Tutor: Pip Penney

Participant: Mike Franklin

For a couple of years, I have been in charge of teaching recruits at Ware and have been supported by fellow ringers who in turn tended to follow my methods. The two reasons for requesting some kind of course were:

• a desire to ensure that myself and fellow ringers at Ware were following best practice and
• to enable these ringers to take a lead role in teaching handling themselves

The ITTS Module 1 Course, ‘Teaching Bell Handling’ was delivered by course tutor, Pip Penney, supported by instructor, Geoff Horritt. The course involved a good balance of theory and practice: Appropriately, this meant the bulk of the time was devoted to the practical sessions.

It was very helpful to have as course tutor, someone who had studied best practice in coaching practical skills generally, and applied them to the teaching of the specific skill of handling a bell. Pip used the theory sessions to explain the rationale behind the techniques that the students would use in the practical sessions. Due emphasis was given to optimising teaching to suit recruits’ learning styles. Methods of catering for individual student’s learning preferences were described in the theory sessions and these were then applied in the ringing chamber.

Practical sessions were highly interactive and involved prospective mentors/teachers coaching each other. A major benefit of this method was that mentors and students could share techniques seen in their own ringing experience. Ideas were then fed back to the group as a whole. In addition, all of the mentors were able to demonstrate common faults and Pip and Geoff stressed the need to use a variety of ways to remedy them.

The course was not a prescriptive list of stages in teaching/learning to handle a bell, but rather a set of tools which should be utilized according to the capabilities of both student and teacher. It was pointed out that the rate at which a recruit would progress would vary with the experience of the teacher as well as the potential of the learner and that new instructors should not be discouraged by this. The importance of encouragement via positive feedback was stressed along with constructive and encouraging methods of pointing out weaknesses.

I am certain that everyone attending the course came away with ideas that would help them teach more effectively as well as the motivation to take on new recruits and take them through their first steps into the world of ringing.