Introduction
In this assignment my aim is to answer the question ‘What is meant by the term teaching?’ I will do this by reflecting and describing my own personal experiences of teaching others within my specialist field of Health and Fitness. I will attempt to use and reference respected learning theories to show how I approached the task at the time, and how I would approach the task now that I have more experience and have furthered my personal development within the teaching field.
Main Body
I have been working in the Health and Fitness industry for the past 9 years, starting out as a Fitness Instructor, then Fitness Manager, and for the past six years running my own business specializing in Sports Therapy and Personal Training. This gives me a great insight into an individuals psyche and how best to approach a person on their level to help them achieve their aspirations.
Within Personal Training, Teaching is empowering that person by giving them the knowledge and skills to be able to make better choices for themselves regarding their health, fitness, wellbeing and lifestyle.
Empowering people can be done in many different ways and the first thing to remember is that most people have approached me for help and are therefore contemplating and/or willing to make change, but need guidance and support. The second thing we have to take into consideration is that everyone is an individual and we must be adaptable to that person’s uniqueness, age, sex, beliefs, personality, characteristics, motivation and past experience are some of the essential background information we must obtain to begin to devise a plan for that person. Thirdly it has to be realistic, motivating and have measurable results. Its no use making people do things they detest otherwise they are not going to keep it up, but on the other hand, sometimes we have to do things we don’t like and in these cases there needs to be goal or clear sign of improvement to make it worth while.
I suppose the earliest point I can recognize as me teaching someone would be back in early 1999. My best friend Ian could only make the Gym once or twice a week and was not confident on the correct way to approach his workout. I was fairly experienced but not qualified in Gym work, weight training and conditioning at the time and so Ian asked me if I could take him round the gym once a week to make sure he was doing things correctly. This could show that he trusted me to lead as I looked the part and maybe sounded like I knew what I was on about, also because he felt comfortable with me, whereas with a Fitness nut Instructor he may have felt intimidated or like he was being judged, or maybe he was just to tight to pay for a Personal Trainer (joke!).
It was during these Training sessions I discovered my sadistic side, or my love of training people to help them achieve a stronger, fitter, healthier body, so I decided to pursue a career in Personal Training. Firstly I needed to get qualified and then search for employment as an Instructor to gain some experience. I used my savings and paid to get myself qualified as a Personal Trainer with Premier Training, £1400, it was a bit of a shock, but the course was short and intense which meant I could get moving pretty quickly in the career path I had chosen.
I began working for Fitness First in Wolverhampton in January 2000. My duties included writing gym programmes, assisting members with food plans, teaching bike classes and instructing people how to use the equipment properly, which could be a huge challenge as I could have up to 20 people in a group for a gym induction. A typical Gym induction format would consist of:
Aims
1. To give the new members suitable understanding of how to set up some of the equipment safely by themselves
2. Experience some of the exercises to reinforce understanding
3. For me to see they are performing the exercise correctly and safely and to give further teaching points if necessary
Demonstrations on resistance kit
1. Explain what this exercise is designed for with no jargon terminology i.e. to work the muscles at the back of the arms
2. Give a good demonstration while giving teaching points at the same time
3. Continue the demonstration but silently to allow the member to visually take in what is happening
4. Allow the member to try the exercise and give appropriate teaching points to keep it safe
Looking back at the demonstration phase of the induction it appears to me now, to have an obvious floor. Even though it follows from the method of Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
“Tell me and I forget”
”Show me and I remember”
”I do and I understand”
There is too much information stimulus going on for the member to grasp the important points at stage 2. (Demonstration and description), it seems to me it would make more sense to:
1. (Auditory) Explain what this exercise is designed for with no jargon terminology
2. (Visual) Give a good, verbal free, demonstration
3. (Auditory + Visual) Give teaching points while continuing the demonstration
4. (Kinesthetic) Allow the member to try the exercise and give appropriate teaching points for safety and effectiveness. (Petty 2004. P146)
I had been working at Fitness First for six months when I was approached by a Regional Manager whose name escapes me, but I will never forget his deep red boozer’s nose. It never seizes to amaze me how many obviously unhealthy people work in the health and fitness industry! Anyway boozer nose said he had heard good things about me and would I be interested in taking the Fitness Managers role at their Chesterfield club. This was a big step and challenge for me as Chesterfield was the pinnacle club for them at the time, being home to Fitness Firsts training facility ‘The Academy’, meant that there was top brass wondering the place at all times and therefore the place had to be impeccable.
