Inquiry method

This is a post I wrote some time ago about the inquiry method of teaching. It was posted on MMAlibrary on a request from my friend Matt Kirtley.

It's quite simple. As an instructor, instead of giving all the answers and teaching in a one-direction manner, you create a framework for your students to explore and teach themselves.

I am not an expert in this, but have experimented a bit with it in my gym, and must say it has worked amazingly. People come up with new (good) moves every time and best of all, they really seem to remember things better when they have explored them by themselves.

Best way to explain how it is done is by this flowchart made by Cane from SBGi Portland:


What is really cool about this approach to training is, that I don't act as an instructor in a traditional way. In fact, may of the questions that arise, I don't even have an answer for them, but the people in the gym together can come up with some really good answers, so I learn a lot myself. I don't teach, I just provide a framework for people to learn by themselves.


This method naturally brings up the very interesting question: If we can find answers to all the questions together, without having any external information source (e.g. a higher level instructor) - does that mean that we hold all the information inside our (connected?) minds already and just need to "activate" it to "learn"?