![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It may be easier to have patience with a hand-full of students in a small group where you are reviewing materials over several sessions, than with a large group in which you are present a topic in a very limited time frame. Impatience with students in most cases is a fundamental flaw in the ‘art of teaching’ on the part of an instructor. I now realize that in some cases I need to take the same approach with some groups of adults as I do with ‘my kids’, as I call them.Īnother fundamental quality of an instructor is patience, especially with students (regardless of age) who are attempting to learn. You simply must have much more patience with youngsters. Keen among those modifications is ‘patience’. I quickly learned, after the first few years or so, that I could NOT take the same approach with them as I did with my ‘adult learners’. Indeed, 14 years ago I started teaching Bible studies to youth and children. I mentioned that during the last 14 years, something has changed in my life. On the other hand, adult learners are continually judging the instructors demonstrated confidence in order to determine if they are going to accept the topic of learning as being factual and beneficial. But children, for the most part, tend to accept authority and therefore they are not measuring the ‘teachers’ confidence. There is a major difference in teaching adults who are attending a class, course, or seminar because they want and need the instruction, and a child or teenager who may wish they were anywhere else doing anything else than sitting in a classroom. Now I must admit that except for the last 14 years or so, I have primarily instructed ‘adult learners’ during my various careers involving instruction. Great instructors are confident in their abilities to teach the materials, and to do so in a manner that insures their students (no matter what age) are learning from their instruction. An instructor must have a certain ‘aura’ about them which is based upon and exudes ‘confidence’. Having a sound knowledge of the subject is not enough. The truth is that instructors must in fact continue to build upon their understanding of the subjects and materials they teach. A basic foundation of such awareness on the part of an instructor is a rationalization that they are never too skilled, or too knowledgeable, or too old to keep learning. While instructors do not need to be ‘total experts’ in their fields, they at least must possess an above average knowledge of the subject. You cannot teach what you don’t know (or believe for that matter). This is because the first real quality of an instructor is ‘knowledge of the subject matter’. In fact, if the topic of instruction is a technical subject, you clearly will not find any such evidence if the instructor is worth their weight. While the old saying is “those who can’t do, teach”, I find that very untrue. Hopefully you won't start out with 2000 in an auditorium as your first gig. Sometimes we refer to this mode of instruction as ‘coaching’ rather than training or teaching.īut ultimately, unless you just have absolutely no interest, or willingness, to stand before a group of people, be that a half-dozen, 20 or 30, or 2000, you are probably going to find yourself responsible for providing training/instruction to such groups. Many ProAdvisors are comfortable providing ‘arm-chair’ training, that is “one-on-one” or perhaps a couple of people in a ‘show-n-tell’ type environment. There are 2 kinds of instruction/training. Sooner or later you are going to get called to ‘train’ users of the software you are supporting. One of the roles of a ProAdvisor is trainer/instructor. ![]()
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