Question for those who made their own curriculum

[skribs]

How did you decide what NOT to put into the curriculum?

Every master or chief instructor I've trained under has known plenty more than what they teach. It's not about hiding things from their students, but they've got decades of experience and new students can't handle all that at once.

How do you decide, if you're making a curriculum for your school, what will and will not go into it?

 

[JowGaWolf]

How did you decide what NOT to put into the curriculum?

If it doesn't help your students to reach the goal that you want them to achieve then don't put it.

 

[skribs]

If it doesn't help your students to reach the goal that you want them to achieve then don't put it.

Can you give me an example?

 

[Dirty Dog]

Why would you think there is "A" curriculum? What I teach depends on the student. As they advance, I teach more.

 

[skribs]

Why would you think there is "A" curriculum? What I teach depends on the student. As they advance, I teach more.

We have over 150 students. Could you do individualized lessons for them all?

 

[Dirty Dog]

We have over 150 students. Could you do individualized lessons for them all?

Sure I could. But I don't get paid enough.
Out of that 150 students, are you really convinced that they don't fall into clusters of roughly equivalent levels? Can't you tell from the way they perform, and the questions they ask what information they're ready for?

 

[JowGaWolf]

Can you give me an example?

As a teacher you should have an idea of what you think students should learn. These are usually things that the teacher think is important part of that martial arts systems. As a teacher you should also set a minimum goal for student. For example, should all students learn how to punch correctly? Should all student learn how to use base techniques? Should student learn tricking? What is the goal that you set for students?

My goal for students is that they actually learn how to use some of the techniques. Because of this I don't teach tricking. Everything in my curriculum is geared towards helping the student learn how to actually use the techniques. Anything that doesn't help student reach the goal can be left out..

 

[skribs]

Sure I could. But I don't get paid enough.
Out of that 150 students, are you really convinced that they don't fall into clusters of roughly equivalent levels? Can't you tell from the way they perform, and the questions they ask what information they're ready for?

That's why we have belts and a curriculum for each belt level.

 

[Dirty Dog]

That's why we have belts and a curriculum for each belt level.

So, problem solved.

It's pretty simple to follow that curriculum and still deal with individuals as individuals, without trying to have a different curriculum for every single person.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

How did you decide what NOT to put into the curriculum?

Every master or chief instructor I've trained under has known plenty more than what they teach. It's not about hiding things from their students, but they've got decades of experience and new students can't handle all that at once.

How do you decide, if you're making a curriculum for your school, what will and will not go into it?

I had four ways a technique could make it into the curriculum, in order of priority:

1. It was effective and had ready direct application.
2. It helped teach an important principle that had wider application.
3. It was fun for fiddling.
4. It made communication with the rest of the art easier.

Examples of each, for clarity:

1. Basic punches, a couple of throws.
2. Simple wrist escapes, as well as most of the named techniques in NGA. This includes the main body of the "aiki" work in NGA.
3. Several techniques I refer to as "esoteric" - they have little or no direct application (some I could argue have none), but force the student to work on a specific principle that tunes other techniques. They're far from necessary, but I (and most students) like fiddling with them. This includes the most obviously "aiki" techniques in the curriculum.
4. For this, it's mostly the structure of the curriculum: 5 classical sets of 10 techniques. If I change that, it becomes significantly harder for students to work with folks from other schools. If there were no other schools in the area, I'd be more likely to rearrange things.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Sure I could. But I don't get paid enough.
Out of that 150 students, are you really convinced that they don't fall into clusters of roughly equivalent levels? Can't you tell from the way they perform, and the questions they ask what information they're ready for?

Maybe I'm missing your point, DD - that sounds like progression through the curriculum to me.

 

[Danny T]

Does it convey the principles and concepts of the system?
Does it build the attributes needed to apply the system?

 

[skribs]

I had four ways a technique could make it into the curriculum, in order of priority:

1. It was effective and had ready direct application.
2. It helped teach an important principle that had wider application.
3. It was fun for fiddling.
4. It made communication with the rest of the art easier.

