Teaching a Skill: Demonstration and Practice

Lesson Overview

Lesson 04 introduced EDIP, the Commonwealth method for teaching a skill: Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice. It set out the four stages and why they run in that order. This lesson takes the doing half of EDIP and goes deep into it, because the demonstration and the practice are where a skill is actually built, and where most instructors who fail a class go wrong. Knowledge can be talked across to a student; a skill cannot. A skill is shown, copied, and drilled until the body owns it, and the instructor's job is to run that showing and drilling so well that every member of the class can, by the end, do the thing correctly and on their own.

The difference between teaching knowledge and teaching a skill is the difference between the head and the hands, and it changes everything about how the lesson is run. A knowledge lesson can be mostly the instructor explaining and the class thinking; a skill lesson that is mostly the instructor talking has already failed, because nobody learns to do by watching someone else do. The whole weight of a skill lesson falls on the practice: the time the students spend doing the thing themselves, under correction, until it is right. Everything before the practice, the demonstration and the first imitation, exists to launch it correctly; everything the instructor does during it is to keep it correct. An instructor who understands that a skill lesson is mostly the class practising, and arranges the lesson so that it is, has grasped the heart of this lesson.

This is the knowledge layer. It teaches you how a demonstration is given, how imitation is run, and how practice is organised, coached, and confirmed, so that you understand how a skill is built and can plan a skill lesson knowing what each stage is for. The skill of running a real skill lesson, the timing of a demonstration, the eye for a fault forming in a student's hands, the judgement of when a class is ready to move on, is mastered by giving real skill lessons under a qualified instructor who watches and corrects you, and signed off in person. Read this to know how a skill is taught; learn to teach one by teaching one.

By the end you will be able to explain why a skill is taught differently from knowledge, give a demonstration in the correct sequence and explain the whole-part-whole method, run an imitation stage that catches errors before they set, organise and coach a practice so that every student is active and correctly drilled, and confirm a skill by performance to a standard.

Key Terms

• Skill: a physical task done with the hands and body, learned by doing rather than by being told, such as a drill movement, a knot, a weapon-handling drill, or a first-aid technique.
• EDIP: the Commonwealth method for teaching a skill, in four stages: Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice. Introduced in Lesson 04; its doing half is the subject here.
• Demonstration: the instructor showing the skill done correctly, first complete and at normal speed, then broken into explained stages, so the class sees exactly what good looks like.
• Whole-part-whole: the method of showing or teaching a skill as a complete whole, then in its parts, then as a whole again, so the student sees how the parts fit the finished thing.
• Imitation: the stage in which the class first copies the skill, stage by stage, under close watch, often talking themselves through it, so errors are caught before they set.
• Practice: the stage in which students repeat the skill themselves until they own it; the heart of a skill lesson, where most of the time is spent.
• Coaching: the instructor's work during practice: watching each student, spotting faults early, and correcting them individually before a wrong habit forms.
• Progressive practice: building a skill up in steps, from slow and simple to full speed and full difficulty, so the student succeeds at each step before the next.
• Common fault: an error many students make at the same point in a skill, which a prepared instructor expects, watches for, and heads off.
• Confirmation by performance: proving a skill is learned by having the student do it correctly to the required standard, not by asking them about it.

Why a skill is taught differently

A skill lives in the hands and the body, not in the head, and that single fact governs how it must be taught. You can tell a student the capital of a country and, if they remember it, they know it; knowledge transfers by being received and held. You cannot tell a student how to tie a knot or apply a dressing and expect their hands to be able to do it, however well they remember your words, because the hands learn only by doing, by the repeated attempt that builds the movement into the body until it runs without thought. This is why a skill lesson is built around the student's doing, and why the instructor's talking, however clear, is only the launch.

The practical consequence is a hard rule that separates good skill instructors from poor ones: in a skill lesson, the class must be doing, not watching. The instructor demonstrates, yes, but briefly and to a purpose, and then gets the class practising as soon as they safely can, because every minute the class spends watching the instructor perform is a minute they are not building the skill in their own hands. A skill lesson that runs long on demonstration and short on practice has spent its time on the wrong stage. The old fault of the instructor who loves to demonstrate, doing the skill beautifully again and again while the class admires it, is exactly this error: the instructor is practising, and the class is not.

