Episode 38 - More Than Information: Three Questions on Transformational Teaching

Being smart does not mean that you’re a good teacher… And most of us learn that the hard way.

In this episode of Three Questions, I unpack what transformational teaching actually requires beyond information, credentials, or sounding impressive. I reflect on my own evolution as an educator, the role of mistakes in learning, and why real teaching isn’t about avoiding discomfort but guiding people through it. We’ll talk motivation, competence, autonomy, and how nervous system science quietly shapes whether learning actually sticks.

In This Episode You’ll Hear:

• What actually makes someone a “good” teacher and why it’s not mastery alone
• How mistakes, discomfort, and the cerebellum are essential to real learning
• Why motivation, autonomy, and competence matter more than content delivery

Whether you’re a movement teacher, clinician, parent, or anyone who teaches in any form, this episode invites you to reflect on how you teach, why you teach, and where you can grow next.

Links & Resources For This Episode:
Find a Neuro Studio Teacher Near You
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Questions on Transformational Teaching
• 1:53 Defining a Good Teacher
• 8:55 Motivation and Inspiration as Tools For Teaching
• 13:25 The Importance of Competence
• 20:30 Improving as a Teacher

Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to guide your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host Meghann, and I am so honored you clicked on Three Questions today so we can talk about teaching, what it is, why it's important, and maybe how we can do it better.

And you might be listening to this right now and saying, well, I'm not a teacher, but you are. All of us are teachers in different ways. You might be a parent that needs to teach your kids things. You might be a teacher at a school. You might be someone that teaches movement to adults. You might be someone who teaches courses to adults.

You also might be someone that needs to teach someone a lesson. All are fine, but I think in understanding what makes a good teacher and what we think makes a good teacher, I think can help us. I don't know, I'm hoping communicate a little better and be better critical thinkers. Uh, this is something that's very important to me.

When I got back to get my doctorate degree, I chose my to get my doctorate in education and not a PhD because what I felt was, what was really lacking in the movement industry is how people convey and teach the work. There's a lot of people that have a lot of methods, yet they're not good at teaching now.

It is hard to be a teacher. Okay. It is hard teaching a lot of children at once. And as I say to my husband, well, it is very hard to teach adults as well because they were children once as well. So let's just get right into question one. What makes a good teacher? What do you think makes a good teacher?

Yell it out? What qualities do you think makes a good teacher? And while you're thinking about that, I'm gonna tell you a really short story. As short as I can tell, because you know, I do like to go on. When we first started teaching the Advanced Neuro Techniques course for the Neuro Studio, I was teaching the techniques I developed.

I wasn't teaching somebody else's techniques, I wasn't teaching something, and there was a textbook. And in the effort to really try to teach everybody how I was doing in getting these great results. I just really wanted them to understand and not make the same mistakes I made. And in that effort, while some people really loved the courses, I don't think I was really teaching as well as I do now.

And there was a huge turning point for me. I remember the course specifically. A lot of people in the course are really enjoying it, and there was this one teacher who was just questioning every freaking thing I said. Well, based off what you're saying, everything I'm doing is wrong. And I was like, nope, never said that.

That's you interpreting it. And it turns out she was living in a lot of pain. She was teaching Pilates and she felt like I was questioning what she did. And then I'm like, well, if what you're doing is so great, why are you living in so much pain? But we got to a deeper conversation, which is not what this is about.

It's what happened after that. I remember leaving that course and saying, Hey. Maybe I'll just teach this course as a mentorship. Maybe it's not for everybody. And I had a call with somebody in the movement industry that I respect, respected, and I was telling her what was going on and she said, don't dumb your work down for anybody.

And that really made me puff up my chest. Yeah, everybody's an idiot. Nobody's as good as me. And as I'm thinking about that, I'm like, that does not feel good. And then I realized that's not a teacher. And some people, I think this person likes overcomplicating things. So people think they are very smart to me.

