The Art of Teaching:
Pedagogy & Presence
The Art of Teaching is designed to address all things teaching skills on one hand, and unveiling the identity and integrity of the teacher on the other
About The Art of Teaching: Pedagogy and Presence
Pedagogy
You must learn how to teach, and hold the student’s unique experience at the centre of that teaching, so Functional Yoga as Therapy is experienced as the healing and transformative practice it has the capacity to be.
Presence
You must embrace self-knowledge and realise you teach who you are, and why you’re teaching, before you teach what you know or even how you know to share that knowledge.
Having completed the 200hour Functional Yoga as Therapy YTT, you are now grounded in the content, the what. The Art of Teaching is a cutting-edge combination of pedagogy and presence, the tools and methodologies of the art of teaching itself, combined with the self-inquiry required for the inner teacher to emerge. In other words, having addressed the what, you are now ready to dive into the how, the why and the who.
Pedagogy: noun
“the art, science, or profession of teaching”
“The study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved. The field relies heavily on educational psychology, which encompasses scientific theories of learning, and to some extent on the philosophy of education, which considers the aims and value of education from a philosophical perspective.”
The Art of Teaching was designed with world-class teaching in mind. Grace Tempany, founder of ISFYT, came to the yoga world from the education world, from teaching French and Music at second-level to teaching yoga, from mentoring newly-qualified teachers to training yoga teachers. In many ways, it’s the professionally trained and experienced teachers who are perhaps best equipped to train yoga teachers. Quite simply, they have the ones who have the pedagogical skills to do so.
There is a deep need for educators in the yoga education world. Grace shares that she has personally struggled in the past to find teacher training offerings that succeeded in marrying the world of the mind and intellect with the world of the wisdom of the body. At ISFYT, we really believe it can and should be done, and this is our work with each student who crosses our path.
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
Margaret Mead
“People must be taught how to teach, not what to teach”
The ISFYT Mantra
Embodied Teaching
Yin: Surrender
Yang: Arise
Teaching: Embody
If The Art of Yin is Stillness
& The Art of Yang is Movement,
The Art of Teaching is the how behind effective and embodied sharing of them both.
It is through deepening ones’ teaching skills (the how) that the person (the who) and the purpose (the why) emerge with clarity.
At ISFYT we believe that teaching is an art form, a craft, and continually evolving practice, but first a foremost, a skill to master.
The Art of Teaching, the third part of the journey to embodied and integrated teaching is designed to help you do just that. It will equip you skills that are often neglected in yoga teacher trainings. To put it as simply as possibly, The Art of Teaching will make you a teacher.
You must be taught how to teach. A few lucky ones in this life can build this skill innately.
Language & Verbal Cueing
Sequencing
Pedagogy
Presence
65% of yoga teachers leave their 200 hour feeling ill-equipped in the method and practice of teaching.
The Art of Teaching is one of the many ways that ISFYT is set apart from other yoga teacher trainings who concentrate only on the what, and fail to address the how, the who, or the why.
The Benefits of the Art of Teaching
For the student practising yoga, mind speaks to the capacity for reflection and self-knowledge, discernment & critical thinking. You might say it’s the question “how does your yoga practice help make your smarter?”
For the trainee teacher, mind is twofold: a) the art of teaching & b) the art of self-inquiry. The Art of Teaching:
the what: the content, the knowledge: yoga
the how: teaching skills (external) & self-inquiry (self-knowledge & wisdom)
the why: reason for sharing it in the first place
Mind is also the self-inquiry process of getting to know who you are as a person, because that is the single most important factor in determining the effectiveness of a teacher.
“Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.” - Parker Palmer
You are not your mind, doesn’t mean “don’t use it”. It means don’t identify with it, learn to master it, and understand wise usage. Having means nothing if you don’t know how to use it.
At ISFYT, through a functional yoga as therapy practice & education, we learn to be more discerning, we learn to engage in self-inquiry, we learn to move through the what and the how to get to the why.
Until you know the teacher within, no teaching can take place.
Questions for you
Now that you have mastered the content, how do you share it?
How do I take all I have learned and felt in my personal practice, and let the inner teacher emerge?
