One of the most important lessons I learned as a firearms instructor took years of focused observation: recognizing the difference between a teaching moment and a learning opportunity.
The instructor must observe a problem, weigh the circumstances and likely outcomes, and decide which response will provide the greatest benefit to the individual student and the class. Doing that well depends on two things: knowing the subject thoroughly and learning how to read the students.
Teaching Material Is Not the Same as Teaching People
Someone with a basic understanding of firearms or tactics can repeat course material. Applying that material through drills and exercises is more difficult, but still manageable. Effective instruction requires more. After attending courses taught by instructors ranging from poor to excellent, I have seen firsthand that delivering information and producing learning are not the same thing.
Two instructional extremes help illustrate the problem:
- Heavy instruction with little practical application. Students receive more information than they can process and have too little time to apply it.
- Heavy practical application with little instruction. Students perform exercises without enough guidance to understand the finer points, purpose, or context of the material.
Balance Instruction With Application
The appropriate balance between explanation and hands-on work creates a better environment for learning and executing new concepts. That balance depends on the subject and the objective. Some required classroom subjects may not benefit from practical exercises, while most qualification courses do not require a lengthy classroom presentation.
The format should serve the learning objective. An instructor should not add lecture or activity merely to fill time.
Know the Material Beyond the Lesson Plan
The first step is to know the material you intend to present. If you can explain its concepts naturally in conversation, without sounding as though you are reciting a lesson plan, you are making progress. Mastery requires continued study and discussion. Newer, older, better, and worse approaches will all arise, and familiarity with them helps an instructor explain the subject with context rather than dogma.
Deep familiarity also provides resilience. When a distraction interrupts a class, the instructor can return to the lesson without losing the thread. Unexpected questions can be answered or redirected to the relevant subject. The lesson plan remains a guide instead of becoming a script the instructor cannot leave.
Read the Students
The next step is learning to assess the students and their needs. This skill is not immediately apparent to a new instructor. Public-speaking experience can help establish a balance between presenting planned content and adapting the presentation as the class develops. Ad-libbing can be useful, but only when the instructor already understands the subject well enough to remain accurate and purposeful.
An instructor does not fully understand a class at the moment it begins. Observation takes time, especially with a large group. Students need opportunities to attempt the concepts so the instructor can see where understanding or performance breaks down. At the same time, excessive repetition while the instructor evaluates everyone can turn into a poor experience for students who are ready to progress.
Create a Connection
Subjects without practical application require a different kind of engagement. In a sense, successful classroom instruction becomes a performance: the material has a planned structure, but its delivery must be tailored to the group and sometimes to individual students.
I taught DARE for several years using a fixed curriculum, yet the class still required a connection between the students and instructor. That connection encouraged genuine participation instead of forced responses. Students asked real questions because they were comfortable, which helped them understand the material and helped me teach it more effectively.
Choose Between Intervention and Consequence
During a counterterrorism course at DARC, I was observing from the catwalk when I noticed two students positioned in a way that reduced their ability to protect the team. Because I understood the material and the developing problem, I had to decide whether to intervene and create a teaching moment or allow the exercise to continue and let the consequences create a learning opportunity.
I chose to intervene. I explained the major problems with their positioning and fields of fire. Once those issues were identified, the students supplied the finer points themselves. They understood the individual concepts but had not recognized how those concepts fit into the larger picture.
In force-on-force training, instructors sometimes allow an error to develop because experiencing its consequences will make the lesson memorable. From the catwalk, that decision may be accompanied by laughter among instructors who can already see what is coming. If students hear that laughter, it is often an early warning that the exercise is about to provide a painful learning opportunity.
The Instructor’s Continuing Responsibility
Good instruction is not merely the delivery of correct information. It requires command of the material, purposeful course design, observation, judgment, adaptability, and a connection with the students. The instructor must know when to explain, when to let students work, when to correct an error, and when a controlled failure will teach the lesson more effectively.
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