Anna D

Academic History

About Me

My approach to tutoring largely depends on the student that I am working with. In my view, it is vitally important to take into account the student’s preferred way of learning, educational needs, goals and interests, as well as their personality. At the same time, my general methodology is predominantly knowledge-based: I believe that the ability to understand abstract subject content translates into the acquisition of skills. As a tutor, then, the challenge is to explain the material in a way that is going to help the individual student to acquire knowledge and subsequently apply it.

Throughout my teaching experience, I have worked with students from a variety of backgrounds and have been keen to explore different teaching techniques as well as strategies for assessing student progress and achievement. I encourage students to think independently, challenge ideas and develop their own, which is especially important in subjects such as philosophy and history.

Recent tuition

GCSE History

I teach GCSE History at the British School of Monaco. One of my students is very bright and diligent but struggles with exam technique, especially source analysis. I have made sure to incorporate as many practice exam questions as possible into our lessons in order to systematically guide her through exam technique. She has got an A* in her history mock exam.

GCSE History

Another GCSE History student at the British School of Monaco. He is very bright, inquisitive and analytical, but lacks diligence and focus, which has affected his academic achievement. My task has been to help instil these qualities in him and make sure that his knowledge and analytical skills are reflected in his grades. He has got an A in his history mock exam.

A Level History

I also teach A Level History (OCR) at The British School of Monaco. Covering the entire curriculum with a small-group class, I aim to engage my students’ interest in the subject, and encourage them to develop the argumentation and critical thinking skills which are vital to success in A Level history. As exams approach, naturally we focus more on past paper practice and exam technique in order to optimise the students’ chances of securing the best grades possible.

A Level/GCSE Psychology

For the past three years I have been teaching Psychology (AQA) online at the British School of Monaco and King’s International Academy, as well as private clients on an in person, one-on-one tuition basis.

A Level Psychology

I tutored an A Level Psychology (OCR) student for six months between January and July. The student was performing very well but he was specifically struggling with the Core Studies section of the course and required detailed guidance to help him get through all the material as well as to improve his exam technique. My weekly lessons focused on covering all the material, dedicating at least one lesson to each core study and thoroughly testing the student’s memory about all of its details, such as its research method, sampling method, number of participants, etc. Each lesson would also include practice questions from past exam papers and a detailed examination of the mark scheme to help the student optimise his performance. The student reported that he felt very confident about his knowledge and skills for A Level Psychology after the tuition.

Year 9 Philosophy

I tutored this student for a year. She was an extremely diligent and high-achieving student with an excellent memory. However, whilst her ability to memorise the material was an advantage in most subjects and enabled her to have encyclopedic knowledge, it was not sufficient for excelling in philosophy. Her challenge was to learn to let go of facts and think from scratch. I encouraged her to think independently without just relying on her memory and develop her own arguments. As a result, she became the top-scoring student in her class, consistently achieving 100% in her midterm exams.

Year 9 Philosophy

This high-achieving student had excellent critical thinking skills. However, he was easily distracted and needed to be constantly challenged to maintain his interest in the subject. In addition to this, whilst he was able to come up with original ideas and formulate nuanced arguments, he lacked the diligence and writing skills to be able to communicate them in a structured and clear manner. My challenge as a tutor was to help him improve his communication skills in order to do justice to the ideas he came up with, as well as constantly raise the bar to keep him motivated and engaged. He ended up being the other top-scoring student in his class, also achieving 100% in his midterm exams on several occasions.

A-level Philosophy

This student was extremely curious, quick-witted, and passionate: the quintessential philosophy student. She had strong opinions and passionately engaged in debates. However, this became more of a downside when dealing with contentious topics in philosophy, especially in ethics. My goal was to help her approach the topics from a purely conceptual perspective in order to fully engage with the opposing perspective and then defend her own position by formulating a strong argument based purely on logic and evidence. She did extremely well in her mock A-level exams and was consistently one of the top two students in her class.

A-level Philosophy

This student was curious and methodical in his approach and possessed good critical thinking skills. However, despite enjoying the subject, he lacked motivation and I felt that he was overwhelmed with the amount of reading required for the subject. My task was to maintain high expectations and push him to consistently produce good work, as well as help him develop good reading skills for philosophy by strategically combining skimming and detailed reading. He became the top-achieving student in his A-level mock exams.

A-level Philosophy

Philosophy was a last-minute choice for this student, so my task was to both cover the fundamentals as well as help her understand the nuances of arguments in a short period of time. I set essay assignments every other week and kept raising the bar, whilst covering any gaps in her knowledge and breaking down complex ideas into simple concepts. She was very grateful for my help and did well in her exams, especially given the amount of preparation that she had.

Hobbies and Interests

My academic interests lie primarily within the philosophy of psychology and the history of philosophy. I have always been interested in the interconnections between history and philosophy and have shared William James’ (and Nietzsche’s) view that the history of philosophy is, in a way, a history of clashes of certain psychological attitudes. My interests outside academia include writing music—which I also like to view in relation to psychology— and performing.

Testimonials

“Anna is a pleasure to work with. She relates well to people of all ages and is an excellent teacher.”

Anna’s PhD Supervisor