Generally, martial arts are taught very poorly. For the so-called “traditional” Japanese and Okinawan arts, they way they are taught is not traditional at all. For many systems, the first generation of US and European instructors learned just after WWII, from an occupied people who hated them and through shitty translators in large regimented groups. … [Read more…]
Welcome to the first series of articles on teaching and learning from the Conflict Research Group International. Here we will tease out some of the key terms and concepts related to teaching and learning, we are laying the foundations of our building so to speak. We will not jump straight into discussion on what makes … [Read more…]
Teaching and learning is a vast subject, let me declare at the outset of this series that I do not claim to be an expert. My formal interest, when I began to study it as a subject, began around the age of thirty when I entered Further Education as a full time student on an … [Read more…]
There are three distinct categories of learning: Vertical Learning, Horizontal Learning, and Connective Learning. Vertical Learning is the process of learning in a step by step linear fashion. You begin with the basics and build on the basics with successively more complicated concepts, skills, tasks, etc. Learning math is an example of this process. Additional … [Read more…]
I have a love-hate relationship with teaching. I love teaching, or I’d make my living another way. Watching people grow stronger is one of the coolest things to watch, right up there with desert sunsets and ocean storms. And feeling even a tiny bit of responsibility for that growth is a huge ego stroke. No … [Read more…]