This is a short guide on teaching techniques I’ve prepared for Educators. While it’s written with educators in mind, much of it will also be relevant for Teaching Assistants.

Most of us were never formally trained in pedagogy, the theory and practice of how people actually learn. Instead, we came up through an apprenticeship model, watching experienced instructors, absorbing what we could, and then doing our best to replicate it in our own way. That approach can work, but it has limits.

What gets passed down is often inconsistent, incomplete, or shaped more by personality than by a clear teaching method. Over time, this creates variability in the classroom experience and makes it harder to ensure that students are learning what matters most.

This guide is meant to shift us toward a more intentional approach. Effective teaching isn’t just about knowing the material or having good instincts in the room. It requires structure, clarity, and deliberate choices about how we present information, guide hands-on work, and support different types of learners.

The goal here isn’t to make teaching rigid or scripted. It’s to give us a shared foundation so that, regardless of who is leading the room, students have a consistent, high-quality learning experience.

Teaching a hands-on technique is not the same as knowing how to perform one. You already know these techniques. This guide is about the other part: how to transfer what you know into someone else’s hands in a way that actually sticks.

The method breaks down into three interrelated processes:

1. instructive (setting students up before they begin),
2. auditing (observing how they interpret your instruction), and
3. corrective (guiding them toward better execution when something is off).

These are not separate phases. You are constantly moving between them. You introduce a technique, observe how it’s being interpreted, and then guide students toward better execution. That loop continues throughout the workshop.

Most teaching problems come from one of two things: either the technique was not communicated clearly at the start, or the educator does not intervene effectively once students begin practicing. This guide addresses both.

Read through this once. Then refer to it again after each workshop and use it as a way to self-evaluate your performance. 

PART ONE: INSTRUCTIVE PROCESSES

The instructive process is where it starts. This is where you communicate the basic information regarding the performance of the technique. This process generally follows this type of process:

1. Review anatomy
2. Present a technique overview
3. Demonstrate the technique while giving a verbal description
4. Talk them through the technique a couple of times
5. Let them perform the technique several times on their own

Setting Students Up for Success Before They Begin

Everything starts here. If students do not understand what they are trying to do, or cannot find the correct structure, the rest of the process becomes a series of corrections. You will spend the entire session chasing problems that didn’t need to exist.

The goal of instruction is not to explain everything. The goal is to give students a clear enough picture that they can begin. You will have opportunities to add details later. Right now, they need just enough to start working.

Start with Relevant Anatomy

Begin by orienting students to the structure they will be working on. This should always be practical and tactile, not theoretical. You are not teaching an anatomy class. You are helping them find something with their hands.

Focus on landmarks they can feel: bony ridges, edges of muscles, clear boundaries. You can use a skeleton model, a chart, or a quick sketch on the whiteboard to orient them visually, but the real work is palpation. The visual is the setup. The hands are the lesson.

Have them find it on themselves first

This is important. Students are far more successful when they build an internal reference before trying to find it on someone else. Their own body is familiar. A partner’s body is not. So if possible, have them palpate the landmarks on their own body first.

Guide them directly. Be specific. Don’t say “find the muscle.” Say:

“Find this ridge here. Follow it down until you feel this edge. That’s the border you’ll be working along.”

If a student is struggling, do not repeat the same instruction louder or slower. Physically guide their hand to the structure so they can feel it. Place their fingers on yours and palpate the landmark. Alternately, place your fingers on theirs. That kinesthetic reference is often what makes it click. A verbal cue they didn’t understand the first time will not suddenly become clear on the third repetition.

Then have them find it on a partner

Once they can locate the structure on themselves, have them find it on a partner. This is where some students will struggle again, because the body they’re working on is different from their own.

If someone is having difficulty, you have two options. You can direct them to a partner who is easier to palpate, someone with more defined landmarks. Or you can have them palpate the structure on you, so they can feel it under your guidance.

