I offer mathematics tutoring, using dancing and movement as supportive measures, based on results from modern learning and memory research.
I am computer scientist with a PhD in neuroscience (graduated from the graduate program KOGNET, Ruhr University of Bochum).
I would not have dared to jump into self-employment unless the software company where I was working at the time had gone into insolvency.
The topic of my freelance work unites several of my life themes:
- Understanding and explaining mathematics (since my school days)
- Dancing, movement, choreography are my hobbies since the age of 14
- Dealing with brain research, learning and memory since my adolescence, and intensified since 1990 (start of my doctorate).
What I love most is dealing with children, which is the very core of this work. It is mentally stimulating, involves emotional contact and is very creative. When dealing with a given mathematical problem, I easily come up with a fitting movement or action that will support learning or retention.
What I like least is marketing and acquisition of new customers – having to “sell” myself, even when my self-confidence is low. And the constant change of roles between teacher, CEO, administrator, PR-person and cleaning lady 😉 is hard for me – in short: The fact of being a “solopreneur”.
It would certainly have helped if I had studied some business strategy, financial planning or economics.
One of the most important skills in my work is the ability to approach every level of understanding “at eye level”. Otherwise, I would not be able to understand the child’s problem. Asking radically. Often, the child’s problem is a very basic one. If I, for example, had the same assumptions about a mathematical problem that the child has, I maybe would not be able to understand any further statements, either… This skill is absolutely compatible with my inborn and trained “spirit of research”!
For the future, I whish the effectiveness of my methods would be investigated systematically. For the time being, this, however, remains wishful thinking.