This is the seventh year that I have been instructing third year plumbing apprentices. the class runs one night a week for three hours. I have had about twenty five years experience as a plumber including the last nine years as a plumbing inspector for a Northern Indiana Municipality. I think I know what material my students ought to be thought. Where I feel the greatest lack in my own skill set is in the art of teaching.
I am hoping that some dopers will be willing to point me in the direction of teaching resources for the non-professional instructor.
For the interested doper: I focus on Plumbing Code. I use a plumbing isometric drawing (I can’t find a site) as my vehicle. The student is required to learn how to draw this rather specialised form, size the pipes and label. The student has to have some acquaintance with the plumbing code (They are all copy written so can’t post a link.) to achieve a finished drawing.
The Classic Newbie Mistake in teaching is going too fast. You know this stuff and you assume they know it too. In all your conversations in the office or work site, you were talking to guys who knew this stuff. That sort of thing does not prepare one for teaching.
Go slow. Repeat everything at least three times. Insist on and grade the homework. You will make mistakes, but everyone does the first time out. Not to worry.
Tell them your name. If the spelling is complicated, write it out for them. Let them know what you want to be called.
Tell them what you are going to teach them (just as you did here). Let them know how their grades will be determined. (Tests? Homework?)
Ask if they have any questions. (Ask this often. Encourage questions. Let them know that every question is important.)
Then you begin. (See Duck Duck Goose’s links.) Follow your instincts. Don’t be afraid to laugh. Be patient if you need to reteach something. That’s common. Sometimes another student can be good at explaining it. Don’t be afraid to change your plans if you need to to accomodate what the students need. Make yourself available after class to answer questions and provide help.
You might want to come up with clues on how to remember the names of things.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten is to give the students time. If you ask a question of the class, wait for an answer. It may seem like an eternity to you, but it seems a lot shorter for the students. If you wait long enough (which is not too long), someone will answer.
I was a tutor in high school and a teacher in engineering grad school, so that’s my base of experience.
Like Paul said, it’s very easy to forget that although this stuff is old hat to you it is all new to your students. Assume that they don’t know a thing and then go faster as they are more comfortable.
Check with them how they’re doing - ask if everyone’s feeling comfortable with the material. When I was teaching I’d stop and ask and if nobody said anything I’d say “So if we had a quiz right now everybody would get an A?” and invariably someone would say “Well, can you go over XYZ one more time?”. Students can be shy about asking questions or admitting that they don’t know something. Create an atmosphere where that’s not an issue, where nobody is uncomfortable asking a question.
Ask them a lot of questions - I found that a sort of Socratic method worked very well (both as a student and as a teacher). I don’t know much about plumbing but let’s say you’ve explained how to size a pipe and now want to work through an example with your students. Don’t just do it for them. Go around the class, asking people “What is the first piece of information that you’d need? How do you calculate that? What is the second piece of information? Where would you look that up?” and so on.
I have been teaching industry classes for a long time now. I am pretty good at it.
Sit down with a cup of coffee and think back to the teachers you learned the most from, either in school, or in your field.
Write down their techniques. Figure out which ones will work for you.
In my case the teachers I learned the most from where the ones that made me laugh and enjoy the class.
I carried that over into my teaching. Nobody sleeps in my classes, usually due to their laughing too hard. But they do learn.
Next write down the following question: 1. What do you want the student to be able to do when the class is over?
Answer this question. It may be a long list, it may be a short list.
Then write down this question: 2. How will I measure that the student has achieved the items listed in question 1?
For beginning plumbers one item in question 1 might be: Student will able to soldier a copper pipe joint both in a horizontal plane, and a vertical (over head) plane.
So to measure this would you:
A. Give a multiple choice test on the history of indoor plumbing?
B. Ask them to write an essay on how to soldier?
C. given proper tools, equipment, and supplies student will cut, assemble, and soldier copper pipe assembly that is water tight. The assembly will have at least one horizontal and one vertical joint. Assembly will be pressure tested at 100 PSI. Student must follow all safety rules.
I hope the answer to which evaluation method is superior is obvious. If the guy assembles a joint that is water tight, and he did not violate any safety rules, he is done and has passed this portion of the class.
Some other random ideas:
Don’t talk too fast
Look at your students. With just a tiny bit of practice you will be able to tell who isn’t getting it. Ask questions to find out why.
I start every session (of an ongoing class) with a question “OK, what questions do you have about yesterday’s (last week’s) class”. Quote often there will not be any questions. When this happens I say, “You know, this means one of two things. Either I am the world’s greatest instructor, and I have answered every single question, or it means that I have you so confused that you don’t even know what to ask. While I would like to think I am the world’s greatest instructor, I am afraid, I just have you guys so twisted up in your shorts, you don’t even know what to ask.” This usually gets a laugh, breaks the ice and starts the questions. After answering each question, ask what else you do need to go over again. Lather rinse repeat until you have answered all the questions. Also since you are teaching an industry class, ask the guys what they are seeing on the job, and answer those questions. Many times it those questions that will help the guys the most in real life.
If you throw out a question, shut up and wait for an answer. If none are forthcoming use one of two responses:
You know this is going to be a really long class unless you guys start giving me some answers
or
Bob what do you think?, what about you Fred? (pick two or three at random and point and ask. Once you ask, shut up and listen. If Bob says the threads on a pipe are clockwise, and Fred says they go counterclockwise then either say “Do you two guys want to discuss this and get back to me?” or “What do you think Ralph?”
If only one guy answers and it is wrong, ask the rest of the class if they agree. Point someone out if you have too. Hell, do that even if the answer is right. In both cases this will help you gauge the classes understanding of the subject at hand.
Take a break about once an hour, 90 minutes max. These guys are not used to sitting on their asses in chairs. Even if for only 5 minutes it’s worth it.
Enjoy yourself. If you aren’t having fun, I can almost guarantee they aren’t either.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask here, or send me a PM or e mail.
I teach in a university; when I started an older colleague told me that good teaching was all about organisation. I think he was right, this really is 90% of the battle. Charisma, comic timing etc might be what you need to be a great teacher, but it’s really all about organisation at the core of it. I work with some raconteurs, great scientists who can’t teach for shit because they don’t put any organisation into their lectures. OTOH, there are some quite staid, dry personalities who are worshipped by the students because they deliver their material in such a clear and palatable form.
Organising classes is about the what and the how. What are you going to teach is the easy bit, (even I manage to get this right), it is the how that takes a bit of experience to be successful with. The OP knows plumbing front to back, but you cannae just stand up in front of the class and talk about it, you have to think about the most effective way to deliver the material. It could require practical teaching, a demonstration with plumbing materials, it might need discussion, it might be best suited to good old-fashioned rote-learning etc etc. This question - ‘I know and understand this material in all aspects, how do I best communicate it to the class?’ is the essence of teaching I think.
But they do learn.