Something Different

Sunday's class was small, like only four of us showed up small. So, I decided to try something different. We paired up as one senior student and one junior student. The idea was for the junior to teach a technique to the senior. If the technique was valid and didn't need any tweaking, the junior would move to another technique. The senior's task was to help where needed if the junior didn't quite have all the necessary components of the technique.

My thought was that this would give the junior an opportunity to really think about the techniques in a different way. Most of us know that it's one thing to learn and perform a technique, but it's something completely different to understand and teach it to someone else.

There were a lot of dynamics at work here. I realize that when I'm not able to be in class and teach, one of the senior students takes charge and teaches with no problems. I also realize that the situation changes if I'm sitting off to the side watching that senior student teach. There's something that's a little nerve racking about having the teacher standing over you, watching and evaluating your performance. The more practiced senior students don't seem to mind, but I remember what it was like and know what's going through their head.

With that in mind, I knew there would be some hesitation on the part of the junior to teach a technique to the senior. But, I still believe there is value in this type of training.

Another benefit of training this way is that it was like the junior was receiving a private lesson. The same two worked together for the entire class period.

At the end of the session, one of the seniors commented that the junior knew more than he thought he knew.

I might pull this type of training out of the hat from time to time and get some more feedback to see if there is a true benefit for all involved.