCSE music, A level philosophy and religious studies, I have developed a specialism supporting people to develop better critical thinking skills more generally in preparation for university level education and coaching for Oxbridge interviews, and this includes working with young people in care and coming out of care and pupils who think neurodivergently.
Meta Educational Coaching for teenagers: the art of learningPeter is offering a unique form of coaching for GCSE, A level and Btec students coaching in a more holistic, metacognitive way. This involves meeting on a regular basis to coach via a combination of conversation, enquiry and instruction. The aim is to join the dots between subjects, to inspire and thereby cultivate self-motivation, to naturalise a critical thinking approach to learning, and to think creatively for oneself - to become a kind of Socratic learner, whatever subjects are being undertaken. Peter will furnish them with much more than what they need to pass their exams, including life-long self-learning strategies, techniques and approaches such as:
- Refined personal value development (or ‘Who am I and what matters to me?’)
- Memory techniques (or, ‘How to ‘cheat’ in exams!’)
- Writing skills (or ‘How to turn what I think and say into words’)
- University interview strategies (or ‘How to show how I think’)
- Organisational skills (or, ‘How to order and prioritise things’)
- Research skills (or, ‘How to find out what others think when it matters’)
- Presentation skills (or, ‘How to engage an audience and convey ideas’)
- Critical thinking skills and disposition (or ‘Knowing how to think well and just doing it!’)
- Dialectical enquiry skills (or, ‘How to think for yourself’)
- Revising skills (or ‘How to be wisely efficient’)
- Understanding procedural and conceptual approaches to learning (or ‘Knowing what to do but also knowing why I’m doing it’)
- Developing an intrinsic approach to learning (or, ‘Finding the pleasure in study’)
“This kind of coaching, that I describe as an informal approach to formal education, is great if your child is struggling to see why they are studying, is lacking motivation, is overwhelmed with where to start, is finding it all a bit of a slog or chore, struggling with understanding or is anxious about what’s ahead. It is not subject-focused or philosophy-focused coaching, but it is education-focused and learning-focused in a philosophical way. As Dorothy Sayers once said with reference to the medieval Trivium (Grammer, Dialectic and Rhetoric) aspect of schooling, designed to be taught in addition to the core subjects, “...they learn everything, except the art of learning.” With me, they will master the art of learning, and this will help them with everything they learn for the rest of their lives.” Peter Worley on his Meta Educational Coaching
Peter has been working with children-in-care-or-coming-out-of-care and preparing to go to university for Reading borough Brighter Futures Virtual School - to great success, he has worked with teens going through an existential crises and many private students, both in music and other subjects where he has been chosen specifically because of his broader approach to learning and playing music where he cultivates a love of learning/playing for the sake of learning/playing.