Examples of each, for clarity:

1. Basic punches, a couple of throws.
2. Simple wrist escapes, as well as most of the named techniques in NGA. This includes the main body of the "aiki" work in NGA.
3. Several techniques I refer to as "esoteric" - they have little or no direct application (some I could argue have none), but force the student to work on a specific principle that tunes other techniques. They're far from necessary, but I (and most students) like fiddling with them. This includes the most obviously "aiki" techniques in the curriculum.
4. For this, it's mostly the structure of the curriculum: 5 classical sets of 10 techniques. If I change that, it becomes significantly harder for students to work with folks from other schools. If there were no other schools in the area, I'd be more likely to rearrange things.

Can you give me an example of some of these "esoteric" techniques?

 

[JowGaWolf]

How did you decide what NOT to put into the curriculum?

Every master or chief instructor I've trained under has known plenty more than what they teach. It's not about hiding things from their students, but they've got decades of experience and new students can't handle all that at once.

How do you decide, if you're making a curriculum for your school, what will and will not go into it?

One more important thing about setting the goal. It's up to the student if they want to actually reach the goal that you have set to the students. You don't change your goal as a teacher to fit the student. If the student only wants to take your class for exercise then that's fine, but you don't change the class into an exercise class to meet the students goal. If you feel like there's a need to change the goal then you need to create a separate class. For example. A regular martial arts class and a separate martial arts fitness class. In this example, it allows you to separate the students who want to learn martial arts vs student who just want to exercise. Both getting what they are looking for and you being happy because you didn't change your goal.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Can you give me an example of some of these "esoteric" techniques?

Take a look at 1:45 in this video. That's the "2-Hand Grip from the Rear, Throw to the Front" (yep, that whole thing's the formal name of the Classical technique). Just a note on this video: the student is running through his selection for a specific test. There's not much energy in it on either side - it looks like he's mostly making sure he will remember the versions he's chosen to test, and is only working on specific pieces of each. So, no resistance shown (even where it normally would exist), and the technique is not being performed completely (just one key point is being emphasized each time).

Anyway, that throw isn't one I can even imagine being a reasonable choice enough to make it worth study. But it is fun to fiddle with, very hard to do well, and does help the student develop some of the principles of aiki.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Maybe I'm missing your point, DD - that sounds like progression through the curriculum to me.

It is. But I find that different people will approach things in different ways. One student may be more interested in the sport aspect, another in the self defense aspect, for example.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

It is. But I find that different people will approach things in different ways. One student may be more interested in the sport aspect, another in the self defense aspect, for example.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I'll adjust small stuff (which is actually pretty big for the student) to emphasize the parts of my curriculum that work for different contexts and goals. I had a high school wrestler come in looking for some cross-training to see if he could gain some new principles to work from, so I taught the stuff I'd normally teach, but tweaked for him. I had a Shotokan student come in looking to gain some new tools for close-in work, so I taught what I normally teach, but tweaked a bit for his purpose. The same basic curriculum each time, just emphasizing different parts.

 

[WaterGal]

Well.... when we restructured our TKD curriculum, we started out by sitting down and making a big list of what we wanted someone to know in order to get a 1st degree black belt. (Since we're a KKW school, some of that was already determined for us, i.e. that they have to learn all 8 Taegeuk forms, but the rest of it was up to us.)

After that, we broke down the list of techniques into either 1) things anyone can learn without any prior knowledge or skill, or 2) techniques that are a little more challenging and require some prerequisite skill. We decided that our beginner ranks (which have their own dedicated classes) would only learn material that could be taught without any prior knowledge. Basic footwork, basic kicks and blocks, the simplest forms, etc. That way, everyone in the beginner class can work on the same stuff at the same time and everybody can keep up and not get confused or overwhelmed. Once they graduate from the beginner class, they start learning things that build on what they learned in the beginner class. More advanced strikes, combos, harder forms, combining footwork and strikes into different drills, etc.