Teaching
Get yourself sorted first
Teaching a skill requires a unique level of mastery. Sure, if you can demonstrate it the way you learned it, that's all you need to get the job done if you have to use that skill in real life. However, if you are helping someone learn, you have to know a skill so well that you can observe them doing it their way. You have to accept other variations of it (and there are always new variations) but be capable of recognizing what makes a certain variation a safe one, or an unsafe one. While wondering what variation they might have in mind, you have to be quietly one step ahead in your mind, only interjecting when it's clear that they're confused or that they're doing something unsafe, and that they're not just doing a variation you haven't seen before. If a variation successfully produces the desired outcome, it does not necessarily mean it was safe. (For example, a prusik holding a human life without a backup will hold the load almost every time, but it does not mean that it is safe.)
Ask the student where they'd like to start from
Give options: Depending on where the student is at with their learning of a specific skill, does the student want to:
Showing is better than explaining
This is especially true with technical skills. Remind students of this too if they want to communicate something to you. There is way too much potential for confusion when one or both people in the conversation are trying to visualize something the other person is explaining. Also, climbing terms are very not-standardized, so someone else may mean something different than you think by a particular word. At the very least, establish a common baseline to talk about by actually doing the skill first, and leave it at it's most set-up point, so you can both point to parts of it while you discuss it.
Practice Correctly
People will do exactly the same thing in a real-life situation as they're used to practicing. I wrote more about this in my Safety in Practice page here. Try to set students up for success by opting more often than not to demo it the right way before asking them to remember it, so they're more likely to practice it right the first time. (Seeing you demo it helps any assistant instructors you have get on the same page too, so you might as well gather everyone when you do the initial demo.) If someone does something incorrectly while practicing, help them out. Make sure they repeat the whole skill from scratch later that same day. No matter what you say or they say, what they'll actually remember next time is the muscle motions they did last time. It's so important that they physically do it, and not just say it.
When giving feedback, Less is More
A single point of feedback, with a period at the end, will be remembered clearly. Conversely, multiple points of feedback given at once may be technically correct, but can be a lot to remember, and may instead lead to none of them actually sticking in the brain. You, as an instructor, should think carefully before you speak. Decide what single point is the most important to get across, then say only that.
Remember that different students have different needs
If you have the opportunity to work with a student one-on-one, try to get a sense of where they're at on the skill in question, and tailor your teaching to what they need:
Teaching a group
Teaching a group of students is harder than working 1-on-1 with a student. Like I said above, you'll have a mix of where students are at in terms of the learning process, so it's best if you make your lesson plan with the least experienced students in mind. Also, the need for a lesson plan becomes real. Take time at home well before the practice or field trip to fully visualize how the event will go:
Making course-wide policy
So far on this page I've talked about teaching in general, as it could apply to teaching Basic, or teaching Intermediate, or even some non-climbing skill. Now I'll get specific and talk about just the Basic course. There is a very wide range of skill-levels and experience-levels within every Basic class. There are always many Basic students who come in with a lot of experience, and/or grasp the material very quickly, and are eager to & capable of learning variations or advanced techniques. Also, there are always people who’ve never even spent a night in a tent before, much less tied a figure-8 knot. Everyone else (the majority of the class) is scattered at different points in that big spectrum. Of course we want to be welcoming to all students, they all have a lot of potential. However, it's very important that you as a teacher do not forget how wide the range can be, and you do not make assumptions about the skill level of a new Basic student you’ve met, you could be very wrong in either direction. You don't want to overwhelm or frazzle someone who's just started, and you don't want to stifle or bore someone who's hungry to know more.
From the standpoint of administering a large course, how do you accommodate such a wide spectrum of learning needs? And for the sake of the students who are still new enough to skills that they need consistent instruction, how do you get dozens of instructors to be familiar with (and willing to teach) a consistent way of doing things? Just telling a group of instructors "consistency is important" won't work, because each instructor will keep teaching the variation that they consider the best, and be annoyed that everyone else isn't consistent with them. There needs to be a "one right way," a "Mountaineers-standard" version of the skill that is clearly defined and communicated to everyone. Written handouts with specifics, diagrams, (or better yet, videos) that can be emailed to all instructors is a good way to get everyone on the same page. To be clear, that doesn't mean anyone is wrong if they do it a different way, they just need to know and use that standardized way when they teach others, for the sake of the students who are still just trying to learn one way. Instructors should be also be encouraged to watch for students who've fully grasped the "one right way" and are ready to absorb more info, exceptions, variations, and complexity; and accommodate them too when they get a chance to work 1-on-1 with them.
