For anyone who’s been involved in training for very long you have likely heard some form of the idea, “See One, Do One, Teach One.” This idea started in medicine, specifically in training surgeons in the late 1800’s. The core idea of the concept is that a student would watch an expert do a task to gain the basic knowledge to try to perform the task. After seeing the task, they would then do the task. After doing the task they would then teach others how they did the task to cement the process.
Here’s the problem: Watching someone else doing a task isn’t enough instructional support for the student to then competently do the task, unless the task is exceptionally simple. Having watched students struggle while trying to train others to tie a basic fishing knot really highlighted this for me. Simply watching someone else do something once is not enough to pick up the nuances and “hidden” steps within the task. The instructor must support the learning process more than just by demonstrating it.
I do think a complete, whole, full-speed example can be a good place to start. The student then knows where the training is headed and has an overview of what is expected of them. But then the instructor needs to break the task down into small enough parts to be easily understood and practiced by the student. The instructor then offers explanations and feedback on that practice. As the student gains competency in each of the smaller parts they can begin to assemble the complete task, until they are able to competently perform the whole task.
There is also value in having a newly competent student do
the whole task while explaining what they are doing at each step. However, this isn’t teaching, it’s just
verbalizing the knowledge that supports and makes up the task. Training others is its own skill set that is
beyond the skill or expertise someone might have with a specific task. (This is touched on in Janet's entry on Reflective Competency.)
The process I’ve described above, which I’ve referred to as “Whole-Part-Whole,” (which I’m sure I’ve borrowed from someone along the way) helps to lead us from the first island, “See One” to the second island, “Do One.” The Whole-Part-Whole process works with physical skills, cognitive (problem-solving) skills, and affective (decision-making) skills. It is easiest to see its application in the physical skills. Most of the martial-arts style arrest control training that I have witnessed has used this type of process.
A short-hand reminder that there are steps in the training
process and what method we want to use is not a bad thing. But we need to make sure that we don’t forget
the intermediate steps that lead from the beginning to the end of the training.
Will