On another board there was a thread about MA class pet peeves, such as incessant gabbing among students during the class.
Curious to know from the instructor perspective (I'll ask for the student perspective in a different post)...what makes a great class? What do you do to help create a great class for everyone? Or, if you don't teach, what have you seen done that makes a great class for everyone?
It's a great question... and one that's very hard to answer, because it varies so much from class to class, depending on who shows up, what they need, and what I, as the instructor, want to teach.
In general, I try to make sure that all students know they are welcome - regardless of ability or lack thereof - while still maintaining an environment that will challenge each person to improve his/her own skills. How I do that varies depending on who shows up on a particular day. I try to maintain an environment where people try first and ask second, while still providing consistent and regular feedback on how they are doing - constructive, rather than destructive, criticism (e.g. "this technique would be better if you did this" rather than "that's wrong").
Some instructors create and maintain this environment through the use of formality and ritual - setting the class training as a time apart - and other do it through the use of informality and companionship. Which one works for a particular situation is going to depend on how the instructor was trained, the environment the instructor was trained in, how the instructor's experiences in and out of the dojang affect his/her teaching style... too many variables to count.
The key, I think, is to talk to - and even more importantly, to listen to - your students, and be responsive to their needs.
How you do that is going to vary widely - and that is why so many times, when someone asks how to choose a class, one of the tips always given is to watch the class and talk to the instructor and students - because much of what makes a good class is how the instructor relates to the students, and vice versa - someone who is a perfect instructor for me may not work for you at all; this is the personal component that makes teaching people how to teach so difficult.