How Students Learn
- Michelle Rae Sobi
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Some watch, others listen, how do you learn best?
🧠 HOW STUDENTS LEARN — KNOWLEDGE BASE MODULE
Core Teaching Theory for Edge Yoga School Trainees
🌿 Overview: Why This Matters
Understanding how students learn is just as important as knowing the poses.At Edge Yoga School, we teach from a trauma-informed, compassionate model where learning happens through:
repetition
sensation
clear structure
emotional safety
choice and autonomy
This module helps you meet students where they are and guide them with ease and clarity.
📘 1. Learning Through Repetition
Students learn movement patterns the same way they learn music, language, or writing:
Repetition creates familiarity.Familiarity creates confidence.
Invite your class into simple shapes, repeat accessible cues, and allow space for them to integrate at their own pace.
📘 2. Learning Through Sensation (Somatic Learning)
At Edge, you don’t teach aesthetics—you teach awareness.
Students remember best when you invite them to feel:
grounding
length
spaciousness
balance
breath flow
This is why “Qualities” appear in every posture in your handbook.
📘 3. Learning Through Orientation
Students feel safest when they know where they are in space.
Your five orientation categories support this:
Standing
Seated
Kneeling
Supine
Prone
Stable orientation → calm nervous system → better learning.
📘 4. Learning Through Clear, Simple Cues
Students absorb more when instructions are:
brief
grounded
sensory-based
one step at a time
Long lectures overwhelm.Short cues empower.
📘 5. Learning Through Seeing Options (Choice-Based Learning)
Offering choices supports:
autonomy
dignity
safety
accessibility
agency in their own body
This is why the handbook emphasizes Modifications—they’re not regressions, they’re pathways.
📘 6. Learning Through Regulation (Nervous System Aware)
Students learn best when the environment is:
predictable
steady
emotionally safe
clear in pacing
inclusive in tone
Your teaching voice becomes the steady anchor.
📘 7. Learning Through Integration
Integration happens in:
transitional moments
breath-linked movement
stillness at the end
reflection and journaling
pauses between instructions
This is why your program emphasizes Snippets, sequencing structure, and journaling—each supports long-term retention.
🧩 HOW TO APPLY THIS WHEN TEACHING
When leading a class, ask:
Have I repeated cues in a way that supports learning?
Have I invited sensation rather than performance?
Is the room oriented and predictable?
Are my cues simple, calm, and steady?
Did I offer at least one choice in every shape?
Am I supporting emotional regulation?
Is there space for integration and stillness?
This is the heart of Edge Yoga School’s teaching method.
🪴 STUDENT PRACTICE EXERCISE
Choose any posture you love.
Write:
One way a student learns this pose through sensation
One cue that is simple and clear
One modification that offers choice
One integration moment you would offer after the pose
Upload your reflection to Slack.
Students enrolled in our program may send a Slack DM to Michelle or those interested in enrolling are invited to send a CHAT to begin a conversation.
