The Art of Teaching

[Eric]

Hello again everyone,
I was just reading Savi's thread on how you would explain Time, Space, and Energy and it's brought up some other questions in my mind about the art of teaching itself. Being that we have many accomplished instructors on this forum, I'm sure this is a great place to get answers to some of my general teaching questions.

1. How do you instill confidence in what you say to the student? Many times a fancy sash is not enough to convince someone that you have full knowledge of what you are speaking about, how do you present the material so that the student is not left doubting you as an instructor?

2. What is the best way to convey ideas in words? Here I'm not just talking about eliminating "um, like, sort of" and other indecisive words from an explanation but also the pacing of what is being delivered. Often I feel that by delivering too much information at too rapid a pace I am leaving those I explain it to without the complete idea of what I was trying to convey, how do you strike that balance? What are words to definately eliminate from explaining something? (the ums, likes, sort ofs, etc)

and now the big question

3. How can you keep students working on the same material for an entire session focused? Many times when students are working on the same thing for an entire class period, for example, the WC formula, they tend to drift, start talking, quit paying attention, etc. What is a good way to prevent this, and also if you come into a situation where focus has already been lost, how do you get it back?

All thoughts/comments are appreciated.

~Eric

[Cang Long]

Good questions Eric.
The beauty of Saam Mo Kiu is here to me. When an informed instructor teaches this is not the experience of the student though some may or may not learn from it -----------then when an informed instructor demonstrates this is not the experience of the student though some may or may not be capable of learning from it----------and finally when the student trains and experiences the teaching of the instructor oneself and moves from fau kiu towards weng kiu all can learn from experience-----------the student then should be able to communicate this experience better to others and and have enough command of the SNT as well as the SLT to effectively guide others from fau kiu towards weng kiu. Hou Chyun San Sou is very siginficant in helping others to enlightenment.

1. How do you instill confidence in what you say to the student? The skill challenges should be able to instill this confidence and remove the need for words.2. What is the best way to convey ideas in words? Experience.3. How can you keep students working on the same material for an entire session focused? There is no right or wrong answer to this question just something that again over time you experience and get better at.

[passing_through]

Eric,

How do you instill confidence in what you say to the student? …how do you present the material so that the student is not left doubting you as an instructor?

In my experience, this comes to two factors:

1) You have to have confidence in what you are teaching. If you are unsure of yourself, your students will pick that up.

2) You have to demonstrate the applicability of what you are doing. This doesn’t always have to be directly related to fighting per se but if you’re students see how to apply the concepts you are teaching to their lives (relationships, business, spiritual growth, fighting, etc.) then they will realize for themselves that what you are teaching is valid.

What is the best way to convey ideas in words?

This depends on you and your students. The culture you are in also plays a part in your language usage. I know a lot of big words but I don’t generally use them when teaching the kid’s classes.

As for pacing, I tend to avoid talking too much beyond what I want to see the students drilling. Once they are breathless, if it’s more of a Saan Sau drill, I’ll talk as they catch their breath – my goal is to relate what they are doing to some concept such as Time/Space/Energy or Heaven/Human/Earth for example. If the students are losing focus doing a more Focused training drill, I’ll have them switch partners and then explain a new aspect of the same exercise… or point out mistakes that I saw being made (without singling anyone out! Just say, “I saw a few people doing this…” make your correction and get the students back to training.)

What are words to definately eliminate from explaining something? (the ums, likes, sort ofs, etc)

“You know.” Teachers that finish a sentence with “you know” is a pet peeve of mine. From a student’s point of view, if he or she knew, then he or she would be teaching!

How can you keep students working on the same material for an entire session focused? What is a good way to prevent this, and also if you come into a situation where focus has already been lost, how do you get it back?

Generally, when people lose focus it is because they either think they already know whatever it is that is being drilled or they don’t see how it relates to themselves (lack of self-motivation).

In a lot of ways, working with Adults is just like working with Kids.

Some ways to help people maintain focus:

- Make a game out of certain training
- If students are talking, have them rotate partners more often
- Explain different layers of the same exercise
- Stop the focused training and give the students an experience of a Saan Sau application for the Focused training drill. Once they can relate to the skill the Focused training is developing, they tend to be more disciplined for the remainder of class.
- for me personally, when I’m teaching, I’ll just spontaneously yell out, “Drop and do 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 squats!” and when they are all done, have them rotate with the instruction to be mindful of their bodies and minds more. This is a good way to grab people’s attention without having to stop and give a lecture. After I do it a few times I explain the reason behind it from a self-defense point of view (reacting quickly when the time calls for it) as well as the attention point of view (losing focus so need a “wake-up”).

Remember that when you are teaching you want to elicit a certain set of behaviors. Anything you do to help elicit the behavior is appropriate and may be different for each student. The goal is to eventually unlock the training method and the behaviors so the students can do for themselves, spontaneously and naturally.

Hope this helps,
Jeremy R.

[Eric]

Tony and Jeremy, thank you for the comments!

I was thinking on this more after I had posted it, and I have come up with a new question.

4. What parts of unspoken communication are important? As someone who's trying to be an animator, I was required to study something known as "semiotics" (spelling?) which was basically how to convey information without words, the art of body communication. For a more common example, to all who have taken a speech class in their life, they may remember being told not to shift weight from leg to leg as it distracts the listeners from the speech. How does this science apply itself to teaching kung fu? How close are you to a student when explaining something, how often do you touch hands with each individual students? When adressing the entire class, is it neccessary to move to the front of the room so that you appear more as a commander-type presence?

I know this is a question a bit further out there than the last ones, but since up to 80% of communication can be nonverbal, i think it's important to expend thought on.

~Eric

[Bryan Feagin]

Jeremy, excellent post!

There's a saying that goes something like, "Judge my skill by what I can do. But judge my teaching ability by what my students can do."

I personally take this to heart, and I think all kung fu students should care more about the instructors' teaching ability than actual skill level. However, one thing I've noticed with some kung fu instructors is that they sometimes can't or don't actually pull off the technique/concept/whatever that they are trying to teach. Unfortunately, students (especially beginners) pick up on this right away. This is bad.

For example, if an instructor is constantly pointing out that his/her students are letting their elbows fly out while doing WC vertical punches, but then the students see their instructor doing it in demos or just during general teaching sessions, it's going to hurt the instructor's credibility in their eyes. Or another example is if an instructor is trying to teach a technique in a live drill but can never pull it off and repeatedly gets hit by the student.

The bottom line is, as an instructor you must have confidence in what you are teaching, and have an adequate level of skill to back it up. Don't teach what you can't express. Otherwise your more judgemental students will head for the door.... :(

Thoughts?