Teacher vs. instructor

[SLG]

http://soldiersystems.net/2017/01/14...ron-barruga-3/

I don't personally know the author, but I am impressed with this article he penned.

Too many instructors don't know nearly as much about a subject as they pretend to, and it is a huge pet peeve of mine when people fall back on "it depends" too often. Sometimes it does depend, but then you need to lay those circumstances out. Many other times, "It depends" means, "I don't know". In LE training, as well as some of the mil training I have been fortunate enough to attend, this "shooter's preference" is widespread and often misapplied. He goes into greater detail, so read the article.:-)
I put this here because I think of this as teachers mindset, but if there is a better place for it mods, please adjust accordingly.

[Redhat]

Well I tried to read the article but couldn't make it through. Went right over my head as I had little understanding of what he was talking about.

That said, when I was an instructor, I tried to stick to what I knew and if I didn't know, I told the students so and that I would research the answer for them.

[voodoo_man]

Interesting article.

In my LE experience I have found instructors use those general statements as a walk-around for detail required answers. Either they don't know if they don't have the time to explain it. Either way, if the person asking the questions or having the thought cannot get their answer from that instructor they should move on to another one or try to develop the answer themselves.

The catch 22 is that sometimes the answer is actually "it depends" because of the variables associated with the original question or concept. The real worth of the admission price is if the instructor can figure out which you are asking and/or explain in detail the answer given a specific set of variables.

[Cookie Monster]

I just spent a week teaching a class (nothing related to guns), and was thinking about the instructor vs teacher. Clint Smith just posted a you tube video with that as a part.

Interesting but 12 hours of travel has my brain hurting more than working.

[Redhat]

I just spent a week teaching a class (nothing related to guns), and was thinking about the instructor vs teacher. Clint Smith just posted a you tube video with that as a part.

Interesting but 12 hours of travel has my brain hurting more than working.

Well Mr. Smith really turned on the Flamethrower in that vid! Good stuff.

[JohnO]

I just spent a week teaching a class (nothing related to guns), and was thinking about the instructor vs teacher. Clint Smith just posted a you tube video with that as a part.

I thought of the Clint Smith video also.

Someone must have really pissed in his cornflakes.

[Dagga Boy]

A couple of thoughts.
The Clint Smith video....some very good and "valid" points that got lost going full Yeager.

As far as teacher versus instructor, I break it down personally like this. To me there are several differentiations in what we do, particularly for me in the LE specific arena. We have what I call "target graders". Most of these folks are assigned to the range as a way to get rid of, and are generally useless for anything other than grading targets, often are barely able to pass their own agency courses, and it is all they know. Rangemasters are often just that...the master of the Range. They love rules on their range and enforcement of the range rules. They love the tradition of their facility and program and have always mastered the "way we have always done it". They tend to be very good shooters in their pond on their courses of fire. Instructors...Rangemaster evolved to where they realize they do not know everything, and outside their world are lots of things to learn and pass on. Open to both evolution and a study of history. If done right, they can move a PROGRAM very far ahead....done wrong, can start a new era of "this is how we have always done it. The key is acquiring information and efficiently adapting and passing it down to a group. Instructors who got their awakening to go seek and dig for information from actual experience are wonderful and tend to be the ones who make massive changes in performance and direction in an organization. Teacher....this is what I try to do with individuals. True teachers can individually assess a student and carefully diagnose how to efficiently pass information to that student. It requires a lot of experience as a student and an instructor to really master. I have seen Great target graders, Great Rangemasters, Great Instructors and Great teachers. The true gifts to our world is those who can both instruct and teach.
Again, that is strictly a personal outlook and nothing that has any actual definition behind it other than personal observation of being a dedicated student of this since the mid 80's.

[Trigger]

I'll chime in on this from my perspective. I wrote a paper for an instructor techniques guide a few years ago where I tried to address this issue.

From my perspective, an instructor tends to teach skills using one method, the approved solution method. Instructing consists of explaining the approved technique to the student in such a way that the student will understand, internalize and be able demonstrate understanding/application of the skill.

A teacher has multiple techniques, "tools in the toolkit" as it were, to teach the same skill. A skilled teacher can then measure the student and apply/adapt the best technique that will work best for that particular student. The teacher chooses the best tool in his/her toolkit that will enable the student to learn that specific skill in the least amount of repetitions, the least amount of time. Internalization and mastery will usually be the same for students of both instructors and teachers, but teachers can get there faster with greater student understanding.

I advocate adapting the material to your audience, and stay perceptive as to what is working and what needs to be adapted. Oh, and differentiate between techniques and procedures. Sometimes instructors feel all their techniques are truth, and therefore are procedures to be followed. Teachers can more clearly differentiate between procedures and techniques, which will reduce student confusion and aid proper prioritization and learning.

[ST911]

I've struggled with trying to define and differentiate teachers from instructors, and likewise coaches. To paraphrase Justice Stewart, I can't define it but I know it when I see it. Most often, I've found that those I would call "teacher" produce learning incidentally by default and discovery rather than by dictate.

[SeriousStudent]

Thank you for the link.

I thought it was a good article, and reflected the author's training and experience at both critical thinking and teaching. I have always thought of gifted SF professionals as great planners and teachers.

Saying "Yeah, it worked" and "we were successful with that" is honestly a cop-out, as many here point out. Hunting whales to light people's homes did work for a while, and the whalers were successful. But by constant examination of methods and goals, they figured out there were better ways of doing things.

Every time someone in my shop says "This is how we do it" I have to control a Vader-esque impulse to Force choke them, pour encourager les autres.