How do I turn facts and knowledge into transformational classes?
How do I feel confident and grounded in my skills to impart, transmit, and guide?
If any of the questions have arisen in your mind, then The Art of Teaching is for you.
“Every time you want to share your knowledge, ask a good question instead”
- Grace Tempany
“Grace addressed so many questions I felt were left unanswered from my 200hr Teacher Training in regards to teaching skills, language, and anatomy”.
- Teacher Training Graduate
The Art of Teaching: Pedagogy and Presence
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Content
Approaches to Teaching: The How ‘Technique’ (Before)
Pedagogy Defined
Approaches to Learning
Psychology & Sociology of Education
Curriculum/Class/Workshop/Short Course Design
Learning Outcomes as a Skillset
Orchestrating “Effective Opportunities for Experience”
The Art of Setting up the Space
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Command
Language: The How ‘Technique’ (During)
The Language of Instruction & Inquiry
The Art of Asking Beautiful Questions
Silence for Self-Inquiry
Voice & Throat Chakra Activation
Somatic & Psychological Merging: Top-Down & Bottom-Up Perspectives to Teaching
The Art of Directing the Space
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Confidence
The Inner Teacher: The Who ‘Identity’
Philosophy of Education - what can really be taught?
Merging Discernment, Self-Knowledge & Self-Inquiry
The True Self
The Soul Seeker
The Art of Presence
Undoing & Unlearning & Trusting the “you” that emerges
The Art of Holding the Space
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Congruence
Congruence in the Seat of the Teacher: The Why ‘Integrity’
Principles of Person-Centred Teaching (Adapted Carl Rogers)
Congruence (clear alignment between inner & outer realities)
Unconditional Positive Regard
Empathy
Embodied Integration
Clear Boundary Establishment - The remit of the role of the Teacher
The Art of Maintaining the Space
“Teaching holds a mirror to the soul. If I am willing to look in that mirror and not run from what I see I have a chance to gain self knowledge and knowing myself is as crucial to good teaching as knowing my students and my subject. In fact, knowing my students and my subject depends heavily on self knowledge.”
- Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
Globally Recognised Teaching Certification
Upon completion of this training:
You will be fully qualified to teach Functional Yoga as Therapy. Many yoga studios require a minimum training of 200hrs so you will have the option to teach in yoga studios globally.
You will receive an international badge and certificate of excellence from ISFYT for 300hrs.
You will be eligible to apply for accreditation with Yoga Alliance Professionals, who provide membership and insurance for £148 per annum.
About Yoga Alliance Professionals:
Yoga Alliance Professionals are a UK-based independent professional body for Yoga Trainers and Teachers globally. Choosing the right Teacher Training Course is a big decision. To help give you peace of mind, ISFYT Trainers have TrainerPro level, a new and prestigious category within Yoga Alliance Professionals.
Being a TrainerPro verifies that:
ISFYT’s Training Courses meet the highest standards.
A fully qualified Senior Teacher (minimum 8 years experience) leads the Trainings.
Graduates receive a globally recognised teaching certification.
About ISFYT Founder
Grace Tempany is a Senior Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals, a Trainer Pro and Mentor, specialised in yin, functional yoga, and trauma-informed somatic practices. As a trainee psychotherapist, her lens is inherently person-centred. As a former secondary school teacher, the art of teaching has been her bedrock.
Her teaching is built on the foundation of inclusion. Since she started teaching yoga ten years ago, she has dedicated her practice, research and teaching to providing the most accessible space for everybody to practise being in their bodies, and learn to gain a deeper connection with themselves, their truth, their voice and their own unique and personal journey.
She marries pedagogical expertise, lived and felt experience as knowledge, and the most up-to-date research from the yoga, education, and therapy worlds.
She created her own school of yoga because she believes in a deeper and more well-rounded yoga education. She knows that deep thinkers and old souls looking for retreats are yearning for more depth and integration opportunities. And she listened to to the soul whispers nudging her to create a home for many others out there who have yet to find theirs within the yoga community.
In 2023 ISFYT: The International School of Functional Yoga Teachers was born. In the making for at least the last 3 years, it will no doubt continue to evolve for many years to come.
