Since I'm on a roll discussing the process of teaching, I wanted to talk about how excited I am about ABMP's new "Teaching Massage" book and class. I've taught martial arts and I've taught massage therapy for almost 5 years now, but this is the first time I've such a great resource for the art of teaching massage.
About the Book
I will say that I haven't read the entire book yet, but I have read the first few chapters and had time to browse through the rest with some depth. The book is authored by some of the major players in massage education over the years and was written collaboratively. Even just a glance through the table of contents is enough to get a massage teacher excited. It is packed with information about different learning and teaching styles, classroom management, learning theory, instructional methods, adult learners and special needs, lesson design and planning, and tips from the experts on how they teach certain subjects like pathology or ethics.
Why It Is Needed
I don't know about any of you massage teachers reading this, but when I started teaching I was thrown to the wolves. I'd never had any formal education or training in education itself. All I had was my natural talent for teaching. I'm told that I am a good teacher by people who have had the training, but that doesn't mean that I have a solid theory or system to what I do. I'm still, 5 years later, feeling my way through the process. This book (and course) is a Godsend for the massage instructors who experienced the same thing I did - which I am sure is most of us.
Unfortunately, it is often assumed that if you are good at what you do, you will also be good at teaching it to others. I have known brilliant practitioners that simply fall apart in the classroom because it requires a completely different set of skills. Instead of being the authority on where people go for the answers, as a teacher you have to set the stage for the students to discover them and be able to apply them - a very different prospect.
Because there also seems to be a fairly high turnover in the teaching of massage as well, I think it is fantastic that there is now a resource in which a massage teacher can get a foundation in instructional methodology and be better prepared to hit the ground running.
Why so expensive? It actually is sold as part of a 20CEU class, so at a little over $150 (or around $121 through amazon) it's well worth it.
I'll keep posting as I work my way through the book. Until next time...
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