Experience with Teaching Beginners
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:57 am
What is everybody's experience with teaching beginners? Since oren asks, let me start with a few notes about my own experience:
Apart from written teaching, my teaching of beginners (in this thread, I mean double digit kyu players) comprises clubs, tournaments and pupils. I have very little experience with teaching absolute beginners (newbies), e.g., I have never taught at schools.
My experience in clubs was mostly from 1991 to ca. 1997; since mid 1993 "teaching" starts to make some sense. However, it was not pure teaching, but post-game discussion. Nothing special, and not so impressive as teaching, IIRC. At that time, I simply was a player.
My teaching at tournament events is mostly at the European Go Congresses since 1993, simply because this event allows very much time for friendly games or teaching. I play many games against many players of all levels, but EGCs have very few players weaker than 20 kyu, so teaching beginners concerns 20 to 10 kyus. I'd say that most were satisfied to delighted by my teaching. A few regulars would ask me several times at every congress to review their games, because, as they said, they liked the reason- and explanation-orientated teaching.
Roughly one third of my pupils has been beginners. IMX, beginners are not different from pupils that are intermediate or dan players. Of course, I teach beginners less demanding and must explain more basic or easy things. Surprisingly though, most beginners are as curious to hear much theory as stronger players. There are exceptions of beginners with specific difficulties, such as slow reading, and so I must adopt my teaching style to those beginners' special needs. This is not a matter of teaching skill, but of not showing one's exercised patience. Sitting 5 minutes while waiting for the beginner's reading of the next move is tougher than non-stop dense teaching, but it can be important to let the pupil think, because he must learn to think well if he shall solve reading or strategy problems. As much patience the teacher needs with himself, the pupil needs the patience to avoid blunders due to prematurely interrupted reading. Showing the variations and the related theory is only half of the teaching task; helping the pupil with his own psychology and thinking for actually doing the reading is the other half. Beginners need to learn this more than stronger players.
The "tough" kind of beginners wants to play only. For them, my task as a teacher consists mainly of convincing the pupil to listen a few minutes more than just one or two minutes in between every two games, and to read some problem books for improving their reading.
Apart from written teaching, my teaching of beginners (in this thread, I mean double digit kyu players) comprises clubs, tournaments and pupils. I have very little experience with teaching absolute beginners (newbies), e.g., I have never taught at schools.
My experience in clubs was mostly from 1991 to ca. 1997; since mid 1993 "teaching" starts to make some sense. However, it was not pure teaching, but post-game discussion. Nothing special, and not so impressive as teaching, IIRC. At that time, I simply was a player.
My teaching at tournament events is mostly at the European Go Congresses since 1993, simply because this event allows very much time for friendly games or teaching. I play many games against many players of all levels, but EGCs have very few players weaker than 20 kyu, so teaching beginners concerns 20 to 10 kyus. I'd say that most were satisfied to delighted by my teaching. A few regulars would ask me several times at every congress to review their games, because, as they said, they liked the reason- and explanation-orientated teaching.
Roughly one third of my pupils has been beginners. IMX, beginners are not different from pupils that are intermediate or dan players. Of course, I teach beginners less demanding and must explain more basic or easy things. Surprisingly though, most beginners are as curious to hear much theory as stronger players. There are exceptions of beginners with specific difficulties, such as slow reading, and so I must adopt my teaching style to those beginners' special needs. This is not a matter of teaching skill, but of not showing one's exercised patience. Sitting 5 minutes while waiting for the beginner's reading of the next move is tougher than non-stop dense teaching, but it can be important to let the pupil think, because he must learn to think well if he shall solve reading or strategy problems. As much patience the teacher needs with himself, the pupil needs the patience to avoid blunders due to prematurely interrupted reading. Showing the variations and the related theory is only half of the teaching task; helping the pupil with his own psychology and thinking for actually doing the reading is the other half. Beginners need to learn this more than stronger players.
The "tough" kind of beginners wants to play only. For them, my task as a teacher consists mainly of convincing the pupil to listen a few minutes more than just one or two minutes in between every two games, and to read some problem books for improving their reading.
