Teaching puts me to sleep. Yes, it’s true. After 40 years on the education scene, I still find, beyond everything that is professionally reasonable, teaching sessions at workshops, conferences, and academia that are more potent than the strongest off-the-counter sleeping pill. One more yawn and my jawbones will veer off in separate directions.
In elementary school, I sought relief from the boredom of memorization and regurgitation in the school gym or schoolyard. I had to move my body to sustain satisfaction and support my sanity.
In high school, I took refuge in extracurricular activities that compensated for the litany of routine, rote learning I was told was professedly the best thing for my intellect, something akin to eating broccoli and liver for physical wellness.
In university, and more so in graduate school, I rebelled against professors who religiously pontificated and taught didactically while students snored secretively. That was fun.
Today, in real estate education, dealing as we do with ambitious adult learners, we do not teach. Rather, we facilitate.
Lecture-based instruction is anathema except for housekeeping issues and directives. Our instructors, professionals in their respective fields of real estate, seek student engagement. They present exercises and case studies that challenge participants to think, role-play, and apply concepts to the real, yet complicated, world around them. No sooner is this done that first-hand experiences are shared and a bucket load of questions spill forth craving reflection and engagement.
When such an interactive environment is created, knowledge transfer is ensured. Why then do so many ‘teachers’ not understand this simple arithmetic equation while so many ‘facilitators’ live it wholeheartedly?
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