Why Your YTT Trainees Forget What You Teach & What to Do About It

Summary: Does this sound familiar: you think you are repeating a concept again and again…but students still seem to think it’s the first time they have heard it! Here’s how you can help improve knowledge and skills retention in your YTT.

Has this ever happened to you? You teach a lesson plan and feel confident that students have grasped the subject clearly. Then, a few days later, you find out that they can barely remember it! Sounds familiar, right?

Here’s the thing: trainees are not taking the same training that you are teaching. Let me explain this rather confusing statement. See, there is the training that you are teaching: you have your lesson plans, your presentation, your activities, your assessments.

But your students are taking that information and experience in through the many filters in their heads. They are thinking about their personal practice, mulling over that last thing you just said, thinking ahead to the activity. The result? Trainees will not absorb information in the same way that you are delivering it. This doesn’t mean that your trainees are not paying attention; far from it! Part of the learning process is to assimilate information into your own brainscape. This means your trainees have to spend part of their time processing – not just listening. Which means that we need to have a few strategies as a trainer to support our students to learn.

How Your YTT Trainees Can Remember and Apply What You Teach

Do Not Teach Too Much at Once

Do you teach too much in your 200-Hour YTT? I sure did! As a yoga teacher trainer, you are passionate about yoga and love sharing it. It can be tempting for us to pack every lesson with as much information as possible, or to follow our students down every rabbit hole that appears. But it’s important for us to remember that more information does not automatically lead to more learning.

Our brains can only process so much new information at a time. To help your students focus on what’s important, stick to one key idea at a time and break up large topics into digestible chunks.

Give Trainees Opportunities to Apply What They Learn

While listening is important, it is application that creates memory. Have students apply key information into real life teaching situations and (when possible) embodiment practices.

For example, after teaching sequencing principles, ask trainees to create a short sequence in pairs. After teaching an asana lab, have trainees assess each other in pairs. When your trainees can apply information to real life problems, they create stronger connections with the material.

Connect New Information to Existing Knowledge

One important way you can support your trainees’ learning is to connect new ideas with pre-existing experience. Before introducing a new idea, ask questions that encourage reflection:

• What have you noticed in your own practice?
• When have you experienced this in class?
• How would you currently explain this to a student?

Through these simple conversations, you can create a bridge between their existing knowledge and new concepts.

Reinforce Learning

Many trainers cover a topic thoroughly and then move on. But your students will remember information better when they encounter it multiple times in different ways. Rather than teaching information as “one and done,” reinforce key information throughout your program from multiple angles. Repeat and reinforce.

You can help create “knowledge bridges” by:

• Referencing earlier lessons
• Building connections between different subjects (for example, anatomy and sequencing or relating philosophy to teaching)
• Recap key concepts at the end of the day
• Ask review questions on the previous day each morning

Through repetition, you can help to strengthen the knowledge absorption of your trainees.

Pay Attention to Feedback

Incorporate consistent opportunities for feedback in your training so that you can ensure your students are understanding key concepts as you go. Without incorporating opportunities for assessment and feedback, you won’t know if you have some lost lambs. Assessments don’t need to be formal quizzes or exams; you can incorporate knowledge reviews, question and answer sessions, small group work, and observation to assess how it’s going. For example, you can:

• Observe your trainees during practice teaching
• Listen to small-group discussions
• Ask trainees to explain concepts
• Ask trainees for their “muddiest” point to pinpoint areas of confusion

These kinds of YTT teaching methods help trainees correct misunderstandings early.

Final Thoughts

As a novice teacher trainer, I used to assume that a lecture was enough! After all, if I taught it, wasn’t that enough? However, our brains don’t quite work that way, and lasting learning requires more than a good speech. By chunking your information into digestible chunks, relating information to prior knowledge, applying information immediately, and creating lots of opportunities for assessment, you will ensure that your trainees are truly learning. Want to connect with me? Book a chat with me today.