Do not move on too early

Do not move forward until most of the room can find the structure. If they are off at this stage, the technique will fail, and you will spend the rest of the session correcting the wrong thing entirely. You will be fixing location when you think you’re fixing execution.

If they cannot find the structure they are working on, the technique will not work.

Give a Brief Overview of the Technique

Before you demonstrate, give them a simple framework for what they are about to see. This should be short and focused, just two or three sentences that set the intention.

“You’re going to contact here, and you’ll be working in this direction. The goal is to engage this structure and create movement through it.”

You are not explaining every detail at this point. You are priming their attention so that when they watch the demonstration, they know what to look for.

Demonstrate the Technique

When you demonstrate, your role is to provide a clear visual model. You are not performing. You are showing.

As you perform the technique, call out the essential elements in this order of priority:

1. Your position relative to the client.
2. Your contact points: what part of your hand or body is making contact, and exactly where on the client’s body it lands.
3. Landmarks: the reference points on the partner’s body that orient the contact.
4. The mechanics of the technique, that is, how the technique is performed: the key components of execution like the direction of movement, the depth, the rate, the rhythm, the duration, etc.
5. Posture and body mechanics.

As you work, narrate it simply:

“Notice how my body is positioned. My contact is here. I’m using this part of my hand. The movement is going in this direction.”

Keep your language simple and direct. The teaching guide outlines most of this basic instructional language in each technique description.

Students can only process a limited amount of information at once. If you try to explain everything during the demonstration, they will retain very little. You will have other opportunities to add detail later, for example, during guided practice, during corrections, during the second or third time they perform the technique. The demonstration is about clarity, not completeness.

Teach one technique before moving on to practice. Depending on where students are in the workshop and how similar subsequent techniques are, you may occasionally teach two or three techniques before having them practice. But as a rule, one at a time.

Guide the First Attempts

Once students begin working, stay with them verbally. Do not demonstrate and then go silent. Walk them through the sequence step by step while they’re doing it.

“Position yourself on your client’s right side, facing towards their head in a lunge position with the left leg forward. Use your right hand to gently grab your partner’s wrist and slightly flex and abduct the arm at the shoulder. Palpate for the deltoid insertion. You’ll find it about 1/3 of the way down the outside of the upper arm. Good. Let’s put your fingertips right on the insertion. Keep the fingers tight together and press firmly into the tendon. Now begin the movement slowly in this direction….”

After guiding them through the technique once at a slow pace, do it again more quickly, closer to the natural rhythm of the technique. You’ll need to shorten the narration of the technique description to pick up the speed at which they work.

You don’t need to correct them at this point. If you find yourself needing to correct, your instructions were likely not clear enough. Rely on your teaching assistants (TAs) to catch gross errors by students who should make these first corrections quick and direct so that students can stay focus on you and follow along in a structured way.

After these two guided practice sessions, instruct them to practice the techniques several times on their own as you walk around and observe.

During these first attempts, only correct major errors: clearly wrong location, unsafe pressure, or completely wrong direction. Ignore smaller issues for now. Students are not capable of integrating multiple corrections at once in the early stage. They can focus on one component at a time. As that component becomes more automatic, their attention will free up for the next one. If you correct three things simultaneously, they will not retain any of them.

Let Them Work and Repeat

After guiding them, instruct them to practice the techniques several times on their own as you walk around and observe. You may want to talk through the technique to give them cues as to how it is performed, providing adaptations or suggestions based on what you are seeing in the room.

During these first attempts, only correct major errors: clearly wrong location, unsafe pressure, or completely wrong direction. Ignore smaller issues for now. Students are not capable of integrating multiple corrections at once in the early stage. They can focus on one component at a time. As that component becomes more automatic, their attention will free up for the next one. If you correct three things simultaneously, they will not retain any of them.

Once they’ve done repetitions on one side, have them move to the other side and repeat. They’ll be less reliant on your cues at this point and you can start providing more individualized correction.

This repetition is essential. Students begin to organize the skill through doing, not through explanation. The explanation was the setup. The repetition is the learning.

