Anna, I really enjoyed this (and agree about Daniel’s book!). Yoga is like psychoanalysis, in that it has a similar unverifiability problem.
Outcomes are immeasurable.
I do think borrowing from coaching language is useful — setting ingoing intention, then checking in using a log (what went well/badly/what shall I tweak?/modify intention/set new task) over perhaps a month is helpful (both for us as teachers and for students).
This is where yoga and writing absolutely do work together (something that, as a writer, I’m
especially interested in) — they can intersect at journalling, and each activity can make the other more purposeful.
I find intention-setting fascinating, and it does give me an anchor as well as a setting-off point (it’s a lot like “answering the question” from my old life as an academic!).
It feels to me as though in training to teach yoga, I’ve learnt to change my question from, “How do I do that?” which often leads me to frustration, to, “What am I aiming to do?” and from that question I almost always find answers unfolding, in ways I couldn’t have foreseen, but which do lead to outcomes I can name in retrospect.
For example, if my question (of yoga or of my life) is “What am I aiming to do?” and the answer is “settle the mind” (because something unsettling is going on), then somehow that makes sitting on the mat easier, and feeling into the body easier, and then the compass is set, and a practice — a sequence — unfolds from it.
What’s really weird and uncanny is that then I teach this sequence, and get feedback from the class or an individual, which modifies it, and some kind of collective intention spiral arises.
But that takes us well away from Ofsted, and back to the immeasurability of outcomes.
Ingrid, thank you so much for leaving such a thoughtful and interesting comment! I like your point about journalling and the intersection of yoga and writing. Although writing this blog is different to journalling, it has certainly given me some space to reflect on and refine my own intentions. Perhaps Ofsted could include a section to allow for unforeseeable outcomes unfolding in ways we didn't expect!!!
Thank YOU for your great post! A much better outcome for Ofsted would be its complete overhaul and abolition. Its forms of accountability are draconian in the true sense of the word, and have sent the state British education system back to Gradgrind. Yoga radically threatens Ofsted-style accountability, because it places the power of accountability with the practitioner not the institution. Yoga threatens orthodoxy… just as it did in the beginning with the ascetics! 😀 hooray!
The pedagogical model doesn’t really apply to adults in most learning contexts, though I can see how this is particularly relevant in Yoga. It fascinates me how the world just doesn’t catch up with that. I had a professor in grad school who tried as much as he could to “go against the system” but he still had to give us one written assignment “to prove that learning had occurred” which he hated. But because we were studying “adult learning” itself he could openly discuss his frustrations with the students, at least that helped!
Hi Paula - that is such an interesting perspective. Of course the desire to show that learning has occurred comes from a good place but so often just becomes a generic tick box rather than a meaningful reflection. I like your professor's transparency! x
Well said, Anna (and thank you for the generous quotation)! I agree these things are tricky to assess, and wonder what others might do to tick those sorts of boxes when what they teach isn't graded, or involves physical activity. I suspect there's some kind of language one can borrow, and if there isn't perhaps a simple self-assessment questionnaire could be sufficient to demonstrate "transformation"?
Yes - good points! Also - on reflection, although this piece is about this process of unlearning I'm now going to slightly contradict myself as of course, we can acquire some measurable knowledge and skills in yoga. We all enjoy acknowledging that we've made progress in any area of study and it can feel affirming and confidence building especially for beginner students to be reminded that they are learning.... hmm food for thought!
That's yoga, it seems - riddled with paradoxes... :)
I agree that it's helpful to feel one makes progress as a beginner. Part of what turned me off Iyengar yoga was the general focus on the opposite!
"Never fail to admonish your pupil for mistakes," Iyengar cautions in the UK Teachers' Handbook. "Never praise a pupil," he continues. "The moment you lavish praise, you are praising your own self."
Anna, I really enjoyed this (and agree about Daniel’s book!). Yoga is like psychoanalysis, in that it has a similar unverifiability problem.
Outcomes are immeasurable.
I do think borrowing from coaching language is useful — setting ingoing intention, then checking in using a log (what went well/badly/what shall I tweak?/modify intention/set new task) over perhaps a month is helpful (both for us as teachers and for students).
This is where yoga and writing absolutely do work together (something that, as a writer, I’m
especially interested in) — they can intersect at journalling, and each activity can make the other more purposeful.
I find intention-setting fascinating, and it does give me an anchor as well as a setting-off point (it’s a lot like “answering the question” from my old life as an academic!).
It feels to me as though in training to teach yoga, I’ve learnt to change my question from, “How do I do that?” which often leads me to frustration, to, “What am I aiming to do?” and from that question I almost always find answers unfolding, in ways I couldn’t have foreseen, but which do lead to outcomes I can name in retrospect.
For example, if my question (of yoga or of my life) is “What am I aiming to do?” and the answer is “settle the mind” (because something unsettling is going on), then somehow that makes sitting on the mat easier, and feeling into the body easier, and then the compass is set, and a practice — a sequence — unfolds from it.
What’s really weird and uncanny is that then I teach this sequence, and get feedback from the class or an individual, which modifies it, and some kind of collective intention spiral arises.
But that takes us well away from Ofsted, and back to the immeasurability of outcomes.
Thank goodness.
Ingrid, thank you so much for leaving such a thoughtful and interesting comment! I like your point about journalling and the intersection of yoga and writing. Although writing this blog is different to journalling, it has certainly given me some space to reflect on and refine my own intentions. Perhaps Ofsted could include a section to allow for unforeseeable outcomes unfolding in ways we didn't expect!!!
Thank YOU for your great post! A much better outcome for Ofsted would be its complete overhaul and abolition. Its forms of accountability are draconian in the true sense of the word, and have sent the state British education system back to Gradgrind. Yoga radically threatens Ofsted-style accountability, because it places the power of accountability with the practitioner not the institution. Yoga threatens orthodoxy… just as it did in the beginning with the ascetics! 😀 hooray!
The pedagogical model doesn’t really apply to adults in most learning contexts, though I can see how this is particularly relevant in Yoga. It fascinates me how the world just doesn’t catch up with that. I had a professor in grad school who tried as much as he could to “go against the system” but he still had to give us one written assignment “to prove that learning had occurred” which he hated. But because we were studying “adult learning” itself he could openly discuss his frustrations with the students, at least that helped!
Hi Paula - that is such an interesting perspective. Of course the desire to show that learning has occurred comes from a good place but so often just becomes a generic tick box rather than a meaningful reflection. I like your professor's transparency! x
Well said, Anna (and thank you for the generous quotation)! I agree these things are tricky to assess, and wonder what others might do to tick those sorts of boxes when what they teach isn't graded, or involves physical activity. I suspect there's some kind of language one can borrow, and if there isn't perhaps a simple self-assessment questionnaire could be sufficient to demonstrate "transformation"?
Yes - good points! Also - on reflection, although this piece is about this process of unlearning I'm now going to slightly contradict myself as of course, we can acquire some measurable knowledge and skills in yoga. We all enjoy acknowledging that we've made progress in any area of study and it can feel affirming and confidence building especially for beginner students to be reminded that they are learning.... hmm food for thought!
That's yoga, it seems - riddled with paradoxes... :)
I agree that it's helpful to feel one makes progress as a beginner. Part of what turned me off Iyengar yoga was the general focus on the opposite!
"Never fail to admonish your pupil for mistakes," Iyengar cautions in the UK Teachers' Handbook. "Never praise a pupil," he continues. "The moment you lavish praise, you are praising your own self."
https://www.danielsimpson.info/archive/iyengar-yoga-and-me