[Tango-L] Discussion Topics

[Christopher L. Everett]

My usual experience taking group classes has been that instructors
present material in order of increasing complexity, and at some
point the majority of the class finds itself in over its head.

This is inevitable, given that any class represents a range of
abilities.  What's important to remember is that the best learning
is that done at the edge of your existing abilities.  In a group
lesson, perhaps 10 or 15 minutes of the class might lie in that
space, the rest being too easy (rehash of what you already have),
or too hard (waaay outside what you can do).

You can't blame instructors for this.  They have to arrange the
material this way, or no one gets anything out of the class.  But
at the same time, it strikes me as a waste of energy to take notes
or videotape stuff you can do easily, or stuff outside your range.

Christopher

Bruce Stephens wrote:
> "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos at yahoo.com> writes:
>> Given that one can only retain 5 +/-2 pieces of information
>> in short-term memory, Ed makes a quite reasonable comment
>> and his usage of the word "learned" is perfectly
>> understood.
> The usual number is 7 (+/- 2), but the original paper probably doesn't
> support most of the conclusions that it's used to support.
> <http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000U6&topic_id=1>.
>
> It's about remembering random (disconnected) facts (or discriminating
> things on a unidimensional scale).  I guess that might apply to a
> tango class if a teacher attempts to teach a number of unrelated
> figures, or gives some pattern of steps without adequately motivating
> them.
>
> Remembering such things would be challenging, but I'm not sure that
> using notebooks, videos, etc., is a suitable response.  Probably
> better to motivate and connect the collection of whatever it is you're
> teaching.  And probably you'd end up teaching maybe one or two things,
> plus some variations on the same theme (which students could easily
> reconstruct afterwards, having understood the principles).
>
> [...]
>
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