Stavros

• Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education – University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2011
• Ph.D. Degree in Theoretical Particle Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
• Bachelor's Degree in Physics, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
• Diploma of Business, Kent Institute of Business and Technology, Sydney, Australia 2012

I am a Theoretical Particle Physicist and have over the years, studied, researched and taught in leading universities and laboratories around the world. I believe that this gives me the qualifications and the experience to be a very effective tutor.

Tutoring Experience

I am a fully Qualified Secondary School Teacher (Dip. Ed. UNSW, Sydney Australia, 2011 - Science) and I am an accredited secondary school teacher in New South Wales, Australia. Over the last 15 years, I have been involved in classroom teaching (after 2019) and private tuition (2008-2019) in the areas of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics for Exam/College Preparation as well as University Level Courses. I have experience in the UK (GCSE/iGCSE & A-Levels - AQA, Edexcel, OCR exam boards), the International Baccalaureate curriculum in Physics (SL/HL) and Mathematics (SL/HL including the new curriculum), the Australian HSC (Year 11 & 12) School System as well as Oxbridge Admission tests (PAT/STEP/MAT/ENGAA). From the USA Curriculum, I am quite familiar with the AP AB and BC Calculus and AP Physics 1, 2, and C. I also have experience in the USA College/Universities Admission tests, such as the GRE Subject Tests (Physics and Mathematics) preparation as well as SAT and GMAT (Math/Quantitative/Analytic sections).

Employment Summary

I am currently a full-time Mathematics Specialist at ONCAMPUS, University of Southampton. ONCAMPUS teach pre-university programmes leading to a wide range of undergraduate and Master's degrees at leading universities across the UK, USA and mainland Europe.

My most recent assignment was as Physics Lecturer at the Immerse Education Summer Academic Program at Queens College, University of Cambridge. This is a pre-university programme designed to facilitate engaged and motivated students to explore their subject in greater depth, providing them with insight into what it is like to study advanced content within their subject area at Oxbridge Universities.

During the period from January to June of 2023, I was a Math and Physics teacher at Northridge School, Mexico City, Mexico (US curriculum). That assignment entailed both teaching in middle school (grades 7,8 ) and high school (grades 10, 11).
Prior to this position (academic year 2022-23), I was a Math Teacher at the program “Swiss Semester”, Zermatt Switzerland (following US curriculum) and prior to that, I was a Math Teacher at the University of Brighton International College (on-site) and Kaplan International College London (remote) (GCSE/iGCSE and A-Level curriculum).
Before these positions (academic years 2019-22) I was again a math teacher at the Swiss Semester, Zermatt Switzerland (on leave from Kaplan International College London), and I held a teaching position at the Department of Science and Engineering at Kaplan International College London, based at London Bridge, London, UK since August 2019 (GCSE/iGCSE and A-Level curriculum).

The program Swiss Semester takes place annually and its duration is only from September to December. Also both Kaplan International College London and University of Brighton College are part of the Kaplan group. Hence the above positions are part of contracts with just two employers.

Professional Experience

My position at Northridge School, Mexico, included teaching Mathematics at the Middle School (Grades 7 and 8) and High School (Grade 10) as well as High School Physics (Grade 11). The School follows a loose US curriculum. During my six-month tenure at the Northridge School in Mexico, I made significant contributions to the academic environment while facing challenges in terms of student discipline and the school's focus on religious/music and sports activities rather than academics. Despite my dedication and commitment to the role, I made the decision not to extend my contract due to the school's lack of an academically respectable position and my preference for a more balanced academic environment. Additionally, I found myself primarily teaching middle school, which did not align with my initial preferences. Overall, my experience at Northridge School provided valuable insights and reinforced my desire to pursue opportunities that align more closely with my professional goals and interests.

My previous position in the Swiss Semester entailed teaching math at the secondary level. The syllabus taught is mainly pre-calculus and Advanced Placement Calculus (also known as AP Calculus AB / BC) is a set of two distinct Advanced Placement Calculus courses and exams offered by the American nonprofit organization College Board. Swiss Semester is a coeducational program of academic, personal, and physical challenge for roughly fifty high school sophomores from the finest independent and public schools in the United States and beyond. Swiss Semester’s campus is Zermatt, Switzerland, an outdoor paradise that epitomizes the security, stability, healthfulness, and natural beauty for which Switzerland is renowned.

In regard to the previous teaching role at Kaplan International College London: This role included teaching Pre-Master’s students Statistics, and Foundation Physics, and Mathematics. During the academic year 2019-2020, I was the Pre-Master's Advanced Statistics Module (PM608) coordinator. The module consisted of two intakes: The September Cohort and the January Cohort respectively - The duration of each is 20 weeks apart from some extra 10 weeks where students have to participate in the "Active Learning Weeks" as required by Kaplan. Each Cohort consists of approximately 100 students. Teaching is done in smaller groups of 20-30 students in a collaborative, interactive, "inverted classroom" setup. Each group has three hours of teaching every week on the topic. Over this period, I was in charge of the teaching curriculum, exam preparation, and online and offline content development for this particular course. Apart from the A-Level math courses, I have several teaching hours related to A-Level Physics (equivalent to Year 11, 12 Australian HSC Physics). During this period I taught mostly face-to-face but given the circumstances, a small part of the instruction during the national lockdowns was done online.

Apart from the previous role, I am a part-time Private Tutor in Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics. A large part of my work is related to University Level tuition but also the last two grades of High School (exam preparation).

Teaching Approach

Obviously, apart from the context itself and the expertise in the related fields, there are other essential components of successful teaching like personality, enthusiasm, versatility, appreciation of the importance of outreach, and most important a relation of understanding between the lecturer and the students.

Apart from the previous, I think that it is crucial to provide students with a working knowledge of physical systems and to teach them problem-solving skills for building upon this knowledge. Teaching a person to think analytically is at the core of what a student should take away from any science or mathematics course. For students not majoring in physics/math, it is important to teach them how science affects their daily lives and how to make informed decisions about it based on the information available. For physics/math majors it is crucial to teach them the knowledge pertinent to their course of study and how scientists solve difficult problems using approximation, computational, and other quantitative methods. These important tools are invaluable to future researchers because they aid in the careful design of experiments and in determining the predictions of a model or theory. I would also strive to cover a range of topics in my courses. This would enable me to teach an array of different methods for approaching physical problems and to demonstrate how similar approaches can be applied to problems from disparate fields. Furthermore, being a theoretician, I am well suited to teach physics majors how to construct theories and models, to derive predictions from these models, and to test these predictions against empirical data they have collected from the literature or obtained in the laboratory.

From my experience, I learned the importance of engaging students through examples and of pitching material at a level that assumes intelligence but not necessarily knowledge, blending the known with the unknown in a combination that gives the student the feeling of possibility rather than that of impossibility that formal and impressive methods may impose. I would also enjoy teaching introductory physics courses. Although it is often challenging to teach introductory students, it is a challenge I thoroughly enjoy. Preparing lectures and solution sets forces me to communicate fundamental ideas in simple terms and to think deeply again about some of the most basic principles in physics and math.

Tutoring Approach

During my graduate school period, I had the chance to become familiar with the system of tutorials that some of the British universities offer. This much more personalized system provides the opportunity of outside of the classroom discussion and interaction which are a crucial part of the learning process, so I believe in being available to the students outside of lectures in some kind of such a system. Many students who are reserved in class, ask excellent questions in smaller settings and thus, learn much more. I greatly value the instruction and mentorship I received while in college and feel strongly about providing quality education to current and future students.