This reshapes the whole lesson. In a knowledge lesson the instructor is active and the class is thinking; in a skill lesson the instructor's busiest work comes during the practice, not before it, watching and coaching while the class does the doing. The demonstration and the first imitation are the short, vital opening that launches the practice correctly; the practice is the long middle where the skill is actually built; and the confirmation at the end proves it. Plan a skill lesson by that shape, with the bulk of the time given to supervised practice, and you have planned it right.

   KNOWLEDGE LESSON vs SKILL LESSON

   KNOWLEDGE                         SKILL
   ---------------------------       ---------------------------
   lives in the head                 lives in the hands and body
   transfers by being told and       built only by DOING it,
     thought through                   repeatedly, under correction
   instructor mostly active;         instructor busiest DURING the
     class thinking                    class's practice
   most time: explanation and        most time: SUPERVISED PRACTICE
     confirmation                      (the class doing, not watching)

   THE RULE: in a skill lesson the class must be DOING, not watching.
   If the instructor is doing all the doing, the class is not learning.

The demonstration

The demonstration is where the class first sees the skill, and it answers one question for them: what does good look like? It must answer it exactly, because the class will copy what they see, faults and all, so a demonstration must be correct in every detail. An instructor who demonstrates sloppily teaches the sloppiness; the demonstration is the model, and the model must be right. This is one reason the instructor rehearses (Lesson 02): a demonstration fumbled in front of the class undoes the lesson before the practice begins.

The demonstration is given in a settled sequence, and the sequence matters. First, the complete demonstration at normal speed: the whole skill done correctly, start to finish, at the pace it is really done, with little or no talk. This shows the class the finished thing they are working toward, the whole before the parts, so that everything after it has a shape to fit into. Then the demonstration in stages: the skill broken into its natural parts, each part shown slowly and explained as it is shown, so the class sees how the finished thing is built up. Then, if it helps, the complete demonstration again, so the parts are seen reassembled into the whole. This is the whole-part-whole method, and it works because the mind grasps parts best when it already knows the whole they belong to.

Two cautions keep a demonstration honest. First, slow down for the stages but show the whole at real speed, because a skill done only ever slowly looks like a different skill, and the class needs to see the true pace at least once. Second, position the class so every member can actually see, from the angle they will work at, because a demonstration half the class cannot see properly is half a demonstration, and the members who could not see will copy what they imagine rather than what was shown. Where the angle matters, as in many drills, the instructor demonstrates from the position the class will take, not facing them, so left and right are not reversed.

   THE DEMONSTRATION: WHOLE - PART - WHOLE

   1. WHOLE, normal speed     the complete skill, done correctly,
                              at real pace, little talk
                              ......... shows what good looks like

   2. PARTS, slow + explained the skill broken into natural stages,
                              each shown slowly and explained
                              ......... shows how it is built up

   3. WHOLE again             the parts reassembled into the whole
                              ......... shows the finished thing entire

   Correct in every detail (the class copies what it sees).
   Positioned so EVERY member can see, from their working angle.

Imitation: the first copying

Imitation is the bridge from watching to doing: the class copies the skill for the first time, stage by stage, under the instructor's close watch. It is short and closely controlled, and its whole purpose is to catch errors before they set. A fault corrected in the first minute of imitation is corrected easily; the same fault left until the student has repeated it fifty times in practice has become a habit, and habits are far harder to break than to prevent. So the instructor watches the imitation like a hawk and corrects at once.

Imitation is usually run stage by stage, in step with the demonstration's parts. The instructor leads the class through the first stage, watches every student do it, corrects what is wrong, and only then moves to the next, so that errors do not accumulate. A useful technique is to have the students talk themselves through it as they go, saying the stage aloud as they do it, because naming the action helps fix the sequence and lets the instructor hear a student's understanding as well as see their hands. Throughout, the instructor keeps the class together, no one racing ahead to a stage not yet checked, no one left behind, so that the whole class moves through the skill under control.

The instructor's eye in imitation is looking for the common faults, the errors many students make at the same point, which a prepared instructor expects and watches for. Most skills have two or three such faults, the grip taken wrongly, a stage done out of order, a step rushed, and the instructor who has rehearsed and thought the skill through knows where they will appear and is watching exactly there. Catching the common fault in imitation, before it is practised in, is one of the highest-value things an instructor does, and it is only possible for the instructor who prepared.

Practice: the heart of the lesson

Practice is where the skill is actually built, and it is where most of the lesson's time belongs. Now the students repeat the skill themselves, again and again, until it runs correctly without thought, while the instructor moves among them coaching. Everything before this was to launch the practice correctly; the practice is the thing itself. An instructor's main job here is no longer to demonstrate but to organise the practice so every student is active, and to coach it so every student is correct.

