HOW TO TEACH!
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:56 am
Just to benefit anyone who hasn't done a level 2 instructor course yet, and will be instructing the new crop of beginners in September. There's more to teaching something than just explaining it and winging it, and I'm going to go through the process here. If I get around to it I might add bits on specific skills, we'll see how it goes!
Anyway, the method that has been determined to be the best way of teaching kayaking skills is something called EDICT, and this is what's taught in the level 2 instructor course. This stands for Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Coach, Task. This basically lists all the steps that you have to go through when teaching someone any skill in kayaking. I'll explain each of the parts below.
EXPLAIN - When teaching a new skill to someone, the first thing you do is explain it. Firstly give a BRIEF outline of what it does, why it's used, where it's used and where it's not to be used. Remember that the more you say the less the person will remember, and only include the bare essentials. Then, probably the most important part of the whole process, you break the skill down into THREE main points. Which three points you choose will have a huge impact on the speed that someone picks up the skill, and breaking skills down into three points is something that you will get better at with more experience. Obviously, most kayaking skills need far more three points to explain them properly, so the key here is to pick the absolutely fundamental ones. Pick the ones that will get the student doing a functional but rough version of the skill, and the subtleties of the correct technique can be taught later in the process. For example your three points for teaching the forward sweep stroke might be: 1. The top hand stays as low as possible. 2. Your driving hand stays straight. 3. The paddle blade moves in a wide arc from the nose of the boat to the tail. While giving this explanation make sure that you are totally stationary, the student(s) are stationary and that they are actually paying attention.
DEMONSTRATE - Once you have explained your three points. Give a quick demonstration of the skill. Do it a few times, preferably while not talking. Make sure that you do it slowly, and that what you're doing can be clearly linked back to the three main points that you gave the students earlier. Ask them if they have any questions, and repeat any part of the explanation/ demonstration that they're not clear on.
IMITATE - This is where the student(s) try out the new skill for themselves. All going will, you've explained three essential points perfectly clearly, given a clear, concise demonstration and now you've got a couple of future Olympians on your hands, ripping around the place, loving the fact that they've learned something new. More likely, you cocked up part of the explanation and didn't make it clear enough, two of them were picking their noses and weren't paying attention and one of them has a learning disability. Which brings you onto the next part of the exercise.
COACH - While the students are trying the new skill, you give them feedback on what they're doing. Maybe a paddle more vertical here or more horizontal there is all it'll take. Or some other minor feedback will get the skill functioning well enough that they feel that they've made some progress. Sometimes a whole group will really not get what you've been trying to explain, and you might have to bring them back in together to go over one or two key points again. Unless you realise that you've made a major boo-boo regarding which three main points you picked and left out something fundamental, stick to your original three. If you start adding more in then people are just going to start forgetting other things that they're meant to be doing and everything just gets more complicated. Research has determined that three is the number of things that most people can remember when trying a new skill for the first time. Any more than that and they just start to forget stuff. That's why stuff like rolling and some freestyle moves can be so hard to teach, it's very hard to break them down into just three points and still have the moves function. If you add more points, people will start to forget fundamental aspects of the move, such as having everything perfect but forgetting to edge if they're learning to stern squirt.
TASK - Once people are doing an acceptably Ok version of the skill, it's time for the most important step of the process. The idea of the task is to introduce some repetition and start committing the move to muscle memory. The ideal task will be fun and involve as many repetitions of the skill as possible. Some kind of game is ideal for flatwater, whereas for whitewater skills like ferry gliding that can be more difficult to organise. If you have no better ideas just get the students repeating the skill over and over, but people do get bored of that quickly so if you can think of any kind of activity that will spice things up then go for it.
That is as far as the EDICT method goes but that is NOT where the teaching/learning stops. Now that people have a skill that they can use while paddling, the aim is to get them using as good technique as possible. Once people are comfortable with the basics, start focusing on things like body rotation, where they're looking while doing the move, where the paddle is in relation to the boat and all that other stuff that differentiates a skill from being Ok or Perfect. Keep giving feedback, this stage of the learning process never stops. Some bad habits fall through the cracks, and others are picked up as people get lazy. Keep an eye on the intermediate paddlers and fellow instructors, and if you see something that they could be doing better tell them!
