Pages

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Experts don't always make the best teachers

To be an expert is different from being a teacher.  To be an expert one must amass a great deal of experience in a field.  This allows you to solve complex problems ... standards-based interoperability for example.

To be a teacher is a different mind-set.  Not only must you remember all the amassed experience, but you must also forget it ... or at least remember what it was like when you didn't know the answers, and if you are really good, the moment at which you finally got it, and then be able to convey that to others.

It's taken me ten years and more to become an expert at interoperability, and while I can claim some skill at teaching, I'm far from expert at it.  As I age, it becomes more difficult for me to remember what it was like to not know something.

Experts are often called upon to train others.  What is simple for us we must remember is not so simple for others without our experience.  And that is the critical piece of self-awareness that we have to learn to develop ... to recognize that there's a certain skill we had to develop, or piece of knowledge we had to slot into place in our minds before we could accomplish the "simple" task.

   Keith

No comments:

Post a Comment