You Are Responsible for the Room

As a sidenote: Your job is not just to teach techniques. It is to manage a room. These are different skills, and the second one is easy to forget when you are focused on the first.

The most common way this goes wrong: you stop to help one student, spend three to five minutes working through a correction, and when you stand up, the room has drifted. Some students have stopped working entirely. Others are talking. A few have moved on to techniques from a previous workshop or something they do in their own practice. The energy in the room has dropped, and you can feel it immediately.

This happens because students need ongoing direction. When they finish their repetitions and no one tells them what to do next, they fill the silence with whatever is in front of them. That is not a discipline problem. It is a management problem.

The fix is simple: stay aware of the room even when you are working with an individual. Keep your corrections brief. If a student needs extended help, give them one clear adjustment, tell them to keep working on it, and move on. If necessary, call over a TA to help. That’s their role. You can always come back to the student later. What you cannot do is recover a room that has gone idle for five minutes.

When you sense energy dropping (and you will feel it before you see it) give the room a directive. It does not need to be complicated.

“Switch roles. Person on the table, you’re up.”

“Try that three more times, then I want you to find a new partner.”

The room follows your energy. If you disappear into a corner with one student, the room reads that as a break. Stay visible. Stay moving. Keep the room working.

Change partners frequently

In most Dalton workshops, two people pair up and work together for the entire day. This is the default because it’s easy and comfortable. It is also a missed opportunity.

A technique that works on one body may not translate to the next. The student who can find the landmark on a lean, well-defined partner may have no idea where it is on someone with more tissue. The contact that felt right on a smaller frame may be completely wrong on a larger one. If a student only ever practices on one person, they are learning the technique on that person — not learning the technique.

The clients who walk into their treatment rooms will not all look like their workshop partner. They will be taller, shorter, broader, thinner, more muscular, more guarded, more relaxed. The workshop is the one place where students have access to a room full of different bodies. Use that.

Have students rotate partners throughout the day. They do not need to switch after every single repetition, but they should work on at least three or four different people over the course of the workshop. Each new body forces them to re-find the landmark, re-calibrate their pressure, and re-adapt their positioning. That adaptation is where the real learning happens.

You do not need to make this complicated. When it’s time for a new technique or a new round of practice, simply say:

“Find a new partner for this one. Someone you haven’t worked with yet.”

Some students will resist this. They are comfortable where they are. That comfort is exactly the problem. The point of the workshop is not to perform a technique perfectly on one familiar body. The point is to build the adaptability that makes the technique work on anyone.

When the Whole Class Is Struggling

If you look around the room and most students are struggling with the same thing, assume the issue is with how the technique was taught, not with the students.

This is a hard thing to accept in the moment. But if the majority of the room is off, the common denominator is your instruction. Either you missed explaining an important element, or you taught the technique too quickly, or the sequence wasn’t clear.

Slow down and re-demonstrate. Don’t apologize or draw attention to the failure. Just reset:

“Let’s reset this. Watch this part again.”

Focus on the one key element that is missing. Do not try to reteach the entire technique from scratch. Find the gap and fill it.

When the whole room is struggling, the problem is almost always upstream. Look at your own instruction before you look at the students.

PART TWO: AUDITING PROCESSES

Observing how students interpret your instruction.

Once students are practicing, your role shifts from teaching to observing. This is where you determine what is actually happening in the room and decide how to respond.

Most educators either correct too much or not enough. The auditing process is how you decide which problems to address, which to ignore for now, and which require stopping the class.

Scan the Room in a Consistent Order

Every time you observe a pair working, look in this order. Not some of the time. Every time.

First, the person receiving the work. Are they comfortable? Is anything painful or unsafe? Is there a grimace they’re trying to hide? This comes before everything else. You are not evaluating technique yet. You are making sure no one is being hurt.

