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Monday, June 27, 2011

Monday Motivation: Great Teachers

Great Teachers 
Inspire their students 
to Believe that 
THEY can Become 
Paula J. Fox
The Heart of a Teacher
simple truths The Gift Of Inspiration

The art of being a great teacher is a unique challenge when working with adults. With children... minds are open, willing, inquisitive, and they want to believe. Learning is a natural process. With adults, the challenge is unique. The primary obstacle: Ego.

The Greatest obstacle to Learning as an adult is being Teachable

Whether you're learning to fly a plane, earning a new type rating, switching from Boeing to Airbus,  transitioning from a PC to a Mac or writing a novel, this applies to you.

Adults know better than to accept everything someone tells us as truth just because it's spoken. We also know that much of what is taught is opinion. However, both those truths can block the ability to learn. 

The adult student who opens their mind and knows that in every situation there is something to learn will succeed. Only with an open mind and parking the ego outside are we able to identify truth from opinion and fact from fiction, and grab what works. When we hear something that doesn't feel right we search out the truth, we don't disregard because our ego is blocking the path. If we believe that we have something to learn, we will.

Teachers, we would love her hear your unique challenges when working with adult students. Adult students, what works best for you?

Enjoy the Journey!

~ Karlene


  1. It is all about differentiation; cultural, social, personal and historical.

    For example, a Korean adult student was taught procedurally, as is the Korean teaching style. So, we could not figure out his problem with landing... so we sat down and asked him how they taught in his country, and it was all broken down. So, we taught 'approach', takign the controls for the roundout and flare. Once that was mastered, we flew approach and he rounded out and we flared... then he approached and rounded out and we flared... then we approached and rounded out and he flared... then he could do it all seemlessly - it was a real lesson in differentiation.

    Normally my differentiation in teaching is more basic 'can you ride a bike' 'swim' 'drive a car' 'play a musical instrument' etc. Each of those skills has a parallel in learning to fly. For those who have hand-foot co-ordination problems I suggest swimming an exercise (especially since most of my students cant swim anyway!)...

    Each student is unique, needs nurture appropriate to their nature, patience and above all perseverance - for they are different beasts!! (I wrote this a long time ago

  2. This is so insightful, Karlene. As a writer, it resonates with me powerfully, especially when it comes to seeing someone else's point of view about my work that's different from mine. "When we hear something that doesn't feel right we search out the truth, we don't disregard because our ego is blocking the path." This is the hardest to achieve, and the most important ability for learning. Thank you!

  3. Learning to be teachable, I love that! It is the greatest obstacle indeed. It's hard when we're adult, but oh so important. And that picture, precious! Thanks for the inspiration!

  4. Thank you Linda, Heather and Captain Yaw. Your comments mean the world to me.