I say this to my husband all the time, my husband teaches special ed. Sometimes you honors teachers think you're better teachers than the special ed. It's not hard to teach highly educated people or the AP students, you know who it's hard to teach the students who learn differently from you. The students who it's not resonating with, those to me, are the teachers.

Teachers like my husband are the best teachers, and I've learned a lot from him. Okay, now, AP teachers, y'all are also important and you have your own struggle. So don't come after me. Don't get mad. And at that moment, I made a decision. Do I wanna be respected and everybody talk about how smart I am, or do I want to be a good teacher?

And from that moment I said, I need to figure out a way to make this more digestible for people. I want people to get it. I am not doing magic in my studio. I need to convey it in a way that they can truly understand. And that's kind of what led me on this education journey that I'm still on. Right. Maybe you're like, oh, that's really nice, Meghann.

You have become a better teacher. Or maybe you don't like my teaching style at all, which is also fine. Uh, feel free to give me your feedback. I am willing to take negative feedback. That doesn't mean I'll change, but I always am willing to listen. So going back to that experience, please understand that wasn't that the teacher who I was speaking to, I, her intention was to try to build me up.

She wasn't saying it out of arrogance. Maybe it was deep down there. To me, it was in insecurity on her part, but I really do think being a good teacher is someone that can teach the unteachable, and I don't even like that because I don't think anybody is unteachable, but maybe you've got a son or a daughter, or you were that student that people said, oh, they're just not smart.

They just don't get it. It. I believe everybody has a zone of genius and a unique way that they learn. Now, I'm not saying teaching is easy, so if you're a teacher and you're getting upset already, you're not listening, okay, please hear me out and then you can get angry at me later. So what makes a good teacher to you?

Maybe this'll help. Think of your first positive experience with either learning or teaching. Do you remember it? Do you remember the teacher's name? I bet you can give her, give him or her props. Ms. Ozeki, my second grade teacher, I remember I was really good at math and I felt between two worlds. Am I the funny one or the smart one?

And she said to me, you can be farts fart. You can fart. You can be smart and funny. You don't have to choose Meghann. And that was such a turning point in my life because I liked being the class clown, the funny one. But I also liked getting good grades and getting that respect. Can you be both right? It's, it was a chip on my shoulder early in my career.

'cause I lead, I talk to everybody like this, right? So people might not assume I know what I'm talking about. And it was a chip on my shoulder until. I really had the competence in what I was doing. So who was that teacher that changed things for you? Made you see yourself feel good? Did they tap into a feeling like that teacher made me feel, seen?

She made me feel special? Or did they tap into motivation? You know, there is an argument. I remember she gave me a prize 'cause I was the fir, got the best grades and was the first to get done. I remember the moment she gave me a prize. So using motivation, hey, if I get good grades, there's some motivation to keep going.

Okay. Remember my dad used to bribe us with money to get good grades. I was like, hell yeah. How much money for an A? So was it motivation? Was it e extrinsic? Was it intrinsic? What was it for you that made a difference? I think we put value on things, but I really, I don't wanna do that. Okay. Now thinking about that, I think that question number one we need more time on.

So I'm just gonna jump into question two and three, and we'll kind of get into it more. What motivates or inspires you? Motivation is very interesting. I feel like what used to motivate me doesn't motivate me anymore. Um, and what motivates me now I never thought would motivate me. So what really motivates you?

And you've gotta be honest. For much of my career, the claps motivated me. I remember talking to a therapist, um, and I said, I'm like, it's so weird. Every time after I teach a course I feel depressed. And she's like, yeah, it's 'cause you're relying on the claps. And I was like, excuse me, what? Say more?

And she was like, when you go to a course, there's energy. Everybody's standing there listening to you, you're center of attention, and then what happens after that? Well, they all clap. They gimme a hug, and then I go home and I'm sitting by myself and nobody's listening. Nobody's clapping. It just, it feels very depressing.

