I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm not sure I've got very far. I would very much value the many and varied opinions we have here.

Think back to teachers or bosses or team leaders or some sort of instructor (even a parent or friend or relative). Think back to those times when you've had to learn a new skill from someone else starting from scratch.

What is it about the way they taught you this new skill that made it a good experience for both of you to learn?

And if you're the one who has been instructing/leading/teaching someone a skill which is new to them - what characteristics was it in that person that made them fun & satisfying to teach/lead/instruct?

Instructee:
Good and attentive listener
Keeps focused on the topic at hand, doesn't wander
Willing to give it a go
Willing to try again (or differently) if initially failed

Instructor:
Clearly spoken, personalises words so they don't sound like a mere recital of a textbook
Good at demonstrating
Engaging, keeping interest through questions and even some comedy

Instructor


Knowledge about the topic.
Sense of humour.
A personality.
The ability to talk to a large group of people.
Clarity of voice.
The ability to "use the stage" and not just hide behind a podium.
The ability to mix up different types of mediums to get the point across and not just point at a powerpoint slideshow.
Easily approachable.
The ability to think and answer questions honestly.
The ability to encourage people to think.


Over all, the ability to engage the audience.


Student

I cant stand people who dont (or wont) think for themselves, ask questions, or listen to what is being said. Especially those who ask questions or for help, but refuse to use that information.

Two things: patience, and explaining how whatever it was worked so I could understand it and not just copy them doing it.

Yes. i dont care if something works, i want to know how it works.

All excellent points.

Including those I'll add:

Instructor:
- prepared to try a different type of explanation if something doesn't make sense rather than just repeat themselves.
- can suggest targets to aim for the student.

Instructed:
- will ask back questions or make statements to check and demonstrate understanding and not just say "I know".

Student: Someone with energy and willingness to learn

Last person I had to teach was slower than old people with alzheimers playing chess.

i've been lucky that my last couple of students have been willing and eager to learn. they were both intelligent people who have progressed and done well for themselves.

if they were not willing and eager, it would be incredibly difficult for me to cope with them - something i absolutely have no problem putting back onto them.

Good instructors are either modest or remind you just how good they are.

Good students should just know how good they are and aren't, and keep it to their selves.

Instructor - Can explain concepts well, observant enough to know that the instructee has absorbed the teachings, listens to the instructee's needs, patient!

Instructee - Learns, Listens, asks questions and revise/practice.

It would really depend on what kind of thing is being taught , Higher maths would require a different persona to say instructing flying.
At nearly 52 I have decided to learn to fly a trike , This is apart from getting my car licence pretty much the first time I have had an Instructor 1o1.
So I cant really say what makes a good maths instructor or dance instructor.

But some things would be universal to all, I think if one was going to instruct they have to know much of what they are teaching, and then be skilled at communicating / transferring that knowledge, These are a given.

One of the big requirements for a good 1o1 instructor would be being able to read people, by way of understanding the nature of the particular student they are teaching, and using that understanding to tailor the instruction / lessons to suite the individual student.

My instructor gets where I am coming from, and believe me I am a strange old bugger and have some quirky ways , this he knows and uses to get through to me what I need to learn.
I know two of his students that are now pilots , they are still in a way his students as they will ask him to go with them and check their flying and help them work on areas they are unsure of,
anyway from conversations with them, I know that each of us reacted to flying in an idiosyncratic way , and it is apparent to me that our instructor is not working from a script, but working with each of us in a unique way.

This ability to deal with each students individual quirks and qualities, in a way that enhances the learning process, is to me what separates an excellent instructor from the teach by wrote mediocrity.

Sorry if it sounds a bit me centric , but my own experience is all I have to draw on as a resource to post on this subject. {:)

Please don't apologise for this this - this is very much why I threaded it and value all comments here. And you've raised some good points. What about for students? Are you good at being taught something? Are there things that you are better at being taught at than others? (A very good point re the teaching direction).

I'm still mulling over a lot of what was said and will probably review it all again in time.

Ok thanks Catmosphere {:)


Me as a student , well ADD does not help as my history proves , I was expelled from every high school in the district and the NSW education department told me they weren't funding my travel to any schools further away just so I could get expelled from them as well, so good luck finding a job they said so at fourteen I went to work, I burnt through the first few jobs pretty quick too.

