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Life Outside the Box

Ishan hasn't filled out their bio yet. Web developer, PHP lover, CSS3 trickster, drinker of tea, orange juice and lover of BBC documentaries.
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Why there can never be a good teacher.

Think of a skill you have mastered. Now try teaching that to someone else, step by step. Because you have picked up subconscious cues of what works and what doesn't throughout the years, you will find it impossible to help someone reach your level of expertise by trying to share your ideas with them.

Then what about the great teachers, who are respected and put on ecclesiastical heights? They do not teach. They demonstrate. The students copy but they aren't the good students. 

A good student, not only copy, they mould and change the methods to suit their strengths, allowing their own subconscious minds to soak in what works and what doesn't.

So, if you are a teacher, do not teach, but demonstrate. Not everything, but a few things.

And, if you are a student, do not copy, but adapt. Everything, not just a few things.

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Eddy Azar hasn't filled out their bio yet. Entreprenomad in training at EddyAzar.com
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I was thinking about this same thing a few months back, and came up with the solution of a change in mindset.

Instead of the teacher leading the student, the student must also lead the teacher. The student chooses a path to walk, and each new step is his choice (he always has an array of next steps to choose from.). The teacher can advise the next step, and guide the student through the step he is on, but he cannot lead the student.

Here's a great analogy play on the "you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" saying that explains it quite well.

http://eddyazar.com/on-teaching-and-learning-a-very-important-post/

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Knowing how to use a skill is not the same as knowing how to teach it. 

A good teacher can tell you which exercise would provide you deliberate practice at improving on the skill that you want to learn.

A good teacher can point of mistakes that you are making. He can distinguish between mistakes that you can do something about and mistakes that aren't woth your attention because you can't fix the issue at your level.

A good teacher can tell you if a change that you made improved your technique. Positive feedback is important to keep the chance instead of going back to what you did beforehand. 

How do you become a good teacher? You teach people and see when you teach successfully and when your teaching is crap. 

I also think there are a bunch of additional stratagies for good teaching. 

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