Observation About Teaching

This season I am having several opportunities to teach workshops to adults. In light of this, I have realized that when teaching people there are two important balances regarding what kinds of things you should say. Before getting into the details, I want to define a couple of words that come up in psychology. Our minds organize data into categories called "schema". When we gain new information that fits in those categories, we are "assimilating" (the new knowledge is similar to what we already know). When we learn something that conflicts with previous knowledge, we must choose whether to reject it, or to "accommodate" it, meaning that we adjust our previous knowledge and schema to allow the new information to come in. There is an important balance related to assimilation and another one for accommodation.

When teaching, there is some value in telling people what they already know, whether to review previous knowledge as a basis for building on it, or to remind them of the importance of something that they have heard before. However, if you are only teaching things that they already know, without getting to new material, they'll get bored. On the other hand, if you are giving too much new content, or if the content is too deep for them, they will not learn much. Basically, you want to stretch the audience, but not too far.

There is also a balance in terms of how much people will agree with you. If you only teach what they agree with, they will not grow much. If you only teach things that they disagree with, they will not be very receptive. When you need to introduce a concept that will likely face resistance, here are a few tips on breaking the ice:
1. Acknowledge in advance that they may not initially agree with this. Don't come across like you're forcing them to believe something.
2. Ask them to explore their previous knowledge of the subject. Ask them why they believe what they currently believe. Ask whether they would still feel the same if certain factors were changed.
3. Introduce the new concept and invite them to ask critical questions about it. While you answer the questions, be sure to give the "why" behind the "what".
4. Show real-life examples of the new concept in action.
5. Rather than asking the students to embrace the entire new concept, ask them which elements of it they think they agree with. Over time, it is possible that they will embrace more elements of it.