You Can’t Teach Anything

2 Responses to You Can’t Teach Anything

1. Bob Stewart says:

   February 25, 2010 at 06:55

   Jeff,

   That’s why I like the technical term of facilitator. That gives the idea of setting up an environment where learning can occur. Amazingly, lots of people have a tendency to believe that teaching should be one-way, where the teacher pops open the students’ heads and imparts their knowledge on the students, closes their heads back, and sends them on their way “educated.” But it is a relationship, where by the interaction of the the students with the teacher (or the circumstance that acts as a catalyst) causes the students to think and learn.

   Now don’t get me wrong – training and development are my passion. And I am not throwing my passion out with the bathwater. But I understand that my best classes where I teach or train are the ones not where I stand and lecture, but where I get the students to interact with the topic.

   Bob
2. jeff says:

   February 25, 2010 at 15:39

   Bob, your comments are always insightful. Our job is to get people to think for themselves.

   A friend once said, you don’t tell the audience the answers.

   I said, “That’s right. It’s called facilitation.”

   We facilitate the learning, not force feed it or lecture it. We facilitate it. The audience comes up with the answer, insight or epiphany.