I said, am I depressed? She's like, no. You are focusing on intrinsic extrinsic motivation for people's approval. To motivate you and to make you feel good about yourself. Do you think that's a good long-term plan? I was like, no, but I don't think I'm the only one. I think people like when people clap for them, people like attention, does that make me a bad person?

To which he replied, no, I never said you were a bad person. I'm just saying, I think we need to discuss this more in future sessions. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Now when COVID happened and we're doing virtual things. Like, I'm literally recording a podcast right now. I don't know how this is being received.

Nobody's clapping, and I remember when one of my business mentors asked me why I was doing the podcast. I'm like, you know what? I don't care if a thousand people, a million or one person listens. I really want to use this podcast to help foster critical thinking, help talk about topics that are important to me.

Help break down the concepts I teach in my courses and challenge myself to keep it under 30 minutes. I wanna enjoy the process. And then I was like, oh my God, wait. That was the goal. Enjoy the process. Are you actually doing it? And I think I talked about it in the previous podcast about rest, rest and recovery.

Like I'm really enjoying writing papers for my doctorate. I never thought I would say that. My undergrad, my master's, everything in my life, I was always rushing to the end line, check that box, get that degree, get that diploma, get that credential moving on. And I've gotta say, guys, I know all the literature says this, they always say, uh, focus on intrinsic motivation.

Goals should be autonomy and competence. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all words people, but how do we actually get there? Because I find people aren't honest. To you to be like, oh, I don't really care about the claps. I don't care about the attention. You're full of shit. Sorry. The best advice I ever got was front of my, one of my clients who was a very successful businessman, started it with nothing, sold it when he was 40, and is just such a good person in so many ways.

And I said to him, Hey, all these people take my courses. All these people want me to mentor them. It feels great. But what happens when people stop calling? And he's like, what? I go, when you retired and you weren't the big shot anymore, how did you deal with that? And he was the first person, to be honest.

He's like, oh my God, it sucked it, it took me a while. He's like, I joined the board of this. I did all these things 'cause I needed to feel important. And then. Realized I can keep some of that, but I had to figure out what was important in life. And he's like, I always knew, and I always put family first, but I was doing this and it was so awesome to hear somebody that was more successful than I'll probably ever be saying, you know what?

It really sucked when I wasn't the big man on campus anymore. And I think if we could all just kind of admit that. It will be so much easier to get to kind of competence or, you know, the idea of autonomy. And I, I don't wanna just throw words out there. So something, when you think of competence, I feel like competence is like, oh, they're just competent at that.

But I want you to think there's mastery or kind of a deeper understanding. So I'm always looking for competence. One of my motivations is being competent at what I do, being able to explain it simply. To my uncle, to someone in the course, to a physical therapist, to a neurologist. 'cause I think true intellect comes from being able to not over-complicate shit and use word salad.

Nothing annoys me than word salad. Okay? So how can I become more competent at what I do? And it's talking about it. It's making mistakes. Did you hear that? Making mistakes circle back to what I said at the beginning. When I was trying to be a good teacher, I was trying to ev help my students avoid making the same mistakes I did.

I didn't want them to make those mistakes. I wanted them to get to the answer faster. That's what I thought a good teacher was. I was wrong. A good teacher allows their students to make mistakes, to guide them, to allow them to critically think. And even further my research on the cerebellum making mistakes is critical.

If there's no awareness of movement, mistakes or mistakes, the cerebellum doesn't kick in. So on twofold, having competence about how I use brain science and movement led me to a deeper understanding of my teaching, of how do we allow our students, our children, anybody we're teaching something, make a mistake and be there to kind of support them through the next phase.

That to me guys, if we could all just do that a little better without shame, that I think could be really powerful for all of us as teachers. I also feel, I have this weird thing with like autonomy

is I found online education. It's like you need a lot of autonomy. You need to not need constant approval or rigid rules. You kind of have to be a self-starter. And not everybody learns best that way. They need someone guiding them a little bit, helping them figure out where they need to be. And usually those people who have trouble with autonomy is I, my hypothesis is we haven't created the sensory environment for them.

