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Teach-ability Index

The Question is - Are you teachable?

When we are learning new stuffs, whatever it is, a new skill, a new language/dialect, a new program, a new business or whatever it is you can think of, what is it that first thing that comes to mind? Most of the time, the first thing that you ask is - “where do I start or how do I start?”

Let me suggest an idea on where you should start. In my opinion, you should start to asses yourself on – how teachable am I?

What does this mean? It simply means that one should gauge one’s ability to learn or to be taught. This will determine how serious you are to learn and how far you will go to be able to learn. Because if you are not that serious, chances are you will not learn at all or maybe half-learn the thing. Half-knowing many things is not very healthy.

So, how do you measure your teach–ability?

- By the Teach-ability Index.

You must have a high teach-ability index to be able to fully learn and absorb what it is that you want to learn or master.

Teach-ability Index can be used to assess one’s ability to learn or be taught.

Two important factors are involved for this measuring stick.

First factor is “willingness to learn.” The second is “willingness to accept change.”

“Willingness to Learn”

How much are you willing to learn? Or are you willing to learn at all?

Most people respond to the question outright that they are very willing to learn.

Yeah, but how much? From score of 1 to 10, how much are you willing to learn? Well it is true; most people have a high willingness to learn. Most people thirst for knowledge and skills.

But how do you know that you have a high willingness to learn?

To have a high scale for the willingness to learn, one must always remember this “You don’t know what you don’t know!” You may have some ideas on a subject matter but always put in mind that you don’t know what you don’t know. The hardest apprentice/student to teach is the one who “knows it all.” Suck this to your gut – “How can you fill your cup when it is already full?” How can a sponge absorb more when it is already soaked?

In the learning process, one consumes information for the mind to digest. Information may come from different sources, a mentor maybe or from books or other materials. In the process of consuming the information, one may come to a point where he/she feels that he/she now got the idea. The individual now is feeling impatient to move on to the next idea especially if the previous one is repetitive or boring and he feels that he already “got the idea.” Boom, suddenly the willingness to learn drop. Remember, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Instead of thinking that you got it, one should think that you’re starting to get it. By that, a high willingness to learn is maintained. Because if you think that you already got the idea, one is convinced in himself that he knows enough and shuts his mind to more information. He may have the “cake” but it’s “half-baked.” Do you want a half-baked cake?

Let me site an example, have you seen typical “kung fu movies,” where an apprentice is being taught a kung fu by the master? At first the apprentice is very eager to learn. (high willingness to learn) The master then requires the apprentice to do bunch of things but not the practicing of the “kung fu moves.” This makes the apprentice grow impatient because he want to learn the “moves.” When the time came that the apprentice is fed up by not practicing any real “kung fu moves,” he tells the master that he doesn’t want to continue. (his willingness to learn suddenly dropped from 10 to 0) What the apprentice doesn’t know is that he is starting to practice the moves by doing the strengthening and familiarization part. (you don’t know what you don’t know) When the master shows how the activities in the practice were incorporated in the kung fu moves, the apprentice was surprised, suddenly his enthusiasm ascends. (Remember the movie “karate kid” huh? Doesn’t matter which version – one & the same)

Now, you get my point! Oh sorry, you’re getting my point. That is “willingness to learn.”

“Willingness to Accept Change”

Explanation may be short but this is the harder part of the “Teach-ability Index.”

How much are you willing to accept change? One can’t fully learn or master anything unless one is willing to accept changes. If one continue to do the same old routines one was used to, how can one expect room for improvement?

Are you willing to make room/time for the learning process? For most people this may be hard especially when they have gotten used to their daily life routines. People are afraid to leave their “comfort zones.” People feel secured when they are in their “comfort zones.” Most don’t want to risk that security to learn something new. This will now gauge how serious one is about really learning.

When learning something, one will soon realize information that may require one to deviate from one’s usual “life patterns.” If one is not willing to change these patterns, one can’t expect to fully learn. As great people said ““Education is the ability to meet life’s situation. The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. If you teach a man anything, he will never learn. We learn by doing. Learning is an active process. Knowledge that is used/applied sticks in the mind.”

One really learns by putting the information he acquired into action. So, if one is really serious to learn anything, one should be able to sacrifice the time for the things he had gotten used to in turn for the time needed to develop. As Dale Carnegie said “If you’re satisfied with the results you are now getting, why change?  If you are not satisfied, why not experiment?”

So ask yourself, how much is your “willingness to accept these changes?”

So if you want to measure how teachable you are or your ability to be taught, you must use the “Teach-ability Index.” To become highly teachable, you must have a high willingness to learn AND high willingness to accept change.

Take note of the AND. To be highly teachable, both scores on the index are required. You can not be teachable if either one’s score is zero. You are not teachable if you have a high willingness to learn but very low willingness to accept change or vice versa. To be highly teachable, one must have both high willingness to learn and high willingness to accept change.

So, now are you teachable? You will never learn unless you are highly teachable.

“The master will appear when the student is ready.”

I hope you have picked up something in my post.

Feel free to leave your comments.

'Till the next post,

Joel Magsisi