To Demonstrate or Not to Demonstrate… That is the Virtual Question.
A primary focus in my work with motor learning has been the study of cueing approaches for yoga and Pilates. Specifically, how and why teachers utilize either demonstration or verbal cueing to teach large classes with diverse populations. My goal with this piece of writing is to consider the use of demonstration in our real life classrooms versus the use of demonstration in virtual classrooms. As a secondary goal, I hope students will gain some insight on these nuances and give their teachers some patience and encouragement during this unprecedented time of teaching.
During a recent Zoom conversation I compared the professional changes we teachers have recently experienced to riding a bike for 20 years and then, suddenly, being asked to ride it backwards and in a straight line. We are accustomed to our studio world, people gathered together in simple open rooms with little distraction. Now we find ourselves thrust into living room Zoom classes and it has, and will continue to, take time to recalibrate.
When I was younger, I remember my dance teacher cuing, “don’t look at the floor, look up!” When I became a dance teacher I found myself saying the same thing. So why do students look at the floor??? The reason is found in how vision plays a role in our motor control and motor learning. Vision helps us project actions before we execute them, stay balanced while we perform them, make micro adjustments in a matter of milliseconds, and witness immediate results of our performance upon completion. Some individuals will claim we have other dominant learning pathways (i.e. kinesthetic, auditory, linguistic...), this may be true when learning academic concepts, but in the land of motor control, research has shown time and time again that vision is the sense we are most reliant on. From mirror neurons to the unique ability to create imagery, the human visual system has an impact on our movement performance that is far more powerful than the other senses.
In yoga and Pilates, the use of demonstration (a type of visual cueing) is not consistent from teacher to teacher. Some will perform the entire class alongside the student while other teachers sit there verbally cuing in complete stillness. To understand the impact visual cuing with demonstration has on a student enables us to understand its purpose in both real life class and virtual classes.
Considerations for demonstration in real-life yoga and Pilates classes:
Highly Guided. During a “follow the leader” approach to the teaching of movement, teacher-do-student-do, the student’s problem solving processes can turn off. For many students, this means they have found the perfect “workout” class. No more thinking required, just move and sweat. As a bonus, “follow the leader” utilizes our primary sensory organ of vision! On the flip side, teachers and students who are interested in learning, and someday being autonomous (no longer reliant on the teacher) in their own practice, will need to be more stimulated in the problem solving mechanisms of their motor cortex. A demonstration dominant class can cause what motor learning professionals refer to as Highly Guiding, which results in a hindrance to the student’s learning processes. That is why many teachers at Yoga Bhoga and Cascadia Pilates refrain from demonstration. We want students to learn and someday be autonomous in healthy movement. It comes with moments of frustration, but the end result should be permanent changes in movement and health!
Implicit and Explicit Knowledge. It is easy to tie your shoe when asked, but can you explain to someone in great detail how you tie your shoes without moving? Try it! This next consideration may resonate more after you do. During auditions with new teachers, I often see them perform the movement while they cue it. It is almost as if their body does it first and then they tell me what has just happened. The reason behind this delayed linguistic cueing is that they have implicit knowledge of their practice (they can physically perform the skills) but not necessarily explicit knowledge (the ability to explain, with language, the nuances of the skill they are performing). In other words, teachers tend towards “commenting” their own movement to teach others rather than explaining the movement. One goal of movement educators is to have both deep implicit knowledge (being able to practice yoga or Pilates) as well as explain the practice without moving (explicit knowledge of the practices). Further, the ability a teacher has to change and evolve explicit cueing with word choice, imagery, and tonal quality, will result in their ability to teach broader student demographics.
Affective Impact. A teacher participating in the class alongside the student, demonstrating all exercises, can have a number of different results. During classes that are focused on physical effort, the “work-out”, students may feel inspired by the teacher's skill and athleticism. The student may also feel more motivated by the peer-effect and a sense of communal effort. In classes that are focused on quality of skill performance and the student learning for permanent change in their movement, this type of demonstration creates the opposite feeling. It has been reported (through my own qualitative observation from students and teachers) that students may feel discouraged by a teacher constantly demonstrating. I have heard students report similar considerations to Wasn’t sure if I was doing anything right because they never looked at me to offer corrections, or It felt like the teacher was there for their workout and not for us. Creating and holding emotional space for people to move and grow is a major part of a movement teacher’s job and demonstration can either be an asset or a hindrance to your overall goal as a teacher.