Anyway, the method that has been determined to be the best way of teaching kayaking skills is something called EDICT, and this is what's taught in the level 2 instructor course. This stands for Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Coach, Task. This basically lists all the steps that you have to go through when teaching someone any skill in kayaking. I'll explain each of the parts below.
EXPLAIN - When teaching a new skill to someone, the first thing you do is explain it. Firstly give a BRIEF outline of what it does, why it's used, where it's used and where it's not to be used. Remember that the more you say the less the person will remember, and only include the bare essentials. Then, probably the most important part of the whole process, you break the skill down into THREE main points. Which three points you choose will have a huge impact on the speed that someone picks up the skill, and breaking skills down into three points is something that you will get better at with more experience. Obviously, most kayaking skills need far more three points to explain them properly, so the key here is to pick the absolutely fundamental ones. Pick the ones that will get the student doing a functional but rough version of the skill, and the subtleties of the correct technique can be taught later in the process. For example your three points for teaching the forward sweep stroke might be: 1. The top hand stays as low as possible. 2. Your driving hand stays straight. 3. The paddle blade moves in a wide arc from the nose of the boat to the tail. While giving this explanation make sure that you are totally stationary, the student(s) are stationary and that they are actually paying attention.
DEMONSTRATE - Once you have explained your three points. Give a quick demonstration of the skill. Do it a few times, preferably while not talking. Make sure that you do it slowly, and that what you're doing can be clearly linked back to the three main points that you gave the students earlier. Ask them if they have any questions, and repeat any part of the explanation/ demonstration that they're not clear on.
IMITATE - This is where the student(s) try out the new skill for themselves. All going will, you've explained three essential points perfectly clearly, given a clear, concise demonstration and now you've got a couple of future Olympians on your hands, ripping around the place, loving the fact that they've learned something new. More likely, you cocked up part of the explanation and didn't make it clear enough, two of them were picking their noses and weren't paying attention and one of them has a learning disability. Which brings you onto the next part of the exercise.
COACH - While the students are trying the new skill, you give them feedback on what they're doing. Maybe a paddle more vertical here or more horizontal there is all it'll take. Or some other minor feedback will get the skill functioning well enough that they feel that they've made some progress. Sometimes a whole group will really not get what you've been trying to explain, and you might have to bring them back in together to go over one or two key points again. Unless you realise that you've made a major boo-boo regarding which three main points you picked and left out something fundamental, stick to your original three. If you start adding more in then people are just going to start forgetting other things that they're meant to be doing and everything just gets more complicated. Research has determined that three is the number of things that most people can remember when trying a new skill for the first time. Any more than that and they just start to forget stuff. That's why stuff like rolling and some freestyle moves can be so hard to teach, it's very hard to break them down into just three points and still have the moves function. If you add more points, people will start to forget fundamental aspects of the move, such as having everything perfect but forgetting to edge if they're learning to stern squirt.
TASK - Once people are doing an acceptably Ok version of the skill, it's time for the most important step of the process. The idea of the task is to introduce some repetition and start committing the move to muscle memory. The ideal task will be fun and involve as many repetitions of the skill as possible. Some kind of game is ideal for flatwater, whereas for whitewater skills like ferry gliding that can be more difficult to organise. If you have no better ideas just get the students repeating the skill over and over, but people do get bored of that quickly so if you can think of any kind of activity that will spice things up then go for it.
That is as far as the EDICT method goes but that is NOT where the teaching/learning stops. Now that people have a skill that they can use while paddling, the aim is to get them using as good technique as possible. Once people are comfortable with the basics, start focusing on things like body rotation, where they're looking while doing the move, where the paddle is in relation to the boat and all that other stuff that differentiates a skill from being Ok or Perfect. Keep giving feedback, this stage of the learning process never stops. Some bad habits fall through the cracks, and others are picked up as people get lazy. Keep an eye on the intermediate paddlers and fellow instructors, and if you see something that they could be doing better tell them!