A Thought on Fear

Just a few days ago, I was asked to perform a skit in Chinese. The problem, at least according to me, was that I have never been particularly fluent in it and it made me very apprehensive.

My initial mindset was one of "I can't do this". However, as I placed myself into the swing of things, I found that it was not really as tough as I feared. Granted that my Chinese language skills weren't nearly as strong as my grasp of English, it all turned out pretty well in the end.

The encouraging thing was that I was congratulated on a good performance.

My thoughts on the matter resonate with a quote by Jerome Bruner that John Maxwell wrote in his book - you're more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.

Indeed, our fears are often worse than the situation we fear. 

Two Recent Insights from Interviewees

Having spoken to a number of people who are involved in the education world in different ways, I picked up a few tips.

1) When a room is noisy, it doesn't mean that the learners aren't learning.

Having learned about the different strengths that different people have, I know that some people learn best by asking questions and having discussions. This sometimes functions like a sounding board and helps to organise thoughts and ideas.

However, there are teachers who insist on a completely silent room when they are teaching and any sound is immediately quelled. This is sometimes necessary, especially when instructions for an activity or practice is being given.

A quiet environment is also more conducive for many learners to absorb information. That said, not all noise is equal. If learners are legitimately discussing the session at hand, it may be useful to give everybody a few moments to have a talk-through before getting back to the teaching.

2) When a question is asked, don't immediately answer it yourself.

3 seconds of silence may feel like an eternity when you are waiting for a reply but it is often insufficient time for a learner to come up with an answer if it is a new topic or a complex question.

Give learners time to formulate answers. Tell them to discuss with a partner and come back to the question after a minute or so.

If it is something that you are expecting them to already know, it is possible that the way you asked or phrased the question is causing some uncertainty or confusion - something that can be discussed in a future post.

When you are about to call on somebody to answer a question, ask the question before calling the name of the person. That way, everybody pays attention longer because they wonder if they will be called upon.

If your learners know that you are in the habit of answering your own questions, they often stop bothering to answer you. That is an immediate loss of an opportunity for rapport building. Not good.

Top Three Questions Every Learner Wants Answered

I believe that in any teaching session, there are three questions on the minds of every learner present. If the teacher cannot answer them adequately, the learners will eventually lose interest.

1) Who are you?

If this is the first time the learners meet the teacher, they would want to know something about this person who is about to show/tell them a whole lot of stuff.

If this is not the first time, then the question becomes more like "what role are you going to be playing in this session?" - I will be getting to a discussion on roles in a future post.

The sub-questions that this leads to may include:

"What is your background?"

"What makes you an authority on this subject?"

"Are you an interesting person?" and so on.

Give an introduction of yourself if applicable (first-time meetings). Otherwise, if possible, reveal a part of you that your learners may not know exists. Keep it interesting. Showing who you are to your learners is an important part of building rapport. - I will talk about rapport in the future as well

2) What am I doing here?

Perhaps one of the more complex questions to answer, it is often beneficial to let the learners answer this themselves. How do we do this? Ask them!

Sometimes, you may get 'tough crowd' answers like "I'm here because I have to be." This is simply a sign that they are resistant and it is up to you to break this resistance, a topic for the future.

They want to know what to expect. They want to know what they are going to learn by listening/watching you. They want to know how to do something - a skill or some way to improve their lives. Tell them that!

3) How will this benefit me?

This fringes on doing a sales presentation - sell benefits, not features.

When you teach something, it has to have some benefit to the learner. It can be having the learner pass an examination so they can move on to the next phase of education (so they can eventually be out of the education system) or it can be helping them to break an old, bad habit by replacing it with a new, good one. 

Tell them the benefits of learning what you are teaching. Not everyone is going to be convinced right from the get-go but a convinced learner is a motivated learner and motivated learners are generally easier to work with.

Teachers, it is not always easy to see the benefits of everything but if you cannot see the benefits of teaching your subject, why are you still teaching it?