Effective Teaching

I like to think I am a student of learning as well as of the martial art I teach. It is important to me to discern what makes a good teacher and how to adopt that attitude. Here are two ideas which, for me, are the key to being a memorable and influential teacher.

1 - A good teacher cares more about the student than the lesson 

The degree of care that a teacher has for the student underlies how well the relationship can work. Good teaching takes its flavour from the personal traits and needs of the student and this requires the utmost care of the instructor. A rigid curriculum is, I find, of limited use when developing an individual. Poor teachers are those that supply unnecessary lessons. A good teacher instead adapts, invents multiple learning aids that befit the person in front of them and is not attached to any particular method.

A good teacher will abandon the idea of trying to instruct and concentrate on the more agreeable task of helping people learn. The teacher's attention should therefore lie in understanding how learning occurs and, specifically, how that process works in his or her own charges. The place for experience and knowledge is in helping students around obstacles. The teacher's main purpose is to become sidelined as the student learns for him or herself.

James Southwood    07950 456307
www.jamessouthwood.com   www.londonsavate.co.uk