Have you ever noticed that, when taking training or classes, some teachers seem to be magic ? That when they teach, even the most boring material suddenly becomes fun, dynamic, alive ? And that by the end of class - you know all the material that was taught, effortlessly, and have a lot of great memories as well ?
This can apply to working with certain "subject matter experts" as well.
And then there's others where you just want to tune out and fall asleep. The material takes effort to learn, slips by, and you are forced to read up on the topic yourself afterwards because you just didn't get it.
Let's go back to the teachers that make the magic happen, that's so much more fun to experience, isn't it ?
The difference is very simple. Rapport is the key. Oh, there's some other subtle things going on, but the secret is that those teachers are learning from you just as you are learning from them.
The best teachers are those that are also learning the good things from their students that the students offer. Because everyone has something to offer someone else, even if it's so subtle they may not realize it.
Many years ago, I knew a very young instuctor that taught night school for several months. I found out later that he was actually the youngest one in the class - very early 20's, the youngest student was in his 30's. He actually dyed a few bits of hair grey so the class would assume he was older than he was, and make a better first impression.
He knew the material inside and out, but that's not where the magic was. He had prepared notes for all of us so we could focus on his class instead of writing out the notes.
But here's where the magic happened....
The teacher was unusually "alive" while teaching. You could feel that he was giving his attention to the students, engaging them, involving them. It was an active experience. The learning became fun, and effortless, I looked forward to his classes, and benifited from the material immediately.
Later I learned what made the magic happen, and this is something any teacher can benifit from.
He had seen the class of students as an "alive and dynamic whole" that he wanted to be a part of and learn from. Even the disruptive students had something to offer. He wouldn't take any heckling seriously, he'd turn it around into humour... but humour that could be shared by all, including the heckler - no attacks on the person, not even the behaviour.
He went in with an open mindset. "I will learn something every class. Either about the material I'm teaching, or about the art of teaching, or about life and being alive and having fun.". Some students offered questions on the material that would cause him to think, and learn more. Some would challenge what he was teaching, and he'd learn to either negotiate the student so they would at least try the material, or he'd make a note and come back with an answer. And if he had no answer, he would freely admit it - not apologetically, but simply with a "That one I haven't run into yet, but the learning never stops. If you find the answer to that, please share it with me someday.". Very down to earth and sincere.
And from other students he'd re-discover the love for learning the material in the first place, the fresh curiosity and enthusiasm that is such a motivator for learning. Or even just the determination they had to show up.
It's that simple - put attention on the students, as much or more than the attention on the material. Keep in tune with their responses, react to it in a positive way, and remember they react to you. It's like a dance, the teacher is the leader, but sometimes the follower will try to backlead the dance... keep the frame, and gently maneuver them back into being a follower, or learner.... but recognize there is always something you can learn from them too.
For those readers that are familiar with hypnosis and/or NLP - it's about rapport with students, giving them attention, and calibrating to them. Also maintaining a state of "high desire to learn, enthusiasm about learning", this state gets passed to the student via rapport. And by having a strong desire to learn from them, the rapport and connection become automatic. "We are going to have fun together, learn from each other, and both have a positive experience".
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