The EDGE Teaching Method

Mark Hatfield, writing at Loose Rounds, recently published an article entitled "Instructors--They Ain't All The Same." He gives an example in the article where he recently "baby sat" a handgun class while acting as a range officer. The class's instructor (certified by an unnamed national shooting organization) claimed that the class was "intermediate" level, whereas Hatfield found them to lack even some of the most basic skills with their own weapons. He proceeded to instruct some of the class members how to hold, shoot, and reload their particular weapons. He writes:

After about an hour and a half I was notified that I would be needed elsewhere, could these guys be left alone? I said ‘no’, but that it might be easily correctable (I hoped). At the next reasonable opportunity I announced that I had to leave and asked to speak with the instructor on the side. I had seen that the guys all did reholster safely, that was good. I explained that there was a serious problem which he had not realized. He apologized for letting the students draw their guns while he was in front of them, I explained that there was much more than that. I mentioned that the guys could be (without being aware of it) pointing guns at their own feet, at their hands, at each other and he would never know because he NEVER watched them. I tried to really drive this home. I suggested that he use this method: 

Explain what he wants them to do. 

Demonstrate. 

Then WATCH them. 

Give them corrections as they may need. 

I could have said a lot more, that he was wasting their time and money as well as reinforcing bad habits, letting them think that what they did was OK, but I didn’t.
I didn’t think this ‘instructor’ was an idiot. However that day, he was not an instructor, he really was not instructing. He thought he was. I thought he could become an OK instructor but the large well known organization which gave him his teaching credentials clearly never taught him how to teach.

Although he did not use the acronym adopted by the Boy Scouts, what he mentions above mirrors the Boy Scout's EDGE system of teaching skills.

EDGE stands for Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, and Enable. (Here is a basic guide to the system--PDF).

Explain--this is pretty straightforward. It is simply to talk to the students about what you are going to do, and explain the steps, stages, etc., of the skill or activity. Visual aids and questions may be appropriate.

Demonstrate--this is where the instructor shows the students how to perform the skill.

Guide--that is, the students perform the task under guidance and instruction from the teacher(s). This is the opportunity for one-on-one time to deal with difficulties or issues for the individual student, or to answer questions that the student thought "too stupid" to raise in front of other students.

Enable--at this stage, the students will practice the task on their own. Although the instructor is not guiding the student at this stage, he/she should be observing the student(s) and be able to step in to correct a problem or answer questions.

The Boy Scouts recommend that approximately 25% of the time allotted for teaching a skill be used for explaining, 10% for demonstrating, and the remaining 65% in guiding and enabling the student(s).

I would note that not only are troop leaders and assistants supposed to use this method, but that the Scouts are also taught this method and must use it when they are tasked with teaching the other boys in the troop. I think that it is helpful for the boys to understand how they will be taught because it assures them ahead of time that they will be shown how to perform the skill, and receive individual guidance.

Obviously, in prepping, there will be times where you may be teaching family members, friends, or other preppers about certain skills. This is a handy and simple guide to remember the steps on how to effectively teach them.

Additional Information: "Scouting’s Teaching EDGE (BSA Edge Method)"; "EDGE Method"; "Trainer's EDGE";