It was at Chesterfield I had my first taste of staff training. We had to employ at least two staff who would receive in house training to bring them up to a standard high enough to pass their NVQ 2 Gym Instructor exams. This system worked quite well as if you were looking for promotion Chesterfield was the best place to be, and as staff were promoted we had newly qualified, enthusiastic Instructors ready to take their place.
To become an NVQ 2 Gym Instructor the participant needed to have:
1. A good understanding of Anatomy and Physiology
2. Have a good understanding of the Skeletal, Muscular and Cardiovascular systems and the role they play in Health & Fitness
3. Understand and be able to explain planes of movement, terminology and the Anatomical position of Muscles on the Human body
4. Design a gym programme covering all the components of Fitness. This would include:
• Warm up
• Cardiovascular Fitness
• Strength & Endurance
• Flexibility
• Proprioception (Agility, Balance and Co-ordination)
• Sports Specific if necessary
• Also the programme would have to meet the specific needs and goals of the member and be adaptable i.e. have alternative exercises to achieve the same goal if the exercises prescribed were unavailable
There were many teaching methods adopted to help the Trainee become competent in all these areas from 1 on 1 sessions, taking part in gym inductions, hand outs, chart labeling, active participation, simply observing people in the gym, shadowing qualified staff and allowing them to practice on each other and practice on qualified staff members to receive various feedback and discussion from different personalities.
Learning Theories is something I was completely unaware of at this time, but looking back now it appears I did pretty well in my ignorance at covering some of the Theories.
Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Petty 2004. P147), applied to a Gym Induction from the viewpoint of a Trainee Instructor.
• Concrete Experience – The Trainee would experience many gym inductions from a new member’s point of view, which was delivered from a different staff member each time.
• Reflective Observation – From here the Trainee can look back on the Induction, make sense of the information past on and write a short report on what they felt was good or not so good about the Induction.
• Abstract Conceptualization – The Trainee can reflect on all their different experiences of Inductions from different staff, the variation in approach and start to gain confidence in the knowledge they now have.
• Active Experimentation – Now the Trainee can consider how they are going to induct new people into the Gym environment. They can put their own experiences and knowledge to use and approach the task in a way that is comfortable to them.
Without knowing the Trainee’s preferred learning style it appears I still covered a lot of the areas/learning styles outlined by Honey and Mumford learning styles and therefore delivered a well rounded learning experience.
Honey and Mumfords Learning Theories (Petty 2004. P148) and how it was met during staff training.
Activist – Word storms, puzzles, competitions, role plays
• Name of muscle and where it is found and its action e.g. Rectus Femoris is one of the Quadriceps muscles. It Flexes the Hip and Extends the Knee.
• Labeling Anatomical Charts
• Doing Exercise demonstrations, teaching points and alternatives
Reflectors – Paired discussions, self analysis, personality, questionnaires, coaching
• 1 on 1 sessions with colleagues and peers
• Observing member habits and being able to identify good and poor technique
• Shadowing other staff
Theorists – statistics, models, theories, data, facts
• The Trainee would need to know Models and Theories in order to pass the NVQ 2 exam. This could include Karnovans formula, Body adaptation, Periodized programmes etc
Pragmatists – apply learning, case study, problem solving, discussions
• Programme design for specific needs and goals
• Adaptable routines to overcome challenging circumstances
• Feedback and discussions with other staff.
Having this experience of staff training set me up nicely for my next Management position at another Fitness First club in Mere Green. This club was struggling with retaining members and the heart of the problem lay in the poor performance of the Studio classes. I was made aware that we were the second worse performing Studio in the country, which when you consider there were 94 clubs at this time was pretty awful.
This was a new challenge for me as I myself wasn’t greatly experienced in teaching classes, but it was something I did well. I had a very young and inexperienced team and I felt with the right encouragement, guidance and motivation, they could turn it around without me bringing in new staff to replace them.
