...
While it is important to make sure your students are having fun while learning, it's also important to make sure that they achieve the objectives of the class in a way that develops both their skills and confidence. I can be a drill sargeant or a kindergarten teacher ... or many things in between. Which approach I take for a given student depends as much on their goals and learning style as it does the curriculum and objectives of the class.
It really depends on the student, Matt ... for example, based on reading your posts I would probably need to take a very different approach to teaching you than I would someone like TSandM, who is a very analytical and self-critical person.
This is also why some instructors can be completely right for some students, and completely wrong for others ... because there needs to be a compatibility between teaching style and learning style, and that's going to be different for each of us.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Right on Bob!
I have learned that this is the toughest part of being an Instructor. It's a piece of cake if all students were just like those in the training videos....but that is not reality.
I seriously doubt I could have coped with some of the teaching situations I have been in, without some prior "life skills" that involved mentoring and developing new professionals (I was a senior geologist at an engineering firm). I've also learned to bring in someone else if I (or the student) are having difficulties that I can't seem to overcome.
Bill