When choosing what the "one right way" for the Mountaineers standard is going to be, it's best to err on the side of the safest variation as possible, even if it's considered overly safe. For example, tieing into a multi-pitch anchor with a clove hitch, backed up with a figure-8-on-a-bight on a 2nd biner is overly safe. However, it's a lot more forgiving of human-error than tieing in with a clove hitch (oops, or was that a munter hitch?) and nothing else. For someone who's new and still prone to making mistakes or not remembering details perfectly, have them be overly safe. Once they go on to Intermediate, they can be taught more about what the minimum is to be "safe enough."
One more tangent on running a course: I think an application process for any Mountaineers course is extremely valuable. At one point in time the Basic course did away with their application process. The problem was that even just reading 160+ applications was an incredibly burdensome administration process, especially for people who are just volunteers, so they did away with applications. I'd still prefer that there be an application for prospective students to fill out, even if no one even looks at them. Just the act of filling out the application gets the applicants to somewhat self-select, to think about what they're getting into with the course, and to self-evaluate if they're really ready for & committed to it. Beyond that, it would be a huge help if a new volunteer (someone different than the people who are already giving all their time to run the course) stepped up and offered to organize an application review process. That new volunteer could just be a coordinator, and recruit a handful of other volunteers who each read some subset of the applications, then compile the results. I don't care if the review process aims to identify the very best 160 applicants, or just read applications in the order received and identify the first 160 applicants who at least meet a minimum-bar. I think either review process would be fine, and even just having a review process would be an improvement. If you're interested in volunteering for this, send me an email, and/or come to the Climbing Committee meetings.
My message to any Basic students reading this, your responsibility in all this:
Some of the skills you’ll learn in this course are complicated, and there’s lots of room for more-than-one-right-answer. The belay escape process is one of them. In order to introduce you to a complicated skill in a non-daunting way, I would prefer to teach you only one way to do it at first, and maybe we can talk about alternatives later. However, sometimes you’ll practice-with or get-evaluated-by other instructors, especially at field trips, and they may have a different right-way of doing that skill. The best way for you to deal with that and minimize confusion is to make sure you know your one specific version of that skill really, really well. When you work with another instructor, begin by telling them you’d like to demonstrate the whole skill to them beginning to end, and then ask them to hold their comments and talk about the parts of it at the end. If they interrupt and start talking about things in the middle, they may unknowingly be trying to guide you through a different variation of the skill than what you were trying to do, unintentionally adding confusion. You’ll want to practice ahead of time and know one specific version of a skill really, really well so that you can do it all the way to end independently without having any doubts in your sequence, and then you can have a clearer conversation with the other instructor about the pros and cons of the variation you just demonstrated. It is really valuable to get those different points-of-view from other instructors, I just want you to get there in a minimally-confusing way.
Teaching a skill requires a unique level of mastery. Sure, if you can demonstrate it the way you learned it, that's all you need to get the job done if you have to use that skill in real life. However, if you are helping someone learn, you have to know a skill so well that you can observe them doing it their way. You have to accept other variations of it (and there are always new variations) but be capable of recognizing what makes a certain variation a safe one, or an unsafe one. While wondering what variation they might have in mind, you have to be quietly one step ahead in your mind, only interjecting when it's clear that they're confused or that they're doing something unsafe, and that they're not just doing a variation you haven't seen before. If a variation successfully produces the desired outcome, it does not necessarily mean it was safe. (For example, a prusik holding a human life without a backup will hold the load almost every time, but it does not mean that it is safe.)
Ask the student where they'd like to start from
Give options: Depending on where the student is at with their learning of a specific skill, does the student want to:
- …see a demo of it done correctly, so they can just watch and get the big picture.
- …do the skill themselves, but with an instructor talking them through it, telling them the right way to do each step before they do it.
- …do the skill themselves, with the instructor watching quietly, only chiming in if something is done incorrectly. If this is the premise, then it needs to be established up front if the student wants the instructor to chime in if (a) something differs from the “Mountaineers standard” way, versus (b) something is unsafe or otherwise going to prevent accomplishing the goal of the skill. Those are two very different things.