Learning to Teach to Music
1. Being able to hear the beat (Auditory)
2. Being able to hear the beat (Auditory) & count it out loud (Verbal)
3. Step 2 plus being able to March in time (Auditory, Verbal & Kinesthetic)
4. Being able to hear the ‘Phrases’ i.e. 32 beats to a Phrase (Auditory)
5. Able to put Aerobic moves to a Phrase (Auditory & Kinesthetic)
6. Able to teach step 5 to yourself (Auditory, Kinesthetic & Verbal)
7. Able to teach this to another person (Auditory, Kinesthetic, Verbal and Visual)
(Reece and Walker 2006. P141)
This breakdown of teaching someone to be able to teach a class, again has terminology and Theory that I was not aware of at the time, but the structure of breaking down the whole into parts and to then build it to become the ‘whole’ finished article is a method that seemed common sense to me, as this is a similar method to how you would deliver an actual exercise to music class i.e. start simply and build the complexity and intensity.
Over the next three months the staff and myself worked really hard on improving our delivery of classes, I also assessed customer feedback cards and kept a record as to see which classes were busy and which were quiet. Once I was happy that I knew the staff was delivering good quality classes I could play around with the timetable as quieter classes may have been quiet due to the time it was on or the members in the club at that time favored other types of classes i.e. Step, Conditioning or Biking, to the one that was on.
The next management meeting was a very proud moment for me as I won Manager of the month. We had taken our class usage from the bottom two to the top ten in the country. Did I get a pay rise, did I ell!
Conclusion
I believe that working in the Health & Fitness industry put me in good stead to be able to become a teacher. Having to teach people to use equipment properly, delivering group exercise classes, Personal Training, all encompass some, if not most of the Theories of learning. Having awareness and being adaptable to individual needs is paramount, being clear and concise with your instructions, giving appropriate demonstrations and putting the needs of others before your own.
It is nice to see on reflecting on my past that even though completely unaware of Learning Theories, I used a lot of the criteria pretty well. I also believe that if you yourself have to work harder than most to be able to understand the subject matter, you will be a better teacher for it, than someone who is a ‘natural’. You will have experienced more difficulties and hurdles, therefore have more techniques, tactics and understanding to be able to teach more clearly especially for those who need extra help or another approach to help their understanding.
References
Petty, G. (2004) Teaching Today A Practical Guide. 3rd ed., Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Reece, I and Walker, S. (2006) Teaching, training and learning a practical guide. 6th ed., Sunderland: Business Education Publishers Ltd.
Other sources
http://crs.uvm.edu/gopher/nerl/personal/assess/d.html
http://www.accelerated-learning-online.com/styles/
In this assignment my aim is to answer the question ‘What is meant by the term teaching?’ I will do this by reflecting and describing my own personal experiences of teaching others within my specialist field of Health and Fitness. I will attempt to use and reference respected learning theories to show how I approached the task at the time, and how I would approach the task now that I have more experience and have furthered my personal development within the teaching field.
Main Body
I have been working in the Health and Fitness industry for the past 9 years, starting out as a Fitness Instructor, then Fitness Manager, and for the past six years running my own business specializing in Sports Therapy and Personal Training. This gives me a great insight into an individuals psyche and how best to approach a person on their level to help them achieve their aspirations.
Within Personal Training, Teaching is empowering that person by giving them the knowledge and skills to be able to make better choices for themselves regarding their health, fitness, wellbeing and lifestyle.
Empowering people can be done in many different ways and the first thing to remember is that most people have approached me for help and are therefore contemplating and/or willing to make change, but need guidance and support. The second thing we have to take into consideration is that everyone is an individual and we must be adaptable to that person’s uniqueness, age, sex, beliefs, personality, characteristics, motivation and past experience are some of the essential background information we must obtain to begin to devise a plan for that person. Thirdly it has to be realistic, motivating and have measurable results. Its no use making people do things they detest otherwise they are not going to keep it up, but on the other hand, sometimes we have to do things we don’t like and in these cases there needs to be goal or clear sign of improvement to make it worth while.
I suppose the earliest point I can recognize as me teaching someone would be back in early 1999. My best friend Ian could only make the Gym once or twice a week and was not confident on the correct way to approach his workout. I was fairly experienced but not qualified in Gym work, weight training and conditioning at the time and so Ian asked me if I could take him round the gym once a week to make sure he was doing things correctly. This could show that he trusted me to lead as I looked the part and maybe sounded like I knew what I was on about, also because he felt comfortable with me, whereas with a Fitness nut Instructor he may have felt intimidated or like he was being judged, or maybe he was just to tight to pay for a Personal Trainer (joke!).