Once you’ve confirmed the receiver is fine, look at the practitioner. Start with the contact points. Is the correct part of their hand contacting the appropriate place on the structure? This is the most common source of error and the first technical element to check. A student whose hand placement is off will not produce an effective technique no matter how good their body mechanics are.

Then look at the bigger picture. Posture, orientation, direction of force, general execution. These matter, but they are refinements. They come after you’ve confirmed the receiver is safe and the practitioner is in the right place.

Safety. Then accuracy. Then refinement. In that order.

Give Students Time to Self-Correct

When you see something off, resist the urge to correct immediately. This is one of the hardest habits to build, and one of the most important.

Observe for 10 to 30 seconds. Students will often begin to adjust on their own as they process what they are doing. They are comparing what they feel to what they saw in the demonstration. That comparison takes time.

If you intervene too quickly, you interrupt that process. Worse, you train them to wait for you to fix things instead of developing their own self-correction. You create dependence. The student who learns to notice that their contact has drifted and adjusts it on their own has learned something far more durable than the student who only adjusts because you told them to.

Your role is not to fix everything. It is to identify the most important issue and decide whether intervention is actually necessary.

Recognize What Is Working

As you move through the room, actively look for things that are being done well. This is not optional encouragement. This is a teaching tool.

When you see something correct, name it specifically:

“The client’s shoulder is abducted and flexed exactly into the right position.”

“That direction of your force is perfect.”

“Nice. Your hand placement is exactly where it should be.”

A common mistake is being vague when something is right and specific when something is wrong. “Good job” tells a student nothing. “Your contact is two inches too lateral” tells them everything. The student walks away with a detailed map of their errors and no concrete understanding of what correct execution actually looks like.

Flip that. When something is right, name it the same way you’d name a problem. Not “nice work”, but instead, “that contact point is exactly where it should be.” Not “looks good”, but instead, “your hand placement and direction are both right.” Give correct execution the same specificity you give a correction. That way the student knows precisely what to keep doing, not just what to stop doing.

“Good job” is encouragement. “That contact point is exactly right” is instruction. The second version tells every student within earshot what “right” looks like.

Use a Simple Mental Checklist

For each technique, keep a basic checklist in mind: correct landmark, correct contact, correct direction, reasonable body mechanics. You are not analyzing everything in fine detail. You are scanning for key elements.

The teaching guide for each technique will outline specific things to look for. Use it. Having a clear checklist prevents you from getting caught up in minor issues while missing the thinsg that actually matter.

PART THREE: CORRECTIVE PROCESSES

Guiding students toward better execution.

This is where the quality of teaching is most visible. And this is where the most damage can be done if you handle it poorly.

The goal of correction is not simply to fix mistakes in the moment. The goal is to help students understand what needs to change so they can improve on their own. A correction that requires your presence to work is a correction that will be forgotten by the next workshop.

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. If you simply hand someone the correction, they’ll forget it the moment the next technique begins. You want to teach them how to think through the correction themselves, so they can keep improving when you’re not standing next to them.

Set the Expectation Early: No Passive Bodies on the Table

This is something you establish at the beginning of the workshop, not something you introduce the first time you need feedback from a receiver. Before the first technique is even taught, tell the class directly:

“If you’re on the table, you are not a passive piece of flesh. You have a job. Your job is to pay attention to what you feel and tell your partner what’s working and what isn’t.”

You have a limited time to spend correcting each student. On the other hand, the person on the table, is spending the entire time with the student and can play an invaluable role in correcting the students’ technique.

Make it clear that giving feedback is not optional and not something they should feel awkward about. It is part of the learning process for both people. The practitioner needs to hear what the technique feels like from the inside. The receiver needs to develop the language and awareness to articulate what they’re feeling. Both of those skills matter in their practice.

Be specific about what you expect from them. Not just “speak up if something hurts.” You want them giving specific positive feedback. For example, “that contact point feels right,” “I can feel the stretch through the muscle.” You also want them giving specific constructive feedback like “that feels like it’s on bone,” “the pressure dropped off before the technique was finished.” General feedback like “feels fine” or “that’s good” is not enough. Push them to be precise.