Showing is better than explaining
This is especially true with technical skills. Remind students of this too if they want to communicate something to you. There is way too much potential for confusion when one or both people in the conversation are trying to visualize something the other person is explaining. Also, climbing terms are very not-standardized, so someone else may mean something different than you think by a particular word. At the very least, establish a common baseline to talk about by actually doing the skill first, and leave it at it's most set-up point, so you can both point to parts of it while you discuss it.
Practice Correctly
People will do exactly the same thing in a real-life situation as they're used to practicing. I wrote more about this in my Safety in Practice page here. Try to set students up for success by opting more often than not to demo it the right way before asking them to remember it, so they're more likely to practice it right the first time. (Seeing you demo it helps any assistant instructors you have get on the same page too, so you might as well gather everyone when you do the initial demo.) If someone does something incorrectly while practicing, help them out. Make sure they repeat the whole skill from scratch later that same day. No matter what you say or they say, what they'll actually remember next time is the muscle motions they did last time. It's so important that they physically do it, and not just say it.
When giving feedback, Less is More
A single point of feedback, with a period at the end, will be remembered clearly. Conversely, multiple points of feedback given at once may be technically correct, but can be a lot to remember, and may instead lead to none of them actually sticking in the brain. You, as an instructor, should think carefully before you speak. Decide what single point is the most important to get across, then say only that.
Remember that different students have different needs
If you have the opportunity to work with a student one-on-one, try to get a sense of where they're at on the skill in question, and tailor your teaching to what they need:
- Students who are new to a skill need consistent repetition, and a simple set of rules to follow. How does anyone go from knowing nothing about a complex skill to knowing everything about a complex skill? One step at a time, it's not an immediate leap to "knowing everything." First they need to gain a foothold, by knowing one consistent version of the skill. If you as a teacher jump too showing a variation, or a slightly different way of doing things than what they first saw, it could confuse or overwhelm them, which doesn't make it as enjoyable for them. Start with the simplest version possible, like "Always do X first. Then, always do Y." rather than "You could do A or B for X, and you can do C or D for Y, and sometimes you can do C first, but you can't do D if you did B." even if the later is technically correct.
- Students who feel totally comfortable doing a skill one way are ready to think beyond it to variations and exceptions. Although teaching starts with a simple set of rules, you and I both know that the skills we're talking about are more subtle and more complex than "Always do this." Of course there's more than one right way to do everything. The students know that too, and they'll be eager to learn variations. It's up to the instructor to sense when the student is ready to hear more complication, and will be capable of absorbing that new info. Make sure the student is really solid doing a skill at least one specific way first, but then if they'd like, opening up variations and complexities to them keeps them engaged, and makes them a better climber.
Teaching a group
Teaching a group of students is harder than working 1-on-1 with a student. Like I said above, you'll have a mix of where students are at in terms of the learning process, so it's best if you make your lesson plan with the least experienced students in mind. Also, the need for a lesson plan becomes real. Take time at home well before the practice or field trip to fully visualize how the event will go:
- Pick a single intent for the event, one thing that'll be focused on, and communicate that to everyone beforehand so they can decide for themselves if it's something they want to go to or not. All practice nights should be optional, but it's also okay to explain and emphasize why some of them are important, as students may not yet understand the importance of some things yet.
- Who exactly is your audience for this?
- What is that audience likely to know or not know so far?
- I find it very useful to write out my talking points ahead of time, and have them printed on a single page as a bulleted list. Once you're up in front of a group talking, you won't remember everything you wanted to mention unless you've got a written plan to follow.
- What student/instructor ratio will be ideal for what's getting covered? (Are there enough instructors that students will get the guidance they need to practice correctly? Also try to prevent too many instructors, so you don't have too many cooks in the kitchen, and instructor-volunteers don't feel they've wasted their time by showing up to something they weren't needed for. It's impossible to get your ideal student/instructor ratio, someone will always cancel or show up unannounced last minute, so don't stress about it, but you can at least think about it and aim for it.)
- Will you start with a demo, and what will the demo cover?
- How will you use the space that you have for students to practice, and instructors to be present with them? Is there any set-up/tear-down necessary? How & when will that get done? Where should people leave their backpacks, so they're gathered out of the way? What is the biggest safety concern for that space and/or activity that you need to be mindful of?
- How much time do you anticipate each part of your planned schedule will take?
