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Before I became a state certificated public school teacher, I had been teaching martial arts for about 10 years. I had developed my teaching style informally by trial-and-error, excellent coaching of other instructors, and by observing how 'good' instructors taught.
All of that worked very well, but my teaching was enhanced by going through a more formal curriculum. Going through the more formal system helped me learn current methodologies and helped me understand how people learn. There has been a lot of recent research showing what works and what doesn't. I've been able to take some of what I learned and modify it for the martial arts classroom with varying degrees of success.
Teaching is a learned skill. From reading the posts, I'd say most of our organizations begin training potential teachers from day one. The ones who eventually go on to become great instructors are the ones who consider themselves professionals. And professionals are just students in disguise.
Allen
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