Question 021: Apprenticeship

 

Here are some suggestions for designing an effective instructor training program:

• Detailed written procedures and requirements are needed. These should be readily available so trainees may check them to ensure they are teaching the correct information. Key information should be available within the training area for a quick reference. References should be periodically reviewed and changed as necessary. If something needs to be changed, then change it or take action to have it changed, do not simply say, “It has always been done that way.” However, do not create useless or meaningless procedures; each procedure and requirement should a have a definite and obvious reason for its use, otherwise it will be ignored.
• Checkpoints should be established during the course of instruction to check each trainee’s progress and to insure each trainee has properly learned and understands the required information and is effectively conveying that information to the students.
• Trainees should be exposed to instructors from other Taekwondo schools, preferably from instructors that do not have a similar martial arts background or a common master, so they may become familiar with different styles of teaching.
• Trainees should be encouraged to learn all they can about Taekwondo, the martial arts in general, teaching methods and procedures, management, business, finance, psychology, physiology, law, first aid, etc—everything that may be used in teaching Taekwondo. They should be encouraged to learn about other martial arts, to read every martial arts book available, and to watch classes in other martial arts. However, it should be stressed that the instructor, school, and organization each have certain beliefs, procedures, and requirements that must be followed and that any deviation from these must be approved by appropriate authority.
• There should be special courses that teach how to teach. Colleges do not teach potential public school teachers a lot about particular subjects, they teach them how to teach. Teachers do not have to be proficient at the subjects they teach; they have to be proficient at teaching others how to be proficient at the subjects.
• At some point in the training, there should be courses on how to manage and operate a school. An instructor may be an outstanding teacher but a poor business person. Any instructor who has a desire to open a school should be taught how to operate a school properly as a part of his or her instructor training.
• There should be periodic refresher courses to ensure all instructors are teaching the proper subject matter and to insure all instructors are familiar with changes, updates, and improvements within the school curriculum and procedures of the 
• school or organization.
• Instructors should be immediately informed of all changes in the curriculum, the school, or the organization so they do not teach the wrong information or get embarrassed in front of students from not knowing about the changes.
• Trainees should be taught proper teaching procedures and how the curriculum should be taught, but then they should be allowed to develop their own teaching style. Do not try to turn them into clones of the instructor; trainees should be allowed to teach in a way that is consistent with their personalities. Teaching should be fun, not just a job.
• Make trainees backup any statement they make with facts. Trainees should not just be recorders that play back what their instructor said. They must be able to substantiate statements they make with medical or scientific facts. Many wise students will question unreasonable statements and want proof.