Organise so everyone is doing. The commonest way to waste a skill lesson is to let most of the class stand idle while one or two practise. The good instructor arranges the practice so that every member is working at once, with enough equipment, space, and turns that no one is queuing and watching. Where resources are short, the class is split so that those not on the equipment have a related task, not an empty wait. The measure of a well-organised practice is simple: at any moment, look around, and almost everyone is actively doing the skill.

Build it up progressively. A skill is practised from simple to hard and slow to full speed, in steps the student can succeed at, which is progressive practice. The student first gets the movement right slowly, then speeds up; first does the part, then the whole; first in easy conditions, then in realistic ones. Each step is mastered before the next, because a student pushed to full speed or full difficulty before the basics are sound simply practises their faults faster. Success at each step also builds the confidence that carries the student to the next, where constant failure would only discourage.

Make it realistic as it builds. Practice should move, as the student becomes able, toward the conditions in which the skill will really be used, because a skill practised only in easy, artificial conditions may collapse when it is needed for real. A first-aid drill practised only on a calm, clean volunteer in good light is not yet a usable skill; as the student masters it, the conditions are made more like the real thing. The instructor judges the pace of this: realistic enough to be useful, never so hard so soon that the student fails and learns the fault.

   ORGANISING A GOOD PRACTICE

   EVERYONE ACTIVE      arrange equipment, space, and turns so every
                        student is DOING, not queuing or watching
                        ......... look round: almost all actively practising?

   PROGRESSIVE          slow -> full speed; part -> whole; easy ->
                        realistic; master each step before the next
                        ......... success builds the skill AND the confidence

   REALISTIC (in time)  build toward the real conditions of use, so the
                        skill holds up when it is actually needed

   The practice is the LONGEST part of a skill lesson. Plan most of
   the time for it, and keep the whole class in it.

Coaching and correcting during practice

While the class practises, the instructor coaches: moving among the students, watching each one, and correcting faults individually as they appear. This is the instructor's busiest and most skilled work in a skill lesson, and it is why the instructor is not, themselves, practising. Coaching has a few plain disciplines.

Watch actively, and correct early. The instructor does not stand back and let the practice run; they watch each student closely, because a fault caught in its first repetition is corrected with a word, while the same fault watched silently for ten minutes has been drilled in. Correct early, correct often, and never let a student practise a fault uncorrected, because every uncorrected repetition makes the fault more permanent.

Correct the individual, quietly and specifically. Most correction in practice is one student at a time: a quiet word, a specific fault named, the right way shown again if needed. As Lesson 05 taught of feedback, the correction is aimed at the action, not the person, and it is specific enough to act on, "your grip has slipped round, bring your thumb back to here," not a vague "that's not quite right." Then the instructor watches the student do it again, correctly, before moving on, so the correction is confirmed and not just delivered.

Stop the class for a common fault. When the instructor sees the same fault appearing across many students, it is worth stopping the whole class briefly, pointing it out, and re-showing the correct way, because correcting it once to everyone is better than thirty times to individuals. This is the prepared instructor's reward again: having expected the common fault, they recognise it spreading and head it off for the whole class at once. Then the practice resumes.

Through all of it the instructor holds the duty of care of Lesson 01: a practice, especially of a physical or hazardous skill, is watched for safety as closely as for correctness, and the instructor stops anything unsafe at once. The discipline of safety in practical training is taken up fully in TRG 320; here it is enough to say that no skill is worth an injury, and the coaching eye watches for danger as well as for faults.

Confirming a skill

A skill is confirmed the way it was learned: by performance. You do not confirm that a student can tie a knot by asking them to describe it; you confirm it by having them tie it, correctly, to the required standard, on their own. Confirmation by performance is the honest test of a skill lesson, and it is the same test the whole course rests on, what the student can actually do afterwards.

This shapes the end of a skill lesson. The instructor sets the students to perform the skill unaided and to standard, watches each one, and judges whether they have it. Those who can do it correctly have met the aim; those who cannot have shown the instructor exactly what still needs work, which is useful information honestly come by, not a failure to hide. Where a student cannot yet perform the skill, the answer is more practice and coaching, not moving on and hoping, because a skill half-learned and left will not survive. The instructor would rather confirm a class can do one skill properly than rush them past three they cannot, which is the skill-lesson form of the pacing rule from across the course: let confirmation, not the clock, set the speed.