They're not comfortable, whether it's in their skin. Their situation, their eyes probably can't focus. Their head is moving when they don't know it is. Their body and brain are giving them different signals, so it's easy to say, oh, just figure this out on your own. But if you start spinning and aren't grounded as a person because of sensory issues, that's gonna be really hard.

Now, as an adult, like I require autonomy, like I do not like any rigid rules, and I fricking hate busy work. So if you are a teacher, I am going to challenge you stop giving busy work for homework. I'm taking a course right now just on foundational, like educational theory and I felt like such a brown-noser, but like I wrote the professor an email and I was like, I must say this has been the best course I've taken at the doctorate level.

I feel like all of your assignments have made me a better teacher. And the reason why I did that was because as someone who cares a lot about assignments, that feedback I think is really helpful. I think sometimes I only give negative feedback. And what was interesting is every assignment has kind of created me to think about something in a different way and apply it.

Okay. Even just thinking about, I had to do a paper recently off Maslow's. Um. You know, hierarchy of needs, which I haven't even explored. If you don't, just go look at it. And I was looking at the hierarchy of needs. And at the bottom is the, is the biological sleep, rest, nutrition. And I'm looking at the top self-actualization and I'm like, I am doing all the top steps really well, but nutrition, rest. All my biological shit is messed up, so I've got a crack in my foundation. And just by revisiting something that we take for granted, maybe you learned about it in your undergrad or you've never even heard it before. I open up the chart for all my mentees and I'm like, look at your program. So if you're writing a program for low back pain, maybe you're doing something for balance.

Maybe you're doing something for one of your kids that has an IEP. Look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs and being like, am I making sure that the stuff at the bottom is being taken care of before I try to push that student up that mountain? So simple, but we forget. So what motivates you? I want intrinsic stuff to motivate you.

Enjoying the process competency, being comfortable with autonomy. I really want that to motivate you. But if I'm being honest. Extrinsic motivation works too, and maybe we can challenge ourselves is how can I improve my competency on what I do? I want you to be able to say, I am the best at what I do. I say that all the time.

I am literally the best at what I do. Soon, and why I ask my client that goal, that question before, is my goal with my mentees is I want them to be better than me. I need them to be better than me. Because number one, my value, one of my goals is being an exceptional teacher. I want when someone goes, what teacher made a difference in the life?

I'd love someone to say, Meghann Koppele Duffy one day. Maybe 'cause of the external, but I'll never hear them say it. I want someone to feel smart when they didn't. Okay, so I need them to be better about me and I need their help. I can't do this alone. And I asked my client, 'cause I'm like, yo, it's really easy to say that.

None of them are there yet. People are getting closer. What happens when they get better at me than me? How am I gonna deal with that? And he's like, you will, but you need to talk about it. Keep asking me questions and I'm here for you anytime. And it was so refreshing to admit something I didn't like about myself.

I'm saying I want them to all be better than me, but it's easy to say it. Let's see what happens when it happens. And any of my mentees listening, rise to the occasion. You all can do it. I'm pushing for you. Okay? And when you're better than me, reach out and ask how I'm doing. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

But I'm not. Okay. So the last question, which I think is the most important guys, and this is gonna be the hardest for you to answer. But where can you improve as a teacher? Now, you might not be teaching as a profession, but where can you improve as a teacher?

Where do you think maybe understanding motivation better? Maybe you'll look at this Maslow's hierarchy of needs and be like, Meghann, that sounds cool. I wanna look at that. Maybe it's just being a better listener. My brain works very fast. And one more story for today. I was reading a book on communication because I have some students that aren't great communicators, they feel shy or they don't know when to interject.

And I wanted to read a book about communication 'cause I thought I was an excellent communicator. If you're watching me on YouTube, you can see my face. But if you didn't, my eyes are rolling and as I'm reading this book, I'm thinking. Um, you are a okay communicator. You could be a better communicator. And reading that book was so, so powerful to me because I realized while I listen, I assume a lot.

