How to find the right teachers for you?
This post is part 7/7 of a series on How to Pick Good Teachers to Accelerate your Learning.
How to find the right teachers for you?
We should strive to find teachers that fulfill all five pillars of great teaching. From examining the Five Pillars of Great Teaching above, I hope you have ideas of teachers or coaches from your own life who embodied (or didn’t embody) each particular pillar. To further assist you to vet potential teachers in each of the Five Pillars of Great Teaching, here’s a non-exhaustive list of questions and methods:
1. Expert Knowledge (Pillar article)
In what way has the teacher demonstrated mastery in their topic?
What do others say about that teacher’s expert knowledge?
Are their explanations clear?
Do they build up foundations step by step, or do they skip steps in their explanations?
Do their explanations resonate with you?
2. Skin in the Game (Pillar article)
Has the teacher done it (the thing you’re looking to learn) in the context that applies to you? For example, if you want to build a SaaS startup in the enterprise tech space, look to learn from people who’ve done so before or are doing it now.
Is the person in the arena? Don’t take advice on parenting from people who’ve never had kids, or startups from someone who’s never started and ran one, and so on...
You want to copy the rigor of the thought process and not just the actions of the practitioner. Often their experience isn’t the magic path, but serves as guideposts for what a successful path may look like.
3. Beginner’s Empathy (Pillar article)
Does the person start at basics or make assumptions about what you already know?
How have other students who were also beginners under that teacher fared?
Does the teacher remember what it’s like not to know things?
Do you feel scared or feel like you’re over your head? Probably a bad sign.
Does the person have both an insider’s and outsider’s perspective on the topic?
4. Embracing Many Paths to Greatness (Pillar article)
Does the teacher claim to have the magic system? Or do they see the pros and cons of many systems?
How is the teacher attuned to the personality and unique characteristics of the students?
Pick teachers or role models suited to your unique characteristics at first, in order to build your intuition. For example, studying players who play like you do or think like you do, rather than just the ‘best players’ that everyone likes.
Watch out for teachers who try to take you away from your natural way of playing or relating to your discipline.
Pick teachers who move at a pace you can handle, but not those that move too fast.
5. Long-Term Focused (Pillar article)
Seek out teachers who understand that “what got you here, won’t get you there”. They balance methods to achieve short-term goals, with instilling habits that are healthy for long term development in a domain.
Teachers that teach a single system or use templates to mold their students are not bad teachers per se. Systems and templates can be good starting points.
Look for the ones that help you transcend the system rather than relying on it like a crutch forever.
Does the teacher prioritize test scores or other short term outcomes? Do they claim to help you game the system? If so, red flag.
Long term oriented teachers value the learning process and helping students understand where they lie in the learning curve above all else.
Which part of the article did you find most interesting? Let me know on Twitter (@avthars) or email me (avthar at avthar dot com) if you’d like to discuss it!