It was during these Training sessions I discovered my sadistic side, or my love of training people to help them achieve a stronger, fitter, healthier body, so I decided to pursue a career in Personal Training. Firstly I needed to get qualified and then search for employment as an Instructor to gain some experience. I used my savings and paid to get myself qualified as a Personal Trainer with Premier Training, £1400, it was a bit of a shock, but the course was short and intense which meant I could get moving pretty quickly in the career path I had chosen.
I began working for Fitness First in Wolverhampton in January 2000. My duties included writing gym programmes, assisting members with food plans, teaching bike classes and instructing people how to use the equipment properly, which could be a huge challenge as I could have up to 20 people in a group for a gym induction. A typical Gym induction format would consist of:
Aims
1. To give the new members suitable understanding of how to set up some of the equipment safely by themselves
2. Experience some of the exercises to reinforce understanding
3. For me to see they are performing the exercise correctly and safely and to give further teaching points if necessary
Demonstrations on resistance kit
1. Explain what this exercise is designed for with no jargon terminology i.e. to work the muscles at the back of the arms
2. Give a good demonstration while giving teaching points at the same time
3. Continue the demonstration but silently to allow the member to visually take in what is happening
4. Allow the member to try the exercise and give appropriate teaching points to keep it safe
Looking back at the demonstration phase of the induction it appears to me now, to have an obvious floor. Even though it follows from the method of Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
“Tell me and I forget”
”Show me and I remember”
”I do and I understand”
There is too much information stimulus going on for the member to grasp the important points at stage 2. (Demonstration and description), it seems to me it would make more sense to:
1. (Auditory) Explain what this exercise is designed for with no jargon terminology
2. (Visual) Give a good, verbal free, demonstration
3. (Auditory + Visual) Give teaching points while continuing the demonstration
4. (Kinesthetic) Allow the member to try the exercise and give appropriate teaching points for safety and effectiveness. (Petty 2004. P146)
I had been working at Fitness First for six months when I was approached by a Regional Manager whose name escapes me, but I will never forget his deep red boozer’s nose. It never seizes to amaze me how many obviously unhealthy people work in the health and fitness industry! Anyway boozer nose said he had heard good things about me and would I be interested in taking the Fitness Managers role at their Chesterfield club. This was a big step and challenge for me as Chesterfield was the pinnacle club for them at the time, being home to Fitness Firsts training facility ‘The Academy’, meant that there was top brass wondering the place at all times and therefore the place had to be impeccable.
It was at Chesterfield I had my first taste of staff training. We had to employ at least two staff who would receive in house training to bring them up to a standard high enough to pass their NVQ 2 Gym Instructor exams. This system worked quite well as if you were looking for promotion Chesterfield was the best place to be, and as staff were promoted we had newly qualified, enthusiastic Instructors ready to take their place.
To become an NVQ 2 Gym Instructor the participant needed to have:
1. A good understanding of Anatomy and Physiology
2. Have a good understanding of the Skeletal, Muscular and Cardiovascular systems and the role they play in Health & Fitness
3. Understand and be able to explain planes of movement, terminology and the Anatomical position of Muscles on the Human body
4. Design a gym programme covering all the components of Fitness. This would include:
• Warm up
• Cardiovascular Fitness
• Strength & Endurance
• Flexibility
• Proprioception (Agility, Balance and Co-ordination)
• Sports Specific if necessary
• Also the programme would have to meet the specific needs and goals of the member and be adaptable i.e. have alternative exercises to achieve the same goal if the exercises prescribed were unavailable
There were many teaching methods adopted to help the Trainee become competent in all these areas from 1 on 1 sessions, taking part in gym inductions, hand outs, chart labeling, active participation, simply observing people in the gym, shadowing qualified staff and allowing them to practice on each other and practice on qualified staff members to receive various feedback and discussion from different personalities.
Learning Theories is something I was completely unaware of at this time, but looking back now it appears I did pretty well in my ignorance at covering some of the Theories.
Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Petty 2004. P147), applied to a Gym Induction from the viewpoint of a Trainee Instructor.
• Concrete Experience – The Trainee would experience many gym inductions from a new member’s point of view, which was delivered from a different staff member each time.
• Reflective Observation – From here the Trainee can look back on the Induction, make sense of the information past on and write a short report on what they felt was good or not so good about the Induction.
• Abstract Conceptualization – The Trainee can reflect on all their different experiences of Inductions from different staff, the variation in approach and start to gain confidence in the knowledge they now have.
• Active Experimentation – Now the Trainee can consider how they are going to induct new people into the Gym environment. They can put their own experiences and knowledge to use and approach the task in a way that is comfortable to them.
