Becoming a master teacher
"Thou art a teacher come from God"  John 3:2

FAQ 

I'm scared to death to teach. What can I do?

Fear is common with teachers at all levels. When you are doing something you do not do all the time, doubt is a normal response--even for experienced teachers on new topics. So, you have plenty of good company.

 

Most people teach well in spite of their fears, not because they lack them.

 

One way to reduce fear is understand the needs of the audience, create objectives, and plan the beginning, middle and end of your lesson.  The more you think about the needs of the learners the less you need to worry if you will be good enough.  This preparation reduces stress.

 

Another way to reduce fear is to realize that sharing the authentic experiences, questions, and efforts that you have had is enough. We don’t need perfection. We just need you.    

 

How do I provide high value facilitation rather than just talk at people?

Teaching involves various skills. One skill is creating learner engagement through questions, activities, and discussions.  This "facilitative" approach is in contrast to basically creating a talk and giving the talk as a lesson.

 

Facilitative teaching is a mindset that says, "my job is to help people think," rather than "my job is to inspire them with my great knowledge." This facilitative mindset does not mean that you can skip the need to study deeply and ignore the need to provide high value content. In fact, our job as a facilitative teacher is still to bring robust content to the discussion; yet in addition, we must create a place where people have time to wrestle with and internalize the ideas. So, facilitating actually means we need to be clearer about the objective and how we are going to help people get there.

 

The skills of facilitating include:

1. Know your objective and your content (if you don’t know the objective then you can have a wave of conversation that seems interactive yet actually creates no value)

2. Ask questions that help people think deeply and give them space to process ideas. (This usually takes planning out good questions)

3. Focus on listening and bringing out others' ideas (rather than sharing your opinion on each comment)

4. Choose activities that invite thought and discovery

5. Summarize key points to validate and clarify

6. Help people personalize and take action.

 

Different objectives will require different amounts of you sharing and the audience sharing. There is no cookie cutter approach to facilitating. It all depends on the needs of the learners and your objective.

 

To improve your facilitation abilities, choose one skill to improve on. When you have made progress, choose the next skill.

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How do I manage participation of those who talk too much and those who do not participate?

Most lessons need a certain amount of input and discussion to move forward. However, not everyone enjoys participating. While others are ready to comment on every point. We need everyone. 

 

We can sometimes confuse outward participation with learning. Some people participate in their mind and are thinking quite deep and personal thoughts. We cannot know how engaged someone is just because they are speaking or not. So our job is not to force outward participation but rather to invite involvement and to invite different types of participation: Large group discussion, small group interactions, and self-reflective participation. 

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To help people participate, provide good questions that deserve a thoughtful answer. Trite and obvious questions cause people to hold back. Also, give people time to think about answers before expecting a response. Warn them that in a minute you want input on a specific topic. Allow people to ponder or write down answers rather than share with the larger group. And, as appropriate, use pairs or trios so people do not have to expose their thinking to the larger group.

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When people are sharing lots of information summarize what they say and then ask others for their input. In some cases, you may ask a highly participative person outside of class to help you make room for other voices. 

 

What if a teacher is not teaching the doctrine?

Tactfully ask for more information on what leads them to their conclusions. Seek to fully understand their position. Once you understand and it still seems counter to the doctrine, you may share that you view that same information in a different way. In some groups it is perfectly OK to say "I understand the doctrine in this way…" and to have a discussion among the group. However, some individuals or groups may find this too blunt for the classroom. Respect the individual.

 

In all cases, avoid making a battle out of the differences. If there are serious concerns of teaching false doctrine or personal biases, you may want to approach the person outside of class or share your concerns with the appropriate leader.