And yet I am learning to fly a trike at the same pace as any other of his students and faster than some, I think this is

1) Because I have chosen to do this thing , So the motivation is mine , its not something I should do or need to do to get on, So I think students motivation is very important.
2) I enjoy flying, I get something out of it that is rewarding, even if at this stage of my learning some of it feels like hard slog and work , there are periods of great pleasure and the odd moment of pure bliss.
Along with the sense of satisfaction seeing myself getting somewhere with the training.
So some kind of pay-off for the students work, be it pleasure and or a sense of achievement is pretty important in helping motivate a student through the hard slog that leads to those rewards, as well as the student wanting to be there in the first place helps sets the stage for success.

3a) Trust.. a student needs to trust the instructor, for an academic student I imagine they would need to trust the knowledge that was being taught them was sufficient and correct.... I am guessing at that one never having been an academic student, perhaps that academic take is better being explained by an academic .

3b) Flying is one of those things that requires theoretical knowledge as well as physical skills / hand eye coordination, as well as having an inherent level of risk... Its not particularly dangerous as some activities are, but it can be unforgiving with the small as it may be possibility for a catastrophic outcome.

The theory part, even thought there is a fair bit of it, doesn't need you to be a Mensa Don to get on top of it so I'll move on to the flying.

Its the flying itself that requires the student to trust the instructor (If you don't trust the person your flying with, find another person to teach you)(and if you don't trust yourself pay more attention to your instructor).
You cant make progress if you don't follow the instructions, sounds simple but with flying its not simple at all , the sensations of flight are quite visceral or to put it another way " the feelings are in your face " .

For example: practising an un-powered emergency landing, with the only place to land just in front of you and you still 200ft up, requires that you bar in and descend rapidly , it is an intense sensation, and I have tended to let the bar out too early as we get closer to the ground so that it wouldn't feel so steep/intense, with the consequence that we are not low enough and we have glided past the spot , but my instructor just says lets try that again, he does not insist I hold the bar in hard all the way to appropriate level, he just encourages me to do a bit more than the last time .

I get it in the end and after a few times more its hard for me to see what was the difficulty I had in doing it.
This builds my trust in him .. because I do get it and the technique comes together for me , and because I trust him enough to overcome my trepidation, it also builds his trust in me, and gives him the confidence to take me to the next level.

So Trust, as well as it being important for a student to have is a two way street, not only will it allow a student to learn it will also allow the instructor to teach.
An excellent instructor would help build that trust by not overextending the student , and would make the goal of the lesson plan something that is attainable by the students given abilities and level of proficiency, and the goal of the lesson plan would also extend the student towards the final goal.


{:)

An instructor should have, in addition to the points made, an ability to simply things down or use whichever analogies are appropriate to get the student to understand. There is absolutely nothing that can not be explained in a way that people can understand. A good instructor will have to be aware of the best way to do this for their students, sometimes on an individual level.

Bring back the cane!

Everyone's own experience is valid here because everyone learns differently. A really good instructor can cater to that.

Instructor:
* Really knows the topic they're teaching
* Organised - knows what they want to cover, how, and why
* Interested and engaged in both topic and students
* Will try different methods to cater to different learning styles, and will also adapt to the progress of an individual or the group

Student:
* Willing to have a go
* Able to be engaged

When I'm instructing, I don't care much if the student is slow to learn, as long as they are giving it a go. I will happily spend three times as long as I expected going back to help a trainee master emails before I expect them to be able to learn the new reporting system if they need it. On the other hand I like to acknowledge that some people learn things really quickly and do not in fact need to spend the allocated time doing exercises to go over and over the same thing. I also think it's important for the instructor and the learner to recognise when it's appropriate to sort of - invent your own way of doing something, and when you need to do it by the book. Hence why I used to hate maths classes, because I would lose marks for using my own methods to get an answer and in one case failed a test because the teacher just didn't understand how I did my working out (I later got 96% when the department head remarked it over a weekend with a pen and paper and lots of swearing - I just think differently).