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Information About Douglas:

Personal Description:

I'm a retired university lecturer (Computer Science) who has been tutoring young people for over 25 years.

Teaching Experience:

I taught university-level Computer Science and Data Processing courses from 1979 to 1995, and have done volunteer teaching -- mainly for the UKMT's Maths Challenges -- at local schools and to gifted children's groups. I have been tutoring for over 25 years.

Tutoring Approach:

There are two things worth knowing about my tutoring style:

(1) I work hard to make 'difficult' topics understandable. This means getting behind terms like 'energy', and asking, not "What is energy?" but rather, "How do we use the word 'energy' in science? What are we referring to. This also means starting 'bottom up': getting an understanding, for example, of the sets of numbers we call 'natural numbers', 'integers', 'rational numbers', and 'real numbers'. (We start off by distinguishing 'counting numbers' from 'measuring numbers'.) In physics, we start with four basic ideas: space, time, mass and electric charge, and see how units like 'acceleration' or 'power' are derived by putting them together in certain ways. Related to this is visualization -- I use an excellent collection of YouTube videos, and a collection of still images, to get certain basic ideas across.

I also tell my tutees, as we go along, a bit about the history of maths and science. What happened to the poor fellow who proved that the square root of two was irrational, much to his teacher's anger? How were X-rays discovered?

(2) I also teach my tutees a collection of 'tricks' to reduce the 'cognitive load' when taking an exam: how to we calculate the diagonal of a square [the hypotenuse of right-angled triangle] ? By having learned "Boo boo boo, the square root of two" when we see one.

Maths and science, unlike other subjects, can make people feel stupid, and guilty for not understanding them. So a good teacher has to a psychologist, with a lot of empathy, as well has being on top of the subject, and familiar with the best research in mathematics and science education. (They are consolidating into one organisation now, to which I will transfer my past membership of the Mathematics Association and Association of Teachers of Mathematics.)

Qualifications:

• PhD in Computer Science (CNAA, UK)

Further Information:

Availability:	Weekends / Weekdays (all times)
Types of Tutoring:	From their home / Online
References Supplied?	Yes
Current DBS/CRB Check?	Yes