In Practice: Teaching a Practical Drill

A corporal of the RKA is to teach a section of recruits a practical hand skill in a forty-minute lesson: a drill done with the hands, of the kind the Army teaches by the dozen, where the standard is a correct, repeatable performance. She has the subject cold and has rehearsed the demonstration. Watch the doing half of EDIP run.

She opens, as Lesson 03 requires, with a clear aim and a brief explanation of why the skill matters, then moves quickly to the demonstration, because she knows the class learns by doing, not by watching her. She gives the whole skill once at normal speed so the recruits see what good looks like, then breaks it into its three natural stages, showing each slowly and explaining as she goes, positioned at the angle the recruits will work from so left and right are not reversed, then shows the whole once more. It is correct in every detail, because she rehearsed it. Then, deliberately, she stops demonstrating and gets the class imitating, leading them stage by stage, watching every pair of hands, having them talk themselves through it. At the second stage she sees the common fault she expected, a grip taken the wrong way round, appearing across several recruits, and corrects it at once, before it can be practised in.

Then comes the practice, and she has organised it so that every recruit is doing the skill at once, none standing idle, with the turns and the kit arranged in advance. She moves among them coaching: a quiet, specific word to one whose sequence has slipped, a watch-and-confirm before she moves on, and, when she sees the same rushing fault spreading, a brief stop to re-show the correct pace to the whole class. She builds it progressively, slow and correct first, then up to full speed, and watches throughout for safety as much as for faults. At the end she confirms by performance: each recruit does the skill unaided, to standard, while she watches. Most can; two cannot quite, and she gives them more practice rather than passing them on, because she knows the lesson is judged by what they can do, not by what she covered. The lesson worked because she spent her time on the right stage, the class's practice, and her skill on the right job, coaching it correct.

Check Your Understanding

1. Explain why a skill must be taught differently from knowledge, and state the hard rule this gives a skill lesson. Why is the instructor who demonstrates beautifully again and again, while the class watches, getting it wrong?
2. Describe how a demonstration is given, including the whole-part-whole method and the two cautions (speed, and the class's line of sight). Then explain what the imitation stage is for and why catching a fault there matters so much.
3. Set out how a good practice is organised and coached: keeping every student active, progressive and realistic practice, and correcting faults (individually, and stopping the class for a common one). Then explain what "confirmation by performance" means and why a skill cannot be confirmed by questioning alone.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): Think of a physical skill you can do well, and try to recall how you learned it. How much of your learning was watching someone explain it, and how much was doing it yourself, badly at first, until it came right? Now picture teaching it to a class of beginners in forty minutes. Where would you be tempted to spend too long demonstrating, and how would you make yourself cut the demonstration short and get the class practising? Name the one common fault you would expect beginners to make, and exactly what you would do, in the imitation and the practice, to catch and correct it before it set.

Summary

• A skill lives in the hands and body and is learned only by doing, so a skill lesson is built around the student's practice, not the instructor's explanation. The hard rule: in a skill lesson the class must be doing, not watching, and the instructor's busiest work comes during the practice.
• The demonstration answers "what does good look like?" and must be correct in every detail. It is given whole-part-whole: the complete skill at normal speed, then broken into explained stages, then the whole again, with the class positioned so every member can see from their working angle.
• Imitation is the first copying, run stage by stage under close watch, to catch errors before they set; students talk themselves through it, and the instructor watches for the expected common faults and corrects them at once, because a fault caught early is far easier to fix than a habit drilled in.
• Practice is the heart of the lesson and takes most of its time. Organise it so every student is active, build it progressively (slow to full speed, part to whole, easy to realistic), and make it realistic as the student becomes able.
• Coaching during practice is the instructor's busiest work: watch actively and correct early; correct the individual quietly and specifically, aimed at the action; stop the whole class to fix a common fault; and watch for safety throughout under the duty of care (taken up fully in TRG 320).
• A skill is confirmed by performance, the student doing it correctly to standard and unaided, not by being questioned about it. Where a student cannot yet perform it, the answer is more practice, not moving on; confirmation, not the clock, sets the pace.
• This is the knowledge layer; running a real skill lesson is mastered by teaching one under a qualified instructor who watches and corrects you, and signed off in person. This lesson deepens the demonstration and practice stages of EDIP from Lesson 04, uses the questioning and feedback of Lesson 05 in its coaching, and feeds the training aids of Lesson 07 and the delivery of Lesson 10.

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