“I researched on my own and found the reason….. So I tried experimenting with my students….. I realized its true meaning…” – Tatsuya Naka 7th dan JKA Shotokan
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The main goal of a teacher should not be to fill the student with knowledge, but instead to guide them how to obtain knowledge through their own studies.
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Essentially, a teacher’s main goal should be to teach the student how to engage in their own practice, so they can grow their understanding of their art over time.
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In many dojo or schools, memorization is mistaken for learning. Most of what is remembered is remembered only for a short time, but then can be quickly forgotten.
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There are many different ways of learning;….. teaching is one of them. Teaching is a great way for you to take your understanding to a deeper level. By teaching I don’t mean standing up in front of a class expounding your knowledge, and yelling orders at students shaking in their ‘Keiko-Gi’.
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We learn a great deal on our own, in independent study or practice…. We learn a great deal interacting with others informally – sharing what we are learning with others and vice versa…. We learn a great deal by doing, through trial and error.
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Teaching is a powerful tool of learning. Let’s abandon for the moment the loaded word ‘teaching’, which is unfortunately all too closely linked to the notion of “talking at” or “lecturing,” and use instead the rather awkward phrase; “explaining something to someone who wants to find out about it.”
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One aspect of explaining something is getting yourself up to a high level of understanding on whatever it is that you are trying to explain. I can’t very well explain to you how to ‘punch with full force’ if I haven’t studied and practiced the ‘kinetic chain’ first. This is a problem we all face when we are expected to explain something. And this is where many instructors fail, they struggle to gain a deeper understanding in the first place, in a form clear enough to explain.
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Long before there were dojo on every street corner, there was a kind of apprenticeship – learning how to do something by trying it under the guidance of one who knows how. A knowledgeable and experienced teacher.
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So those that are new to teaching, remember that the objective of education is learning, not teaching. – “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden
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You must reach a level where the student being addressed, reaches the point where that person can nod his head and say, “Ah, yes, now I understand!”
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Teaching – “When one teaches, two learn” – Robert Heinlein. 
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