Derek O Kelly, Director of Waverley Academy, simplifies the process of teaching in the hair & beauty sectors into 10 key steps. These steps are the core of their industry leading teacher training programme, and are comprehensively covered in his teaching book titled “A Guide To Teaching for Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy – 10 Key Steps”
Derek says “Teaching presents a fascinating prospect for hair & beauty professionals. It enables them to share their passion with others and demonstrate their creative skills. It also provides another level in career development and presents other career opportunities.In fact, its amazing to see how graduates progress to careers they never thought possible when they finish the programme. The main aim when designing our teaching programme was to simplify the process of learning to teach, and these ten steps have been extremely effective in doing that”
1 – Know Your Own Mind
Knowing your own mind will help you explore your motivations for wanting to teach and will help you develop a teaching philosophy. It will explore and define one of the most important topics for teaching; that of confidence. It will also help you to develop your confidence for teaching and provide the foundations for an effective and rewarding teaching career.
2 – Understand how adults learn
Knowledge of how adults learn is one of the most crucial steps in the teaching process. It will introduce you to the fascinating subject of educational psychology and the mindsets of adult learners. It will enable you to understand the fundamentals of how adults learn and provide an overview from key theorists on the principles of adult learning
3– Get to Know Your Learners
Knowing your learners will enable you to understand the needs of your learners and introduce you to the topic of initial and diagnostic assessment. It will highlight the characteristics of adult learners and will help direct your teaching efforts on many fronts.
4 – Support Your Learners
Supporting your learners is guaranteed to gain you respect and credibility among students. It can be done subtly throughout the course you are teaching or approached as a stand alone subject. It will highlight for you the challenges faced by those with learning difficulties, in particular dyslexia, and enable you to deliver education that caters for them. It will also provide you with the knowledge to equip your learners with study skills and thus enhance their chances of achieving their educational goals.
5- Employ Best Teaching Practice
Understanding best teaching practice will ensure that your teaching efforts are guided by expert recommendations for modern day adult education. You will learn the key attributes of effective teachers and trainers and how they contribute towards best practice. It will also highlight many of the other aspects that constitute best practice and will ensure that your teaching meets professional standards.
6 – Plan Your Teaching
Planning your teaching will outline many of the key terms and methods you need to be familiar with for to plan and organize your teaching. It will discuss curriculum development, schemes of work, class plans and how to start a class with a new group. It will also outline many of the aids and resources used in modern day teaching including digital and online options
7 – Deliver The Learning
Delivering the learning will focus on what is probably the main aspect of the teaching and training process; that of the classroom interaction with learners. It will revisit the topic of confidence and explore your teaching and training style. It will also discuss the topics of motivation and building rapport with your students, and will bring together many of the other aspects in the teaching and learning process.
8- Manage The Behaviours
Knowing how to manage behaviours in the classroom will provide for a much smoother teaching and learning environment. It will also provide you with guidelines for avoiding disruptive behaviours in the classrooms, and strategies for dealing with them if they occur. The main objective though is to equip you with the skills and knowledge to provide a positive learning environment for learners and teacher alike
9 – Assess The Learning
Assessing learning will take your teaching and training role to another level and introduce you the field of assessment in learning. It will highlight the many aspects associated with the planning, preparation and conducting of assessments. You will also learn how to provide feedback to your learners enabling them to work towards continuous development and improvement.
10 – Evaluate The Programme
Evaluating the programme is essential for that of your own development. It will provide you with the tools to evaluate the teaching methods you are using and to make improvements were necessary. You could say that the evaluation stage is one of continuous professional development and can be used to perfect your teaching practice.
Training to teach at Waverley
The next teacher training programme at the Waverley Academy starts on Tuesday 25th of July at their North Dublin venue on the Swords road – 5 minutes from Dublin airport. One Tuesday per month for six months – 10am to 4.30pm. Summer special offer and pay by instalments. Additional discount for Beautiful Jobs readers and members. (please quote Beautiful jobs when booking).
Visit academy.ie and select ‘teacher training’ for more information or to book online, or email/phone info@academy.ie – o1-4089769
