How to teach (maybe)
Last one today, promise...
I've just been playing with JetBrains rather nifty Omea Reader. And, as you do in such circumstances, I've been catching up on RSS feeds I haven't read for a little while. There's a link to an interesting article on Silk and Spinach concerning how to teach using questions.
A few years ago, when I was still actively flying small planes, I used to teach baby pilots how to navigate. I learned quickly that just telling people the same stuff week after week was pretty useless as a teaching method - certainly with adults. You had to get them thinking, coax the knowledge out of them - you knew it was there, because you'd told them the week before. I used to tell students new stuff for 2 weeks max. After that, if they got stuck, I'd ask questions until they figured out the answer for themselves. Asking the right question is the skill. It is very easy to ask the wrong questions and seem very patronising.
It's a difficult balance, and you have to be flexible depending on the student, but you get better results and I don't think any of my students failed their navigation exam.
While I'm here, the other useful technique is letting them get it wrong. If they've spent an hour sorting out a flight plan using an incorrect assumption (e.g. they were flying Liverpool to Ipswich rather than the other way round! Don't laugh, it happened almost every course) they'd learn very quickly. Don't use that one too early or too often though!! :)
For those of you who've never taught, it's a massively rewarding experience (and at times unbelievably frustrating) But to take someone from the 'ooo, nav chart, look at the pretty lines' stage to being competent planning a flight at x-thousand feet from A-to-B, is a wonderful thing to behold.
I've just been playing with JetBrains rather nifty Omea Reader. And, as you do in such circumstances, I've been catching up on RSS feeds I haven't read for a little while. There's a link to an interesting article on Silk and Spinach concerning how to teach using questions.
A few years ago, when I was still actively flying small planes, I used to teach baby pilots how to navigate. I learned quickly that just telling people the same stuff week after week was pretty useless as a teaching method - certainly with adults. You had to get them thinking, coax the knowledge out of them - you knew it was there, because you'd told them the week before. I used to tell students new stuff for 2 weeks max. After that, if they got stuck, I'd ask questions until they figured out the answer for themselves. Asking the right question is the skill. It is very easy to ask the wrong questions and seem very patronising.
It's a difficult balance, and you have to be flexible depending on the student, but you get better results and I don't think any of my students failed their navigation exam.
While I'm here, the other useful technique is letting them get it wrong. If they've spent an hour sorting out a flight plan using an incorrect assumption (e.g. they were flying Liverpool to Ipswich rather than the other way round! Don't laugh, it happened almost every course) they'd learn very quickly. Don't use that one too early or too often though!! :)
For those of you who've never taught, it's a massively rewarding experience (and at times unbelievably frustrating) But to take someone from the 'ooo, nav chart, look at the pretty lines' stage to being competent planning a flight at x-thousand feet from A-to-B, is a wonderful thing to behold.
Comments
My view is that a good teacher is a good facilitator. They see the obstacles to learning and remove them. Perhaps by prompting discussion in the right direction with a careful question. Perhaps by imparting a key piece of knowledge necessary for the learner to make the next connection.