Tip #356: Make Learning Sweet

“Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls.” Hasidic proverb

Welcome to 2011!

There is an old Talmudic (Jewish) custom. When a boy goes to study the Torah (which is a religious text) they have him touch a page of the Torah and then dip his finger in honey to learn that learning is sweet.

There are many ways to make learning sweet. Taken literally, I bring bowls of candy. I create a comfortable learning environment with seating arranged in pods, kinesthetic objects on the participants’ tables (Koosh balls, pipe cleaners, glitter wands, etc.), and colorful kites on the walls.

I sweeten learning by treating the participants with respect, drawing them in to obtain their buy-in to the content, showing colorful comics that capture key concepts on the PowerPoint, and using learning activities that are intended to build their confidence in their own competence.

What are your favorite ways to make learning sweet?

May your learning be sweet.

Deborah

Tip #354: Avoid the Mistake of Thinking Participatory Learning Activities are a Gimmick

The better a man is the more mistakes he will make for the more things he will try.
Peter Drucker

One reason that participatory learning activities get a bad reputation is the fact that some trainers incorporate them solely to add an element of fun and excitement. For participants who are stretched thin at work and feel that every minute of training should be of practical use, having to participate in extended fun and games that have no relevance to the training content is a waste of their time.

Please avoid these three mistakes when thinking about participatory learning activities:

Mistake #1: Believing participatory learning activities are pure entertainment rather than a training necessity.

There are four reasons for using participatory learning activities, and none of these are merely the result of the curriculum designer's whim:

1. Participants have to be actively involved to demonstrate their comprehension and ability to use their learned skills to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. If the desired learning level is higher than knowledge, the only way to achieve this is through participatory learning activities.

2. Brain studies have determined that the memory is based on emotions. The more senses involved, the more effective the learning and the greater probability of retention. That is why the "whole body" learning experience of participatory learning activities is so important.

3. Only participatory learning activities will satisfy the needs of different learning styles to do more than simply sit, listen and read the PowerPoint slides accompanying a lecture. They also enable participants to verbalize, have a hands on experience, and move.

4. Participatory learning activities are the best way for a trainer to determine if the participants are learning what they need to learn during the course of the training. At the very least, lecturers can check participant comprehension using questionnaires, pop ups, shout outs, or case studies.

Mistake #2: Thinking participatory learning does not belong in technical training.

Training based on an expert lecturer has been the paradigm for technical training. However, it is a mistake to think that the delivery of technical training needs to be driven by a subject matter expert rather than by the participants.

The subject matter expert is most significant during the design of the training program. Why? Design decisions regarding the training content, the desired level of learning, and the best way for participants to demonstrate their learning are all based on the subject matter expert's knowledge and experience.

The other problem with this paradigm is that lecture can only achieve the learning level of knowledge. All higher levels of learning (comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation and creation) require participatory learning activities. In fact, programs that are intended to build technical skills have the greatest need for participants to demonstrate their new degree of competency in the classroom.

Mistake #3: Overlooking the recuperative power of energizers.

Learning is hard work. An energizer is a fast and simple way to reinvigorate participants when their energy starts to lag. This includes any brief participatory activity that physically engages the participants. The brain needs a lot of oxygen to function at peak efficiency. Getting participants up and moving around will cause them to breathe more deeply, resulting in more oxygen in their brains.

Have them stand up and throw balls to each other for the duration of a short upbeat song. Have them line up by the month and day of their birth and then count off to create new table groups. Plug in a relay race, where teams of participants need to identify key content that begins with each letter of the topic. All of these activities take only a few minutes and generate a lot of new energy in the group.

The decision to incorporate participatory learning activities is not based on a whim. The desired level of learning for the key training content determines the nature of the learning activities. Participatory learning activities are essential for successful learning in any training program. They are not intended, and should never be used, simply as gimmicks irrelevant to the learning objectives and the learning process.

May your learning be sweet.

Deborah

Tip #329: An Independent Training Consultant’s Dream: When Your Client Loves Your Training

“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.” Tom Brokaw

Over the past thirty years in conducting training programs, I have experienced many wonderful highs. Sometimes you can actually see that you made a significant positive difference in the lives of the participants.

One of my best training experiences was conducting a train the trainer workshop in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1998. The war was over, but the entire infrastructure of the country had been bombed out, the large companies had deserted, and there were still land mines everywhere.

This was my very first trip overseas and I went there frightened and anxious. My purpose was to help with the establishment of small business development centers. Funded by the Open Society Institute of George Soros, the idea was to introduce entrepreneurism into a society that had never experienced it. To do this properly, small business people and college professors needed to learn adult learning principles to effectively teach business skills to adults. This is where I came in.

Since I use accelerated learning techniques, I brought candy, music, Koosh balls, and used cartoons in my training. This was a culture that never talked back to the professor. So when I had everyone stand and throw the Koosh to each other so they could introduce themselves (we had an interpreter available, since I do not speak or understand Croat), some of them initially went into shock.

However, most of them soon got the hang of it and interacted (for the first time in their lives) with increasing confidence over the four-day program. They designed lesson plans, experienced and created interactive learning activities, experimented with the use of metaphor and other accelerated learning techniques, and honed their group facilitation and stand up presentation skills.

On the last day, they each had to facilitate a 10-minute training module of their own design on a business topic, using all of the design, delivery and accelerated learning techniques they had learned. Their lessons were magnificent and their facilitation was masterful. I actually cried, because their transformation and their creativity were so astounding.

As a result of this assignment, I was asked back to work with J.J. Strossmeyer University in Osijek, Croatia, to design the first Eastern European participant-based Masters Degree program in Entrepreneurship. Over a period of four years, I trained the professors at the University in how to design student-centered training activities, worked directly with each professor to redesign their curriculum, and then audited the training to ensure they were using what they had learned.

I ultimately spent 10 weeks, two weeks at a time, in Osijek. The entire experience was transformative for me, for many of the professors, and for the students.

It was particularly gratifying to see that the students were no longer interested in sitting through lectures because they were eager to participate. It was awe inspiring to watch some of the professors become wonderfully creative in how they taught their subject areas and engaged their students.

This was an independent training consultant’s dream experience. What a gift, to be able to help to put new training skills into place, observe the positive interaction between professors and students, and know that real skill-building learning has occurred. It completely affirmed the power and impact of accelerated and participatory learning.


May your learning be sweet.

Deborah