And number two, because my brain processes fast. When people talk slow, it makes me crazy. My brain needs you to speed the hell up and get to the point. So what happens is I sometimes fill in the blanks because my brain is spinning. Now, I could argue that I'm usually right and it leads to a teachable moment, but I think it's important to let people finish their thoughts and it is something I am working on that same therapist.

Shout out to Rhonda also said to me, you assume what Brian's thinking and feeling a lot, my husband. And I was like, no, I don't assume I know. And she's like, mm-hmm. And it pissed me off. Not enough to never see her again, but it pissed me off. But I'm like, yeah, but I'm, I'm usually right. But what was interesting when I stopped assuming and just giving him the time and space and truly listening.

It created a deeper connection in our relationship and I realized, oh, he doesn't listen to my podcast. He listens to me all day long. He is a much deeper thinker. He, he's so much deeper than I even thought. I wouldn't have married him if I thought he wasn't deep, but like he still impresses me every day when I give him the opportunity to impress me.

So I'm going to admit I could still work on being a better listener. Why do you think I chose a podcast? Because I can just talk and don't have to listen to you, but I am truly interested in your feedback. I want to hear what you have to say because my goal is to be an exceptional teacher. I want to be the Miss Ozeki for someone else.

I want to make someone that has not felt smart their whole life, realize they are very smart, just in a different way. I want to help people be better at finding that intrinsic motivation, feeling how good it feels to be competent at something. And people who are competent are confident. People with competency don't tend to have egos.

People who have egos are usually incompetent, but think they're competent. Yeah, I said it. I am working on autonomy in different ways because sometimes I require it too much and I need to be able to bend and deal with some rules. As I said, I don't like busy work for homework, so I'm go, I kind of don't think I finished that thought.

I'm gonna blame a concussion moment. But as teachers, when you're giving an assignment. Think of what the goal is for this assignment. If it's to check a box, kids are very busy. What if we thought like, Hey, what is your goal? What do you wanna be when you grow up? What do you wanna learn from this lecture?

And give them more autonomy with the assignment. Do you know who that's hard for you as the teacher and the kids, but our job is to be a teacher, not just dial in a lesson plan. Okay? And again, I will die on that hill. I say this to teachers, I say this to any profession. If you don't like your job, get another job.

All the teachers I know are wonderful and really care, but in any profession, there's people that don't care. I don't think anybody listening to this falls into that category, but just because we care is not enough. As a teacher, we need to be better. We need to be clearer. We need to have competency on what we're doing and not just teach things with word salad.

If you are looking for everybody to tell you how smart you are, that is extrinsic. When you know how smart you are, that's intrinsic. So I hope you give today's episode a lot of thought. I hope. Anything I say, if it bothered you, I want you to think about why it bothered you. If it bothered you. There's something there.

Critically think. Argue both ends of the conversation. Being a teacher is I think one of the hardest jobs, and for all of you who've got 30 students in a class, I salute you, I admire you. Give them sensory breaks, keep them moving. Kids learn differently now things are coming at them so fast, but what I see with kids is so much DI device devices in school and stuff like that.

I know technology is great, but using other, flexing other muscles and stuff like that, I think will help you as a teacher with focus and other things. Um, I feel like there should be a no cell phone policy in any schools. I think it's ridiculous. Um, but I'm not a parent, nor am I a, um, superintendent of schools.

So that's just my opinion. But at the end of the day. I think if we can find enjoyment in the process and every day work to be a better teacher. If nothing else, we'll have more enjoyment in our jobs. All right, guys. So thank you for listening today and if you're interested in digging into more about this stuff, about teaching or any specific theories on education, um, let me know.

I'd love to talk about it more. I just don't wanna go too technical on shit nobody cares about. So thank you guys so much, and I'll see you next time.