If you set this expectation once and never revisit it, it will fade. Reinforce it throughout the day. When you stop at a pair and the receiver has nothing to say, prompt them: “What works about your partner doing this technique? Be specific.” When a receiver gives good, detailed feedback unprompted, acknowledge it in front of the room. That signals to everyone else what the standard is.

The result is a room where every table has two active learners instead of one. The practitioner is refining their technique. The receiver is building the perceptual and communication skills they’ll use with their own clients. Neither person is waiting around.

Why Direct Correction Often Fails

The most obvious way to correct a student is to say: “Not like that. Do it like this.”

This is fast. It is sometimes necessary. But it is also the least effective teaching method you have, and here is why:

When you correct this way, the student does not have to think. They just comply. The correction is processed as a momentary instruction, not as understanding. It is likely to be forgotten within minutes as their attention shifts to the next thing.

There is also an emotional cost. A participant who is already struggling to figure out a technique may be feeling incompetent. A blunt correction amplifies that feeling. It can feel punitive or demeaning, even when you don’t intend it that way. The student who was unsure of themselves now has confirmation that they are, in fact, doing it wrong. Some students will shut down after this. Others will become tentative and overly cautious, which creates a different set of problems.

When direct correction is still appropriate

There are situations where you should correct directly, without working through a process:

When something is unsafe. For example, excessive pressure, a position that could injure, contact on a vulnerable structure. Do not wait for self-correction when safety is at risk.

When the student is clearly on the wrong structure, not a subtle drift, but completely off target. There is no value in asking “What could you improve?” when the answer is “you’re on the wrong part of the body.”

When the error is so fundamental that indirect methods won’t reach it. If the whole approach is wrong, a reflective question is not going to get them there.

Outside of these situations, start with methods that engage the student in the correction process.

Method 1: Allow Space for Self-Correction

Before stepping in, give the student a few seconds. This is the first and simplest method, and you should use it every time before anything else.

Watch them. They may adjust their contact, change their pressure, reposition their body. Initially, they will only be able to focus on one component at a time. As that component becomes more automatic, their focus shifts to others. You need to stand back and let that natural process happen.

If they begin to correct themselves, let them continue. Do not interrupt a student who is in the process of figuring something out. The fact that they haven’t arrived at the perfect execution yet does not mean they aren’t getting there.

Method 2: Ask the Student to Reflect

If they are not self-correcting after a few seconds, ask a simple question:

“What could you improve here?”

“Does this feel like the right contact to you?”

“How do you think this technique can be done in a better way?”

This prompts them to mentally revisit the technique. To answer your question, they have to compare what they’re doing to what they saw in the demonstration. They start building their own mental checklist.

Even if their answer is incomplete, the act of thinking through the process is valuable. A student who identifies one of three problems is further along than a student who was told about all three and retained none of them.

You can also ask them to talk you through the technique as they understand it, step by step. Have them essentially teach it back to you. It often becomes very clear that they are missing a step in the process or have formed a faulty mental model. Once you can see where the model breaks down, you know exactly what to address.

Use concept checking questions to engage the whole room

As you audit the class, you’ll see moments where a concept checking question can clarify something for everyone. These are simple binary or either/or questions that you call out to the room, not directed at one student, but heard by all of them.

The question forces active thinking. Instead of watching passively, students have to process what they’re observing and make a choice. “Is that contact on the biceps femoris or the semi-membranous?” “Does the stabilizing hand grasp above or below the joint?” “Is the pressure going into the structure or sliding across the surface?”

You can direct these at a specific person if you’re standing near them. You’re directing the thinking of a particular student, but the whole class is listening and evaluating their own work against the question. Often a student will hear the question, realize it applies to what they’re doing, and self-correct before you even finish speaking.

These questions work best when they relate directly to the technique being performed. Keep them simple. Keep them binary. One choice or the other, nothing in between. The student’s brain has to commit to an answer, and in doing that, they’re really looking at what they’re actually doing, not just going through the motions.

