Arguably the most important goal any instructor has
in their classes is to make sure that the material being taught is presented to
the students as best as possible. In order to accomplish that, the person doing
the teaching has to take quite a few variable into account (students’
motivation, predisposition for the subject at hand, group dynamics etc.), but
first and foremost they manner in which they conduct the classes, simply
because that happens to be the aspect they have the most control of. I have already
discussed the need to be able of speaking to various people in their “own
language”, in terms of how do you formulate your message. This time, let’s
take a step further and see how the said message is packed to be sent.
It should be more or less known by now that the
properly chosen material to be worked in a training session should be
challenging but doable. It is the approach one uses to get their student to do
it, despite being challenging, that sets the tone here. There seem to be three
main styles of talking to the trainees, and I will use arbitrary monikers here
to label them:
·
Caring supporter;
·
Gambler/challenger;
·
Drill sergeant.
Helping, caring hand |
In essence, the first one mentioned is the type that
encourages their students by using affirmative language and actions, in order
to help them achieve the desired result. For example, the caring supporter will be saying things like “come on, I know you
can do it! You’re almost there, just one more step/rep/second...!” They will
also commonly be giving the students applause, patting their backs and doing
other things of that sort if they succeed, or even if they don’t, but in the
latter case the emphasis will be on commending the spirit and effort
demonstrated during the attempt. This fashion of coaching is especially suited
for beginners and/or very young students.
The gambler/challenger
plays the card of people often wanting to prove others wrong when daring
them to do or not do something, i.e. expressing doubt in their ability to
accomplish something. Typically, such trainers and training partners will utter
stuff like “I bet you can’t _____ that, even if your life depended on it”, or
“if you do _____ I’ll eat my socks!” You get the idea… In my experience, this
sort of tainting is mostly prevalent among the people who are basically peers –
equal training partners or in the cases when the instructor-student
relationship is relaxed and not very formal.
"You dirty, rotten, fitlhy..." |
Finally, when the training session is bordering
abuse (or at least looking like it), you’re having the drill sergeant at work. Such situations will offer plenty of foul
language, insults and dismissal of the trainee’s effort, sometimes even if they
do achieve the task. “You pussy! Why am I wasting my time with you, you
worthless peace of shit!? Is that the best you can do, you big sissy?”… I guess
that even by reading this you can rather vividly imagine the tone of voice and
facial expressions that go with it. Typically, this is the approach associated
with boot camps of all sorts, hence the chosen designation for these instructors.
Now, some may ask, which of the above teaching
tactics is the best? Well, from the last sentence of each of those paragraphs,
it should be clear that each has their place, depending on the circumstances.
Sometimes, more than one of those can be used even with the same student or
within the same training session, again, depending on the situation. Ideally,
an instructor should be able to take the shape of any of the above and speak as
a different person when it is called for, but… I think it is counterproductive
to force yourself to be one of those “personifications” if it really goes
against your grain or moral fiber. The reason is, if you are unable to be
authentic in a given role, the outcome will also be less than ideal.
Shapeshifter |
Finally, keep in mind that the described tactics are
not necessarily clear cut and sharply distinctive among themselves. As always,
they are more of the streamlined fragments of a continuum and should be taken
and utilized as such. The bottom line is – assume the personality that will
suit your students’ needs best, and not just because you are in that kind of
mood that day.
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