Making course-wide policy
So far on this page I've talked about teaching in general, as it could apply to teaching Basic, or teaching Intermediate, or even some non-climbing skill. Now I'll get specific and talk about just the Basic course. There is a very wide range of skill-levels and experience-levels within every Basic class. There are always many Basic students who come in with a lot of experience, and/or grasp the material very quickly, and are eager to & capable of learning variations or advanced techniques. Also, there are always people who’ve never even spent a night in a tent before, much less tied a figure-8 knot. Everyone else (the majority of the class) is scattered at different points in that big spectrum. Of course we want to be welcoming to all students, they all have a lot of potential. However, it's very important that you as a teacher do not forget how wide the range can be, and you do not make assumptions about the skill level of a new Basic student you’ve met, you could be very wrong in either direction. You don't want to overwhelm or frazzle someone who's just started, and you don't want to stifle or bore someone who's hungry to know more.
From the standpoint of administering a large course, how do you accommodate such a wide spectrum of learning needs? And for the sake of the students who are still new enough to skills that they need consistent instruction, how do you get dozens of instructors to be familiar with (and willing to teach) a consistent way of doing things? Just telling a group of instructors "consistency is important" won't work, because each instructor will keep teaching the variation that they consider the best, and be annoyed that everyone else isn't consistent with them. There needs to be a "one right way," a "Mountaineers-standard" version of the skill that is clearly defined and communicated to everyone. Written handouts with specifics, diagrams, (or better yet, videos) that can be emailed to all instructors is a good way to get everyone on the same page. To be clear, that doesn't mean anyone is wrong if they do it a different way, they just need to know and use that standardized way when they teach others, for the sake of the students who are still just trying to learn one way. Instructors should be also be encouraged to watch for students who've fully grasped the "one right way" and are ready to absorb more info, exceptions, variations, and complexity; and accommodate them too when they get a chance to work 1-on-1 with them.
When choosing what the "one right way" for the Mountaineers standard is going to be, it's best to err on the side of the safest variation as possible, even if it's considered overly safe. For example, tieing into a multi-pitch anchor with a clove hitch, backed up with a figure-8-on-a-bight on a 2nd biner is overly safe. However, it's a lot more forgiving of human-error than tieing in with a clove hitch (oops, or was that a munter hitch?) and nothing else. For someone who's new and still prone to making mistakes or not remembering details perfectly, have them be overly safe. Once they go on to Intermediate, they can be taught more about what the minimum is to be "safe enough."
One more tangent on running a course: I think an application process for any Mountaineers course is extremely valuable. At one point in time the Basic course did away with their application process. The problem was that even just reading 160+ applications was an incredibly burdensome administration process, especially for people who are just volunteers, so they did away with applications. I'd still prefer that there be an application for prospective students to fill out, even if no one even looks at them. Just the act of filling out the application gets the applicants to somewhat self-select, to think about what they're getting into with the course, and to self-evaluate if they're really ready for & committed to it. Beyond that, it would be a huge help if a new volunteer (someone different than the people who are already giving all their time to run the course) stepped up and offered to organize an application review process. That new volunteer could just be a coordinator, and recruit a handful of other volunteers who each read some subset of the applications, then compile the results. I don't care if the review process aims to identify the very best 160 applicants, or just read applications in the order received and identify the first 160 applicants who at least meet a minimum-bar. I think either review process would be fine, and even just having a review process would be an improvement. If you're interested in volunteering for this, send me an email, and/or come to the Climbing Committee meetings.
My message to any Basic students reading this, your responsibility in all this:
Some of the skills you’ll learn in this course are complicated, and there’s lots of room for more-than-one-right-answer. The belay escape process is one of them. In order to introduce you to a complicated skill in a non-daunting way, I would prefer to teach you only one way to do it at first, and maybe we can talk about alternatives later. However, sometimes you’ll practice-with or get-evaluated-by other instructors, especially at field trips, and they may have a different right-way of doing that skill. The best way for you to deal with that and minimize confusion is to make sure you know your one specific version of that skill really, really well. When you work with another instructor, begin by telling them you’d like to demonstrate the whole skill to them beginning to end, and then ask them to hold their comments and talk about the parts of it at the end. If they interrupt and start talking about things in the middle, they may unknowingly be trying to guide you through a different variation of the skill than what you were trying to do, unintentionally adding confusion. You’ll want to practice ahead of time and know one specific version of a skill really, really well so that you can do it all the way to end independently without having any doubts in your sequence, and then you can have a clearer conversation with the other instructor about the pros and cons of the variation you just demonstrated. It is really valuable to get those different points-of-view from other instructors, I just want you to get there in a minimally-confusing way.
Top picture: Some field trip at the clubhouse. I don't remember what or when.