Trying to Learn How to Teach – General Forum

TPWAdmin

3 days ago

Trying to Learn How to Teach - General Forum 1

Hey CD! This past year I have taken up doing Programming, Electrical, and CAD for my team. I have also become the Lead person for all of these things as I am currently the only person who knows how. My team mentor said that I have too much on my plate and should step down from Electrical and CAD, and to teach other members of the team to do these things. The issue is: I can’t teach. I have tried, and every meeting where I am teaching, I feel as though the other members just don’t understand. Does anyone have any tips for me?

1 Like

I have found that writing something is easier than explaining it. If you write a guide or something similar, that might explain it better to them

This idea from a mentor from another thread could be helpful.

Personally, I try to follow a 4-step process with each student:

mentor does, student watches

mentor does, student helps

student does, mentor helps

student does, mentor watches

Every student progresses through that at a different pace. Some only need to be shown something once, and then I can keep an eye on them from across the room comfortably. Some need much more help on a consistent basis and push back when I try to push them along the process. The hardest part for me, as a mentor, is figure out where in that process I need to be with each student and every task we do. Heck, just last night I was working with one of our all-star freshmen, one who progresses through with every tool/task very quickly to being self-sufficient, and at one point said off-hand “you can cut that on the bandsaw”… only to have her come back 30 seconds later and tell me she hadn’t used it before! Turns out she had used every other tool in the shop at that point, but somehow never had a need to use the vertical bandsaw. So my assumption that she was at step 4 was quickly dashed and I had to go back to step 1 for a few minutes. This process works on the individual level, but it also works on the team level.

3 Likes

Teaching can sometimes be just getting someone started on a journey of exploration and learning. Yes there are moments of instruction, but when someone takes ownership and has access to the resources for learning, you just need to be there as a reference when they get stuck, or when they need a quality check. Failure = learning.

Source link