Instructional Strategies
1. Class Format Variety
In the span of each 90-minute class, students engage in multiple modalities for learning. They begin with "keeping well their own company," in other words, practicing self-observation, self-care and self-reflection skills through Constructive Rest. The student, although surrounded by classmates, is working alone on themselves. This is followed by a traditional lecture. Instructor speaks; students listen, ask questions. The final class segment finds the students working in small groups or pairs, exploring the day’s theme/content through movement activities and discussion.
It is unwieldy, at best, with a class of 22 students, to individualize each one’s instruction based on learning modalities and preferences. However, by supplying a variety of instructional formats within a single class, students stand a better chance of receiving the class content in a mode best for them. And, happily, students often report positive responses to a mode outside their comfort zone. An example is students working in small groups, which happens almost every class.
Those with a prior dislike of small group work often describe unexpected enjoyment of and benefits from the small groups.
"I would like to know why this is so," McCullough notes, "and hypothesize that much of their earlier experience with small groups involves a graded project, for which each group member ideally is equally responsible. As a former student subjected to this practice, it rarely supplied a satisfying and useful learning experience. Rather, frustration was the norm, with unequal work divisions and results. The small group work of this course has no formal evaluation attached, other than checking in with a brief report to the whole group at the conclusion of the session, and/or conversing with the instructor as she mingles with each group."
2. Demonstration/Modeling
The teaching of the Alexander Technique relies heavily on modeling. The Use of the Self -- how the instructor uses herself in teaching the class (poise, balance, ease of movement) -- is considered an essential part of teaching the Technique. "The other way in which I use modeling is to bring to students’ attention those times when I am NOT using myself well, when I have slipped into a habit of use contrary to the best principles of the Technique," McCullough explains. "This is as important as being a model of excellence. Realizing that the Technique is a process, an engagement with mind and body integration, allows the student room to grow and change, rather than pursue the end-goal of ‘getting it right.’"
