PART I – Guidelines for the training
C. Facilitating the training
For the trainer to be impactful, it is very important they be skilled in the art of facilitation. This means a good understanding of adult learners and their needs as well as the inclusion of a variety of training methods that communicate the training content in a relevant and memorable way. The section below speaks on that.
1. Key principles
The section below explores how to maximize trainee participation, how to train different types of learners, how to complete the learning cycle, how to create a good learning environment and how to manage the emotional journey of participants as they resist/accept different ideas that come their way.
Increasing participation
The goal of training is to achieve maximal participation by trainees. Sometimes, there might be barriers to active participation and it is important for the trainer to be able to identify these barriers and overcome them. For examples, see below:
Barriers to participation from participants:
· Feeling judged by peers à help create a trusting and safe environment
· Socio-cultural difficulties in speaking up à be aware of these as a trainer, and ways to reduce gender/age/ethnic barriers that prevent people from participating.
· Personal shyness and fear à start with smaller group discussion until people gain confidence to speak up in larger group, use roundtable discussions so everyone gets a chance to speak briefly.
· The group is divided into clans (friends) who support each other’s point of view, the discussion is not free flowing, not neutral or safe à make sure to create mixed groups and rotate people regularly around, so they are not seated/working next to the same people all of the time.
Barriers to participation from the trainer:
· The trainer favors some trainees over others à avoid favoritism and give everyone equal attention (whether they are quiet or active, agreeable or confrontational).
· The trainer imposes his/her point of view, has strong positions, ignores disagreements from trainees à be aware of the balance between sharing your ideas and imposing them ‘as the only idea’ on the group. Introduce your ideas with doubt/question and encourage participants to agree/disagree with you.
· The trainer is too passive and not actively involved in encouraging people to speak up and share thoughts à ensure you are adequately involved in starting and continuing discussions, especially when the group feels low on energy or has run out of ideas.
· New people and shy people are not encouraged to speak; a few people dominate the conversations à find ways to contain the dominance of outspoken people and to inspire shyer people to share their thoughts.
Barriers coming from training method:
· The learning environment is not well set up for participation and exchanges, feels like a lecture hall more than a training hall à use circle or semi-circle seating (see seating styles below)
· The technology or media does not work (projector, paper/pens) à test prior to session
· The agenda is not respected, the daily schedule is not well-defined, breaks are taken for too long, sessions go for too long or are too rushed à be clear on daily agenda and firm on the general time limits while allowing flexibility at some points when discussing is interesting, find balance between structure and flexibility.
Different learning styles
Each human learns in a combination of three ways: visual, auditory and feeling (kinesthetic)
Visual Learning
Those who generally think in terms of pictures. They often prefer to see things written down in a handout, text or on the overhead. They find maps, graphs, charts, and other visual learning tools to be extremely effective. They remember things best by seeing something written.
Auditory Learning
Those who generally learn best by listening. They typically like to learn through lectures, discussions, and reading aloud. They remember best through hearing or saying items aloud, speaking on the phone and want verbal instructions for learning.
Feeling (kinesthetic) Learning
Those who learn best through touching, feeling, and experiencing what they are trying to learn. Mini-movies appear in their minds and they prefer to start an activity first by doing it rather than reading instructions. They remember best by writing or physically manipulating the information.
How to Effectively use Learning Styles in your training ?
Ideally, you would incorporate all three learning styles into each of your sessions, which takes creativity and can be difficult! It is often possible to include both auditory and visual learning styles. For example, you can have instructions/pictures/diagrams written on the board and explain them out loud also. Encourage visual learning by creating word webs, venn diagrams, mindmaps or other visual presentations of information. See http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm Auditory learning is encouraged by reading passages together slowly and then discussing them. Kinesthetic learners may need to move their body while learning (walking around, tapping feet, clapping with new knowledge) or touching a 3-dimensional learning tool. Kinesthetic learners often need to copy down the information that they are learning. The truth is that many trainees have kinesthetic/feeling as their strongest learning style. That is why the use of role-playing, debates, or community outings would be very impactful.
Concerns about trainers forgetting to use different teaching styles
Though less common today then in the past, trainers do not understand the importance of using different teaching styles to match the different learning styles. They continue to teach with one major method without trying to vary instructional styles. This is not recommended and will lead to a much less absorption of the training.
*You will not be able to assess each trainee individually to know their learning style, which is why it is recommended to use a combination of all 3 learning methods to create maximum impact on the group, as no one learns only in one way and we all have different combinations of these 3 learning styles.
The learning environment
It is important that the trainer create the best environment possible for learning.
Consider the following for the mood you want to create in the training environment:
1. Inspirational: Participants should want to learn. For this, the trainer needs to create a feeling in participants of ‘we do not know everything’ and ‘our work would be better if we knew how to do this’.
2. Relevant: The content and examples used need to match the work of the trainees so they can realistically imagine themselves using this training in their everyday work.
3. Creative: To bring the training to life, various materials, ideas, music, and artistic activities need to be integrated into the training.
4. Personalized: Trainees need to be able to express their thoughts and ideas in their own words and not in difficult technical terms, so the training really gets absorbed. There is a feeling of self-discovery during the training. The debates/discussions are important to have even if they are difficult.
5. Important: Trainees feel that the training will really improve the work that they do and that social work is valued and professional and requiring some formal training.