Method 3: Use the Receiver as Part of the Feedback Loop

The person receiving the work can provide useful feedback, but they often hesitate to speak up. They don’t want to offend their partner. They’re unsure if what they’re feeling is “wrong” or just different. They need your permission.

Invite them directly:

“How does that feel?”

“What would make this feel better?”

This gives them explicit permission to respond honestly. And feedback from a peer often has more impact than the same feedback coming from you as the instructor. A partner saying “that feels like it’s pressing on bone” is concrete and immediate in a way that an instructor’s correction is not.

When the receiver’s feedback is limited

The most common feedback you will hear from receivers is about pressure: “It needs to be deeper” or “That’s too hard.” This is the easiest component to perceive and the first thing most people notice.

If the feedback stops at pressure, guide them further:

“Besides pressure, does the contact feel like it’s in the right place?”

“Does it feel smooth or abrupt?”

“Is there a gradual pressure and release, or does it feel sudden?”

“Does it seem rhythmical and relaxing?”

You are teaching both students at once: the practitioner is getting feedback, and the receiver is learning to articulate what they feel. Both of those skills matter.

A note on timing

The receiver needs to experience the technique from multiple practitioners before they can give detailed comparative feedback. Early in the session, they may not have enough reference points to say much beyond “it feels fine” or “it hurts.” This method becomes more powerful as the workshop progresses and they’ve felt several different hands perform the same technique.

Method 4: Demonstrate and Compare

When verbal guidance is not enough, demonstration becomes necessary. This is one of the most effective teaching tools you have, but it must be handled carefully. The risk is that you embarrass a student in front of the class. If that happens, you have lost that student for the rest of the workshop.

Using yourself as the demonstration

The safest version of comparison is to demonstrate on the student’s partner yourself. Perform the technique correctly, then perform it the way you’re seeing it done incorrectly. If the error is subtle, exaggerate the incorrect version so the difference becomes obvious.

Then direct their attention:

“Watch the contact point here. See the difference?”

“Look at where the pressure is going in each version.”

Do not ask vague questions like “What do you see?” This puts the student on the spot with no guidance. Tell them where to look.

Using a class-wide demonstration

When you see a common mistake across the room, that is, something affecting multiple students, not just one, you can stop the class to address it. This is appropriate when the issue is widespread. It is not appropriate for correcting an individual.

Stop the class:

“Everyone pause for a moment. I’m seeing something that’s coming up in several places.”

If you need to select a student to demonstrate, frame it carefully and immediately:

“I’m going to use you as an example of something I’m seeing across the room, not just with you. You just happen to be standing near me.”

Point out explicitly that what they’re about to see reflects your instruction, not the student’s failure:

“This is coming up because I didn’t emphasize this part clearly enough.”

Have them perform the technique briefly. Then either demonstrate the correct version yourself, or, and this is often better, use another student who is closer to correct. The comparison gives the class a concrete visual reference.

How to use two students as a comparison

This is a variation that works well: choose one student who is performing the technique well and one who isn’t, and have them work side by side in front of the class. This provides a clear visual contrast.

But you must handle it carefully. The student whose technique is less correct must not feel like the “bad example.” Frame it this way:

“I want to show two versions of this technique so we can look at a specific element together. This is representative of what I’m seeing across the room.”

Focus the class’s attention on one specific element. Do not open it up broadly with “What do you see?” That invites a pile-on. Instead:

“Look at the hand placement here. What do you notice about the difference?”

“Watch the orientation of the hips. See how it changes the force?”

You can also play the role of the “correct” student yourself, or have a TA do it. This removes the dynamic of comparing two students entirely.

The class can become very critical very quickly when you open the floor. Limit the discussion to one element so the student demonstrating is not overwhelmed. Always reinforce that the issue is common and not specific to that individual.