Without knowing the Trainee’s preferred learning style it appears I still covered a lot of the areas/learning styles outlined by Honey and Mumford learning styles and therefore delivered a well rounded learning experience.
Honey and Mumfords Learning Theories (Petty 2004. P148) and how it was met during staff training.
Activist – Word storms, puzzles, competitions, role plays
• Name of muscle and where it is found and its action e.g. Rectus Femoris is one of the Quadriceps muscles. It Flexes the Hip and Extends the Knee.
• Labeling Anatomical Charts
• Doing Exercise demonstrations, teaching points and alternatives
Reflectors – Paired discussions, self analysis, personality, questionnaires, coaching
• 1 on 1 sessions with colleagues and peers
• Observing member habits and being able to identify good and poor technique
• Shadowing other staff
Theorists – statistics, models, theories, data, facts
• The Trainee would need to know Models and Theories in order to pass the NVQ 2 exam. This could include Karnovans formula, Body adaptation, Periodized programmes etc
Pragmatists – apply learning, case study, problem solving, discussions
• Programme design for specific needs and goals
• Adaptable routines to overcome challenging circumstances
• Feedback and discussions with other staff.
Having this experience of staff training set me up nicely for my next Management position at another Fitness First club in Mere Green. This club was struggling with retaining members and the heart of the problem lay in the poor performance of the Studio classes. I was made aware that we were the second worse performing Studio in the country, which when you consider there were 94 clubs at this time was pretty awful.
This was a new challenge for me as I myself wasn’t greatly experienced in teaching classes, but it was something I did well. I had a very young and inexperienced team and I felt with the right encouragement, guidance and motivation, they could turn it around without me bringing in new staff to replace them.
Learning to Teach to Music
1. Being able to hear the beat (Auditory)
2. Being able to hear the beat (Auditory) & count it out loud (Verbal)
3. Step 2 plus being able to March in time (Auditory, Verbal & Kinesthetic)
4. Being able to hear the ‘Phrases’ i.e. 32 beats to a Phrase (Auditory)
5. Able to put Aerobic moves to a Phrase (Auditory & Kinesthetic)
6. Able to teach step 5 to yourself (Auditory, Kinesthetic & Verbal)
7. Able to teach this to another person (Auditory, Kinesthetic, Verbal and Visual)
(Reece and Walker 2006. P141)
This breakdown of teaching someone to be able to teach a class, again has terminology and Theory that I was not aware of at the time, but the structure of breaking down the whole into parts and to then build it to become the ‘whole’ finished article is a method that seemed common sense to me, as this is a similar method to how you would deliver an actual exercise to music class i.e. start simply and build the complexity and intensity.
Over the next three months the staff and myself worked really hard on improving our delivery of classes, I also assessed customer feedback cards and kept a record as to see which classes were busy and which were quiet. Once I was happy that I knew the staff was delivering good quality classes I could play around with the timetable as quieter classes may have been quiet due to the time it was on or the members in the club at that time favored other types of classes i.e. Step, Conditioning or Biking, to the one that was on.
The next management meeting was a very proud moment for me as I won Manager of the month. We had taken our class usage from the bottom two to the top ten in the country. Did I get a pay rise, did I ell!
Conclusion
I believe that working in the Health & Fitness industry put me in good stead to be able to become a teacher. Having to teach people to use equipment properly, delivering group exercise classes, Personal Training, all encompass some, if not most of the Theories of learning. Having awareness and being adaptable to individual needs is paramount, being clear and concise with your instructions, giving appropriate demonstrations and putting the needs of others before your own.
It is nice to see on reflecting on my past that even though completely unaware of Learning Theories, I used a lot of the criteria pretty well. I also believe that if you yourself have to work harder than most to be able to understand the subject matter, you will be a better teacher for it, than someone who is a ‘natural’. You will have experienced more difficulties and hurdles, therefore have more techniques, tactics and understanding to be able to teach more clearly especially for those who need extra help or another approach to help their understanding.
References
Petty, G. (2004) Teaching Today A Practical Guide. 3rd ed., Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Reece, I and Walker, S. (2006) Teaching, training and learning a practical guide. 6th ed., Sunderland: Business Education Publishers Ltd.
Other sources
http://crs.uvm.edu/gopher/nerl/personal/assess/d.html
http://www.accelerated-learning-online.com/styles/
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