I completed a second season of ski instructing, and I took the Level 2 Teaching Exam, along with the associated reading and preparations. What I learned was how different folks learn differently; I learned what VAK, Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic learning are. I also began to apply that to my instruction method in group lessons, to make sure everyone had the opportunity to learn in the manner best suited, but also to offer the opportunity for each student to make use of every path for learning; I think I became a better instructor.
I know that national org's manuals are very slow to adapt to reality and it's important to realize that learning styles do not actually work.
There's a lot of research on the subject, with the general conclusion that
"The evidence is a great big zero" for learning styles, Pashler says. Given that, "it's kind of astonishing that people would pursue this notion."
Here's a nice introduction to the problem - and you'll find more if you browse around from there:
The only real take away from the "learning styles" is that a good coach will use multiple methods to get information across - but not many will take their boots off at the side of the slope to show inversion for instance, so the visual part is usually just "do like this" and "follow me" which automatically limit understanding to the level of skill of that particular instructor. The auditory part is also limiting it to the level of understanding of the instructor...
If one really wants to improve the coaching, it is very helpful to work to increase one's knowledge, increase one's skill and then focus instead on creating multiple mental models (I created an entire website for that purpose), create the right mental models, at the right level of detail - that approach is based in modern psychology research.
If you're looking at coaching strategies, well beyond the learning styles, you could look at decision training - all the tools there are important for effective coaching, especially modelling, feedback and questioning - The higher up the performance stack you aim, the more complex it gets, but those are the basics.
cheers
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