Method 5: Let the Student Feel the Correct Technique

If a student is struggling and verbal or visual corrections aren’t landing, perform the technique on them. Not on their partner. On them.

Then say:

“Notice how that feels.”

Then perform it incorrectly, mimicking what they were doing. Ask them to feel the difference.

“Now notice this version. What’s different?”

Then have them try again on their partner.

This gives them a kinesthetic reference that is often more powerful than anything visual or verbal. Some students simply need to feel the technique to understand it. Different students learn through different channels. If visual and verbal instruction haven’t worked, the body is the next channel to try.

Method 6: When You Cannot Identify the Problem

Sometimes you can see that something is off, but you can’t pinpoint what it is. The technique doesn’t look right. The person on the table can’t clearly articulate what’s wrong. You’re stuck.

In this case, become the body. Have the student perform the technique on you.

Pay attention to the contact, the pressure, the direction of force. You will often feel the problem immediately. Something that was invisible to the eye becomes obvious to the body. A slight angle that’s off. A contact point that’s too broad. A pressure curve that’s abrupt instead of gradual.

Once you identify the problem through feel, you can go back to any of the other correction methods to address it.

You can also ask the student to talk through what they’re thinking as they perform the technique. Have them narrate it step by step. It will often become clear that they’ve missed a step in the process or formed a faulty mental model of what the technique is supposed to do.

Method 7: Use Aural Cues for Rhythm and Pacing

This one is less obvious, but it works particularly well for correcting pacing and rhythm, two elements that are difficult to fix through visual correction alone.

The rhythm, speed, and intonation of your voice should reflect the quality of your technique application. For example, if you want the student to use a slow gradual approach in and out of the tissue, you don’t give instruction with a staccato delivery, ex. “Go. In. Slowly. Come. Out. Slowly.” Instead, match the quality of your voice to the quality of the movement, ex. Let your fist siiink iiinto the tissue. Hooold. Slooowly releeeease.”

Ask the student to talk through the technique as they perform it. Narrate it aloud. You will often find that their words and their hands aren’t matching, they describe a smooth, gradual application while their hands are working in jerky, uneven strokes.

Sometimes getting them to change the rhythm of their narration changes the rhythm of their hands. If you can get their voice to match the technique’s intended pace, their body will often follow.

You can also give the technique a sound, a verbal cue that reflects the rate and rhythm of the application. This is an unconventional tool, but one that Erik used. With certain techniques and certain students, it is surprisingly effective.

PRINCIPLES TO REMEMBER

If they cannot find the structure, the technique will fail.

If you give too much information, they will not retain it.

If you correct too quickly, they will rely on you instead of themselves.

If you do not correct at all, mistakes will become habits.

If they do not repeat the technique, they will not learn it.

Your Role as a Dalton Educator

You are there to guide the process, not to perform or impress. You are not the show. The students are.

You are helping them locate the correct structures, understand the intention of the technique, feel the difference between correct and incorrect execution, and improve through repetition and feedback.

If students leave the workshop able to perform the techniques with confidence and a reasonable level of accuracy, you have done your job.

QUICK REFERENCE: CORRECTION METHODS AT A GLANCE

When you’re in the middle of a workshop and need a fast reminder, use this reference. It is not a substitute for reading the full guide—it’s a cheat sheet for the moment when you’re standing over a student and thinking, “What should I do here?”

Situation: You see an error but it’s not dangerous.

First move: Wait a few seconds. Let them self-correct.

Situation: They’re not self-correcting.

First move: Ask: “What could you improve here?”

Situation: They can’t identify the problem themselves.

First move: Ask the receiver: “What would make this feel better?”

Situation: Verbal approaches aren’t working.

First move: Demonstrate on the student so they feel it.

Situation: The same mistake is happening across the room.

First move: Stop the class, re-demonstrate one element, frame it as your gap in teaching.

Situation: You can’t tell what’s wrong visually.

First move: Have them perform the technique on you.

Situation: Something is unsafe.

First move: Correct directly and immediately. No process needed.