"He who can, does."

 

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."

Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
George Bernard Shaw.

I can't remember when I first heard that quote.  Always annoying.   Just as annoying, "I can teach, so I can teach anything".

Only a fool would actually believe either imo.  Trust me, I have known some fools.

"Being a “good teacher” is a difficult goal to achieve, being largely dependent on a huge variety of skills outside of the main curriculum."

Here is one thought process on how the learning cycle works..

Whitmore Learning Cycle
Whitmore (1984)^[6] identified that our learning cycle generally takes us through four stages:

• Unconscious incompetence - no understanding
• Conscious incompetence - low performance, recognition of flaws and weak areas
• Conscious competence - improved performance, conscious effort
• Unconscious competence - higher performance, natural automatic effort 

Show, Tell, Do?

A Chinese proverb states:

Tell me, I’ll forget
Show me, I’ll remember
Involve me, I’ll understand

Or:

Tell me, I'll forget..... hearing and listening are not one of the stronger senses in brain and nervous systems.

Show me, I'll remember...seeing is one of the strongest senses in the central nervous system. [brain].

Involve me, I'll understand...this would include all of the senses possible....skin, hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, smelling, taste and etc....also involvement means in most cases experiential learning. Which indeed means, Involve me, I'll understand.

There is a lot to teaching and learning.  My experience says it takes a good teacher and a good practitioner teaching to each student to get the best effect.  No teaching the class to the lowest common denominator which is the typical situation I see in out door pursuits.

I haven't been in a formal learning situation for a while.   Been about as long since I taught a physical skill.   Tough for some to swallow their ego for a few hours.  Hard for me no question.   I have to work pretty hard at it to gain the most possible from any presentation generally.  I don't always succeed first time or tenth.  Some things never change.   I'm just as bad now as I was at 15.  Thankfully I know what to watch for now and force/allow myself to have a more open mind.  Cold Thistle is hopefully, all about learning.   Skiing and climbing is in many ways, all the same.   Be sure your  own efforts include all the technical parts required to learn as easily as possible so that you can progress in your own skills quickly as a reward for your efforts.  Don't let the trivial bog you down.  Never be afraid to ask a question.   Or doubt the answer if your common sense stutters on the answer.

Your ice climbing or ski hero is just as likely to be a good instructor as your tenured math teacher is a good ice climber.  One does not equal the other.  If experience tells me anything a piece of paper guarantees nothing.

Few physical skills are totally new.  Never hurts to get a good history lesson prior to being exposed to the newest technology.  The best teachers continue to learn and are well aware of where the specific sport came from.  Always a mistake IMO to think you invented anything or think you have the only answer.