6. Positive: The training experience should be a positive and enjoyable one; people feel safe to make mistakes and express their thoughts. They enjoy learning. They feel respected by peers and trainer; it is acceptable to have differences in opinion.
7. Comfortable: Though the training environment does not need to be luxurious, it should be basically comfortable and supportive of learning (quiet, right temperature, clean, good lighting, accessible seats/tables, regular meals etc.)
Lastly, consider the seating arrangements shown below. Each has a different impact on the participation of the trainees and the power dynamics between trainer (in red box position) and trainees. Seating 1 and 3 are recommended for frequent use.
Seating 1: We are equal
Everybody is seated in a circle, there is an open discussion,
good for roundtable discussions or brainstrorming.
Seating 2: Theatre style
Trainees sit in rows and listen to trainer
or guest speaker. Not very interactive.
Seating 3: Conference style
Trainees are in a U-shape, they can see others
but the focus is at the front as well. A good overall
seating for presentations, discussions.
Emotional management of training
Emotional reactions and feelings are part of the training process, especially for a training on social work. You cannot have thoughts without feelings and feelings are linked with new thinking and creativity. It is important that every person be able to express their viewpoints and feelings and not suppress these, as this will create blockages, confusion and a division between what they feel and believe on the inside and what they may think they need to show others they think/feel is ‘right’ on the outside.
Emotions can be useful to learning, even the negative ones. Frustration, anger or agitation can help establish an understanding of the struggle a trainee faces when they are asked to learn new facts, attitudes and skills. The trainer should try to help trainees unblock these emotions in a healthy way and give them a chance to discuss them. The part of the brain responsible for emotions (limbic) has a strong link with the long-term memory section of the brain.
Trainees should be encouraged to manage emotions so they do not get in the way of learning.
· It is important that everyone take responsibility for their role in enhancing the training and that negative personal feelings do not become blaming onto others: “this trainer is no good”, “the other trainees are below my level”.
· Keep trainees from turning feelings of frustration into a reason to avoid learning or to focus on the training ending, because this will keep them from absorbing some of the useful parts of the training.
The trainer should also be aware of his or her judgment and perceptions that may be detrimental, such as: ‘trainees are at a lower level than expected and that training has been a failure or unsatisfactory’.
· All trainings need some adaptations and it is not a sign of failure.
Some healthy ways of expressing emotions:
· have a piece of poster paper taped on a wall, for expression of feelings/thoughts that people can write on at anytime and it can be reviewed at the end of the day.
· regularly include feedback sessions as part of training to measure the feelings of trainees and address some more silent emotions.
· use a game or music to express the richness of human emotions felt during the training.
· trainer should speak to their own peers and colleagues about their feelings on the training and find ways to problem solve through possible frustrations.
· use culturally appropriate methods of expressing emotions, discover how to appropriately include sadness, joy, confusion, anger, etc. in your training.
Because it’s difficult to change our own behavior or practices, we can often expect a conflict felt in the trainees. We should not be afraid of this conflict. It may be a sign of good training and them challenging their past thoughts, beliefs and perceptions! At the same time, trainer should learn ways to deal with this kind of conflict to leave trainees with a resolution, if this is possible! Sometimes conflict takes time to resolve and cannot be done quickly and we may not have all the answers/solutions right a way!
2. Training methods
There are different ways to help people learn, below are a list of 6 categories of training methods. In this training kit, we will use a mixture of these 6 methods to cover the concepts:
1. Interactive lectures (ILec)– e.g. power point, guest speakers
2. Learning games (Game) – also called ice breakers
3. Discussion (Disc) – e.g. brainstorming, large group discussion, roundtable, small group with report back, case study, pairing
4. Individual reflection (Ind)– worksheets, surveys
5. Simulation (Sim) - Role playing, real-life scenario, panel
6. Learning by doing (Do)– projects, field visits
No matter which method you use, remember to mix visual (videotape clips, pictures, diagrams), auditory (audio tape, verbal explanation) and feeling teaching tools.
Interactive lectures (Lec)
1. POWER POINT PRESENTATION (PPP):
What is it? A verbal presentation that accompanies a series of slides using a computer/projector. Can be interactive or more lecture format depending on content of slides and number of pictures/diagrams and questions contained in the presentation.
Why do it: When concepts need to be communicated visually and sequentially, The PPP provides structure and a set of prepared concepts to review with the group.
How to do it? Try not to present for more than 20 minutes without taking a break or having an interactive exercise. Make sure to lead the discussion yourself by looking at the trainees and not to look only at the PPP. Do not put too much text on power point slides, make sure to use examples and use your own real life experiences. Participants can read faster than you can talk, so it is important not to read off the power point too much and use it to outline key points only.
2. GUEST SPEAKERS:
What is it? Inviting a person who has something valuable to share on a topic, due to personal experience, personal research, or general knowledge.
Why do it: Brings an issue to life, especially if the guest speaker is speaking from their experience and using their own life as a teaching tool (e.g. person with disabilities)
How to do it? Inform the group beforehand of the profile of the guest speaker, so they can think about questions they may be interested to ask. Prepare the guest speaker by explaining to them the goals of the training, the level of experience/understanding of trainees on the topic and how the guest speaker can tailor their presentation to best connect with trainees. Leave enough time at the end (e.g. 10 minutes) for a discussion or question/answer period. Make sure to introduce the guest speaker properly to the group – can also ask the guest speaker how they would like to be introduced.