Learn To Teach, Teach To Learn | Internal Locus Of Control

There are many ways to teach successfully, all of which draw, more or less, on our various, differing sensitivities. Some like to learn through doing, visually, or through hearing. Others prefer learning independently, without meddlesome, authoritative “Teachers.” Some are spellbound by the words, actions, and ideas of charismatic thought and action leaders. Great orators like Winston Churchill and John Kennedy come to mind.

When properly established, the goal of teaching is to facilitate growth and development in the Learner. Traditionally, this has been mostly a classroom affair, but online learning provides another option through today’s digital technologies.

The bottom line is this: People learn best when interested in the subject or task at hand, and this is when their powers of attention come into play. If your brain does not register incoming information as interesting and important, it is less likely to retain the same.

Learning and teaching are also closely connected. The better we understand something, the better prepared we are to explain it to others. And when we teach what we have learned, we often deepen our own understanding in the process.

This is the idea behind Learn To Teach – Teach To Learn.

Why Teaching Helps Us Learn

Teaching is not simply a matter of passing information from one person to another.

When we teach something, we have to organize what we know, explain it in understandable terms, respond to questions, and sometimes look at familiar ideas from an entirely new perspective.

In doing so, we learn.

The Learner benefits from the Teacher’s knowledge and experience, but the Teacher can also benefit from the questions, observations, and experiences of the Learner.

Learning is a continuing process. Teaching provides another opportunity to strengthen what we know while helping someone else develop knowledge and skills of their own.

Learn To Teach

Learning to Teach starts with learning something you may eventually want to pass on to others.

If you love learning mathematics and the task of problem-solving with numbers in play, it is likely you will enjoy teaching mathematics, but not necessarily so. You may love a subject and have no interest in sharing the same. And that is fine. There are no such rules in the teaching game.

What we do know is that those who learn something well will do a better job explaining it to others and, hopefully, more interestingly.

Teaching also means recognizing that not every Learner begins with the same interest in learning.

Some teachers work with learners who are uninterested in learning because they see little relevance between the material and their own lives. A classroom of eyes glazed over, a yawn now and again, and a waiting-for-this-to-be-over attitude presents a very different teaching challenge.

The goal is not simply to present more information. The challenge is to help the Learner discover why learning might matter.

Teach To Learn

The more you are engaged in teaching one or another subject, the more you learn about it.

Learning is always a continuing process, and processing the same material the same way, from the same perspective repeatedly, as a Coach, Teacher, Counselor, or Therapist can become devastating to growth.

Let’s face it. Human development, at its best, takes place when teachers inspire learners, and this is immensely enhanced when teachers keep in mind that they are growing along with their learners.

Questions from learners make us think. Their experiences provide new perspectives. Trying to explain something clearly can reveal what we understand well and what we still need to learn.

Everyone learns best when the subject matter is perceived as relevant to their goals and perceptions of how important learning is to self-development.

Teaching, at its best, is therefore a two-way process.

Internal Locus Of Control And Learning

An important part of Self-learning In The Zone is developing an Internal Locus of Control.

The concept comes from psychologist Julian Rotter’s Social Learning Theory and describes how people perceive the relationship between their behavior and the outcomes they experience.

Internals tend to recognize a connection between what they do and what happens next. Preparation, practice, acquired skills, and goal-directed behaviors matter.

Externals are more likely to believe rewards come about because of good luck, being in the right place, who you know, or circumstances outside their control.

Of course, none of us controls everything that happens. The important issue is learning to recognize what we can influence through our own behavior.

This becomes especially important in teaching.

If you are teaching individuals with a more External Locus of Control, such as children who have never learned about life’s possibilities and believe there is little chance for them, your challenge is not simply to deliver information. Your teaching challenge is to help them develop a more internal attitude toward learning.

And this is certainly a goal worth pursuing.

Developing Internal Locus Of Control In Learners

Let’s do a brief self-assessment of your Locus of Control. Select one of the following statements as the one most reflective of how you look at things:

A. In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world.

B. Unfortunately, an individual’s worth often passes unrecognized, no matter how hard they work.

Internality is exhibited in item A and externality in item B.

In both items, we reveal our perception of reality. There is no simple right or wrong. It is mostly how we look at things, which we call our ATTITUDE.

If you view your place in the world and your eventual accomplishments as something you can influence, then you progress toward an achievement process likely to be rewarding because of the skills you have acquired in pursuit of self-defined goals. Item A reflects this sort of attitude.

When people believe outcomes are largely outside their control, they may be less likely to set goals, persist through difficulties, or connect their own actions with future results.

When exposed to rewards, however, we can become increasingly internal, linking behaviors to rewarding outcomes such as learning.

For starters, you can help externally minded individuals become more internal by assisting them in practicing verbal comments regarding their strengths and talents versus their usual practice of verbalizing what’s wrong with the world and, of course, themselves.

The important shift is toward recognizing:

What did I do well?

What have I learned?

What skill have I developed?

What can I do differently next time?

What part of the outcome can I influence?

These questions help bring attention back to the relationship between our own behavior and the outcomes that follow.

Learning As Self-Development

The central point for this discussion is that Self-learning In The Zone features an Internal Locus of Control and values the importance of facilitating a genuine interest in self-development.

One of the most important things internally oriented learners can do is learn to transform an attitude of external devastation toward the learning process into a positive journey of self-discovery.

Learning does not take place only in a classroom. It occurs through experience, observation, practice, successes, mistakes, relationships, and the consequences of our choices.

The Personal Concerns Inventory provides one way to begin this process by helping you identify concerns that are important to you. Once you understand what matters most, a Focused Action Plan can help transform awareness into purposeful action.

Learning then becomes something we do, not simply something we receive.

The Power Of Learning And Teaching

Let’s face it. Teaching and learning within dull, irrelevant environments are little more than a waste of time.

The purpose of education and self-development should be to help people discover possibilities, acquire useful skills, and learn how to help themselves.

We always want to link our behaviors to outcomes, and we can shape that process.

We are all changing all of the time. Either we are growing, or we are dying. It is a basic law of nature.

To advance your growth process, Teach, Coach, and Counsel with growth in mind. And always remember that many of those learners you feel don’t care, you think are lazy, or appear doomed to failure may be dominated by an External Locus of Control mentality.

This is something you can help them change.

Instead of concentrating only on what’s wrong, help Self-Learners recognize their strengths, develop skills, establish meaningful goals, and discover the connection between their own actions and positive outcomes.

That is helping others learn how to help themselves through education and self-development.

Learn To Teach – Teach To Learn In The Mulry Method

Self-learning is central to the Mulry Method because personal development does not end when a class, counseling session, lesson, or training program ends.

The goal is to acquire skills you can understand, practice, evaluate, and eventually use for yourself.

The In The Zone Skills Training builds on this idea through practical skills designed to improve performance, well-being, and personal growth.

For a deeper exploration of these principles and Dr. Mulry’s approach to human development, continue with the Positive PERFORMANCE Psychology E-Book.

When we learn something useful, we gain an opportunity to apply it.

When we teach it, we have an opportunity to understand it more deeply.

And when we help someone else learn how to help themselves, both Teacher and Learner have an opportunity to grow.

Always Learn To Teach – Teach To Learn.