DragonMind
04-13-2006, 12:52
Once upon a time, in the land of OkiJapChi, there lived a humble Farm-Cat. Unfortunately for Farm-Cat, other animals wanted to take his land and food and Lovely Females. Farm-Cat couldn't allow this so he learned to use his teeth and claws and his agility and strength. He became a Tiger and drove the invaders away. Legends and stories were told of Tiger's prowess and fighting ability.
After a time, a Monkey came to visit Tiger. Monkey wanted to become as fierce and mighty as Tiger. But, Tiger couldn't speak monkey and Monkey couldn't speak tiger. So, Tiger would demonstrate and wait for Monkey to imitate it. This worked reasonably well because imitation is a Monkey's true nature (Monkey-See, Monkey-Do after all). When Monkey would get something wrong, Tiger would nudge him into the right position. If Monkey was being particularly obstinate or dense, Tiger would give him a good swat with his big paw and the point was made.
Eventually Monkey came to have some skill as a fighter and went home to Monkey-Land. When the other Monkeys saw his skill, they asked him to teach them to be Tigers. But when Monkey-Teacher was asked a question, he didn't really have an answer so he did the same thing Tiger did to him. He made them do it again and again until they got it right or he swatted the ones who were especially slow or questioning. Monkey-Teacher told the others "This is the One True Tiger Way and you may not question it." Eventually, only a few Monkeys were training to be Tigers because Monkeys are generally inquisitive creatures and didn't like the lack of explanations... or the swats. The remaining Clan-Monkeys took it as their mission to maintain the One True Way. Any Monkey so foolhardy as to ask "why" was heaped with scorn and ridicule. The Clan-Monkeys laughed among themselves at these "lesser" Monkeys who would not embrace the One True Way. And thus the cycle was passed from Monkey-Teacher to Monkey-Teacher.
One day a Dragon happened along and observed the teaching methods of Monkey-Teacher. The Dragon tried to help Monkey-Teacher become a better teacher so that more Monkeys could become Tigers. Judo Bear and the Training Owl tried to help as well. But Monkeys are stubborn creatures and prone to tantrums, so the Monkey-Teacher refused to listen. "If it was good enough for Tiger, it is good enough for me!" was his mantra. And so, the poor Monkey-Teacher dooms himself and his Monkey-Clan to remaining little more than a curiosity. Poor Monkeys.
So the Moral of our Tale is: You can show a Monkey a better way, but you can't do jack with a Baboon.
For those of you who would actually like to learn a better way to teach, here are some key points when dealing with adults.
Adult learners are self-directed. The adult learner wants to take responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating their learning activities. That means learning is a collaborative effort between the student and teacher. There must be an on-going two-way communication. "Do it because I said so" doesn't work. "Do it because this is a building block that you'll be able to use later" does and is an effective way to answer the "this has no practical use" type statements.
Adults bring experience to the situation, good or bad. The most effective way to teach them is to show how the new material relates to what they already know. Analogies are particularly effective with adults.
Adult learners are not looking for abstract theory or concepts. They need to see how learning X will help them be more successful at what they want to do. These learners are problem-centric rather than subject-centric.
Adults are internally-motivated. They want to learn for a variety of reasons and you have to connect with those reasons or they will be gone soon.
Adults have different learning styles and teachers have different teaching styles. You need to find out both so you can match how you teach the person to how they learn best. They also use different perceptual modalities. You need to see which modalities works best for which people.
For starters on more info see:The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species by David Knowles and "Perceptual learning styles: Implications and techniques for the practitioner" by James and Galbraith Lifelong Learning, Jan 1995, pp20-23.
After a time, a Monkey came to visit Tiger. Monkey wanted to become as fierce and mighty as Tiger. But, Tiger couldn't speak monkey and Monkey couldn't speak tiger. So, Tiger would demonstrate and wait for Monkey to imitate it. This worked reasonably well because imitation is a Monkey's true nature (Monkey-See, Monkey-Do after all). When Monkey would get something wrong, Tiger would nudge him into the right position. If Monkey was being particularly obstinate or dense, Tiger would give him a good swat with his big paw and the point was made.
Eventually Monkey came to have some skill as a fighter and went home to Monkey-Land. When the other Monkeys saw his skill, they asked him to teach them to be Tigers. But when Monkey-Teacher was asked a question, he didn't really have an answer so he did the same thing Tiger did to him. He made them do it again and again until they got it right or he swatted the ones who were especially slow or questioning. Monkey-Teacher told the others "This is the One True Tiger Way and you may not question it." Eventually, only a few Monkeys were training to be Tigers because Monkeys are generally inquisitive creatures and didn't like the lack of explanations... or the swats. The remaining Clan-Monkeys took it as their mission to maintain the One True Way. Any Monkey so foolhardy as to ask "why" was heaped with scorn and ridicule. The Clan-Monkeys laughed among themselves at these "lesser" Monkeys who would not embrace the One True Way. And thus the cycle was passed from Monkey-Teacher to Monkey-Teacher.
One day a Dragon happened along and observed the teaching methods of Monkey-Teacher. The Dragon tried to help Monkey-Teacher become a better teacher so that more Monkeys could become Tigers. Judo Bear and the Training Owl tried to help as well. But Monkeys are stubborn creatures and prone to tantrums, so the Monkey-Teacher refused to listen. "If it was good enough for Tiger, it is good enough for me!" was his mantra. And so, the poor Monkey-Teacher dooms himself and his Monkey-Clan to remaining little more than a curiosity. Poor Monkeys.
So the Moral of our Tale is: You can show a Monkey a better way, but you can't do jack with a Baboon.
For those of you who would actually like to learn a better way to teach, here are some key points when dealing with adults.
Adult learners are self-directed. The adult learner wants to take responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating their learning activities. That means learning is a collaborative effort between the student and teacher. There must be an on-going two-way communication. "Do it because I said so" doesn't work. "Do it because this is a building block that you'll be able to use later" does and is an effective way to answer the "this has no practical use" type statements.
Adults bring experience to the situation, good or bad. The most effective way to teach them is to show how the new material relates to what they already know. Analogies are particularly effective with adults.
Adult learners are not looking for abstract theory or concepts. They need to see how learning X will help them be more successful at what they want to do. These learners are problem-centric rather than subject-centric.
Adults are internally-motivated. They want to learn for a variety of reasons and you have to connect with those reasons or they will be gone soon.
Adults have different learning styles and teachers have different teaching styles. You need to find out both so you can match how you teach the person to how they learn best. They also use different perceptual modalities. You need to see which modalities works best for which people.
For starters on more info see:The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species by David Knowles and "Perceptual learning styles: Implications and techniques for the practitioner" by James and Galbraith Lifelong Learning, Jan 1995, pp20-23.