Modes of learning

[Nidan Melbourne]

But not everyone has the knowledge to realize that they aren't suceeding because of a learning style mismatch and the motivation to teach themselves, so probably a lot of people get discouraged and just quit.

When I teach students i find out throughout the classes to see how they learn best.

I also ask them as well when i am teaching them to see how they learn best.

Even though If i teach them often i'll remind them that if they don't understand what to do then ask, so i'll explain it in another way so they can understand.

I think these are important points that both students and teachers should be aware of. From a teacher's point of view, a student is not stupid or unteachable because they don't understand how you've explained it, you've just not yet hit on the best way to convey the lesson to them. Equally students shouldn't get disheartened because they don't understand, the should ask for a demonstration or a different way of explaining

On the side of my regular job I tutor kids, specialising in maths and science. Over the years you end up with different ways to teach the same subject dependant on how that person learns. For example teaching fractions to kids. Some get it better if I bring in something like Lego or a bag of sweets they can physical divide up because they are better at learning through physical activity, some prefer to talk about it and go through logically, others like to use pictures and draw things themselves. Same lesson just different ways of conveying it.

I teach privately outside of class and a parent as asked me to teach their child karate, the thing i have to be careful is that the child has autism. and another one of my private students has aspergers.

So They obviously have different mental processes and physical limitations. But what i have done when them is learnt about them first and if they have a special topic i'll try my best and relate techniques to those.

Now whenever i teach them they may have a different name for certain techniques so they can either remember it or to keep themselves interested.

so different teaching styles take time to develop and also you need to know how to teach people differently (verbally, visually etc).

[Canadian77]

I'm not an instructor but thought it might be worthwhile sharing what I have observed in our dojo that seems to address this issue. In adult classes we have a high-ranking black belt who does the warm-ups, and once the director takes over the class this person helps out, walking around during drills, etc. There is a different person in this position on the different days of the week, which I find helps a lot, as their teaching styles are all slightly different. For the little kid groups there are also some higher coloured belts (usually brown) that also assist, making corrections, walking around, etc. I find that the variety of instructors really does help with the different ways that people learn. I have both a student and parent's perspective on this, since my little guy recently started as well, so I have observed many classes as well as participated in them. I am pleased with this approach, as it does seem to work well.