Demonstration In Real Life Classes Conclusion: There are always times when demonstration is necessary as the visual system is the primary system we utilize to learn movement, but it is often overly relied on and unnecessary because other cueing resources are available. At Yoga Bhoga and Cascadia Pilates, we discourage teachers from demonstrating too much because we know keeping students engaged in the movement process gives them a greater chance for permanent change and progress. Furthermore, we want the students to know the teacher is there to help, to focus on them, and to provide undivided attention to their learning process. We want students to walk away feeling seen and supported.
Considerations for demonstration in virtual yoga and Pilates classes
Computer Simulation of Visual Dominance. I have spent some free time locating research on dominant sensory stimulation and computer use and, to my disappointment, I found nothing directly applicable. However, some research showed dominance of visual response when also giving auditory or haptic stimulus on computers, my educated guess is that the visual sensory organ is triggered to become the dominant input system during screen use. So here we have it, a double whammy, vision is our number one sense for motor control and it is possibly the main sense triggered when using “screen” devices. Therefore, when students jump into a Zoom Pilates or yoga class, their neurology is already routing input into the visual system and less into systems such as the auditory or proprioceptive. Therein lies the conflict, the student is predominantly resourcing one pathway of cueing input (visual) and the teacher has a tendency towards resourcing another pathway for cueing (linguistic). The resulting scenario potentially becomes the teacher sitting still while cueing and the student not being able to hear well. And in my personal experience the student will then finally type into the Chat section of Zoom, “can you please show me what you mean? I can’t hear you very well”.
Central and Peripheral Vision. In the comfort of our home it's just us, our pajamas, and our mats. No students to our right or left and a tightly contained teacher in a 12 inch screen on the ottoman. This can be comforting but it also reduces the students visual toolkit that the body is familiar with using. During a real life class students can resource their peripheral vision for the environmental elements but also the demonstration of their fellow students. All students in the classroom become the visual assistant for the teacher. Peers' movements can reassure students that they are doing the correct movements, opening up more attention capacity for the subtle verbal and tactile cues the teacher is providing. In our homes, the peripheral movement resources are eliminated. We no longer have our friends around to help visually translate what the teacher is asking. Our body goes into “computer vision.” We sit up to squint at the tiny boxes on our screens to see what the heck is happening and if we are on the same page as the teacher… who is potentially also sitting there quinting right back at us.
Demonstration in Virtual Classes Conclusion: Being new to this virtual environment, many yoga and Pilates teachers are in the process of unlearning our well practiced teaching techniques and actively applying new tactics. We now find ourselves working-out alongside our students, constantly demonstrating, changing our language to be clear and concise in case the connection is lost, and trying out new ways to resource props. It is important to keep in mind that this doesn’t mean we were teaching incorrectly before. Rather, the environment has changed that much that in order to be effective we need to change our approach in dramatic ways as well. It may take some time to work out the kinks, but I know that teachers at Yoga Bhoga and Cascadia Pilates are committed to constant learning so our students can have an impactful classroom experience wherever that may be.
When I applied to graduate school I was only curious about one question and that was, “How can I be the most effective teacher?” When I graduated, the question I had was, “How am I going to apply this knowledge to real life?” Throughout the past five weeks of our new virtual reality, I have had a deep connection to that second question and been witness to the truth that I am applying my expertise every day as an owner and teacher for these studios. I have had numerous conversations with colleagues and students about the effective way to communicate movement online. After conducting a survey about our studio’s performance, it was no surprise to hear, and also affirming, that the primary suggestion from students was “I wish teachers would demonstrate more”.
This has been a wild ride and I hope our teachers and students keep their heads up and offer themselves some grace during this sudden change. The most learning comes at a point motor learning specialists refer to as the Challenge Point. This point is not always comfortable and it can run the risk of being discouraging. My hope in this blog was to provide insight that we are right where we need to be. With a little elbow grease we can get through this phase of error and walk into a more refined skill set for future virtual work. We have an opportunity here to move forward as experts in the teaching field both in studio and in virtual classrooms.
