Tag: Adult Learning

  • “Difficult People” Versus Difficult Dynamics

    Presenters wanting to learn to respond to ruckus-causing participants discover an industry dedicated to techniques, programs and articles, but especially labels. Experts in the “difficult people” business love labels.

    Here are several labels for different kinds of “difficult people”:

    • The Know-It-All
    • The Show-Off
    • The Rambler

    But Guess What? We Are All “Difficult People”

    To be a person is to be difficult. “Difficult people” are often just regular people responding to difficult dynamics. Difficult dynamics can include:

    • Organizational change
    • Bad room set-up or temperature control
    • Mandatory attendance
    • Ambiguity about how the event will benefit the individual
    • Personal challenges, such as hunger and low blood sugar.

    What trainers, facilitators and presenters need to know is:

    • You cannot fix people.
    • You can reduce difficult dynamics, thus lowering the risk of reactive behavior.

    3 Ways to Reduce Difficult Dynamics

    You may have little control over organizational change or mandatory attendance. However, these steps will address a broad spectrum of difficult dynamics:

    1. Set Up the Room for the Outcome You Desire
    For engagement, interaction, and accountability, seat people in groups of 5-6.

    2. Clarify the Benefits
    You MUST clearly express on why this topic is important to the participants and how it will benefit them.

    3. Model Both Authoritative and Cooperative Behaviors as a Presenter
    Encourage people to express themselves and to ask questions. Simultaneously, set and hold limits.

    To achieve smooth dynamics, don’t label human beings. Instead, prevent difficult dynamics before they occur.

  • Not Just Your Grandmother’s Pun!

    lrs1659My grandma was “word-clever” almost until the day she died. I especially remember her corny puns and plays on words, which made me both laugh and groan. Researchers Alan Seidman, of Johnson and Wales University, and Stephen C. Brown, of the University of Alaska, say “Puns are a humorous way to get adult learners to think more critically about any subject.”

    Puns Can Help Adults Learn

    Believe it our not, research has found that we can use puns to help adult learners in the classroom. Puns represent a true form of critical thinking as the brain stretches itself to find dual meaning for certain words (Lems, 2013). Puns can also improve memory, because the internal incongruity they create helps students recall information (Summerfelt et al., 2010).

    Try using puns you grew up with, or others you find on websites. You can used them as Hooks, to reinforce a point about a particular topic, or as pun-filled riddles. Here’s an example of the latter, used in an adult geography class:

    Q: What is the capital of Antartica?

    A: The letter “A.”

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    A couple I’ve enjoyed:

    Sleep? There’s a nap for that.

    If you take an exam in a freezing cold room, you might become a testicle.

    So have fun as you use puns to bring your classroom alive!

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great trainer: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir

  • Get ‘Em Moving!

    Depositphotos_59572037_s-2015Anyone who jogs regularly will tell you that they feel sharper both emotionally and mentally after a run. But did you know that exercise also “pumps up” learning?

    The science is clear. Not only can exercise work at least as well as antidepressants to improve moods, it improves people’s learning ability.

    One recent study showed that participants learned vocabulary words 20% faster following exercise than they did before exercise. Another experiment revealed that adults’ cognitive flexibility improved after one 35- minute treadmill session at a moderate pace.

    What Does This Mean for Trainers?

    The best trainers acknowledge that adults learn better when they connect their heads to their bodies. So get your students moving! Use these three strategies:

    1. Bring content alive by using relevant, engaging activities.

    2. Periodically lead the class in some quick, stand-up stretching.

    3. Take frequent breaks. (My preference is to take one 10-minute break every 60 to 75 minutes.)

    Remember-we learn with our entire bodies. Don’t treat your students as if they are just “heads” alone!

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great trainer: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.

  • How Do You Know They Know? Evaluating Adult Learning

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    I continue to be surprised at the use of “Happy Sheets” as evaluation tools in training. Beyond letting the trainer know if he or she was loved and if the room was too cold, what else do they tell us?

    In 1959, Donald Kirkpatrick developed his famous model of training evaluation. Since then, it has provided basic guidelines to assess learning. Experts have found that 85% or more of all training programs use “Happy Sheets,” which reveal nothing about actual learning. And because data is much harder to collect and attribute directly to the training the deeper you go, fewer than 10% of training programs use a Level 4 evaluation.

    Level

    Issue

    Question Answered

    Tool

    1

    Reaction

    		 How Well Did They Like The Course? Rating Sheets

    2

    Learning

    		 How Much Did They Learn? Tests, Simulations

    3

    Behavior

    		 How Well Did They Apply It To Work? Performance Measures

    4

    		                   Results What Return Did The Training Investment Yield? Cost-Benefit Analysis (Return on Investment)

    Outcome-Based Evaluations

    By creating and using an evaluation based on the course’s learning outcomes, you may get closer to an honest answer to the question, How Do You Know They Know? which is evaluation at Level 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model. Typically, the outcome-based evaluation would ask participants to rate their own ability to perform the learning outcome, as in the following example:

    As a result of this training, please rate your ability to do the following action from 1 (“I can’t do this at all”) to 5 (“I feel totally confident doing this”): “I can explain at least five features of the Get Fit program without using notes.”

    In many cases, the outcome-based evaluation would also ask the participant to list or explain those five features–in this way, acting as a test.

    Keep in mind that unless you ask additional questions, you are still simply collecting data on your participants’ perceptions of their own learning. Sadly, those perceptions of learning are usually much higher immediately after the training session than a few days or weeks later. This is why follow-up training and reinforcement is so important.

    Nonetheless, using an Outcome-Based Evaluation can provide information on:

    • Performance issues about which the participants feel less confident.
    • Issues you could improve or clarify for the next round of training.

    All of this data is valuable to you as you (1) improve the class itself, and (2) follow the participants into the workplace to observe and support them. We invite you to download free examples of Outcome Based Evaluations from Guila’s book, Instructional Design That Soars.

    Guila Muir is an expert trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great trainer: www.guilamuir.com

  • How to Help Adults Learn Best

    Three Keys to Help Them Stretch!

    Here’s something for you to try. (C’mon, I’ll wait for you to get out of your chair!)

    Stand up and stretch your right arm out behind you, as far as it will go. (You may turn your body as you do so.) Now, come back to center and relax your arm.

    Next, visualize doing this again. Think about taking your arm further back. Then do it again, but really “stretch” your eyes back as far as you can as you do it.

    Did you notice this time that you could take your arm back much further?
    To many, this exercise illustrates the powerful force that our intent exerts over perceived reality. (It can change or “stretch” our limits.) To me, as a teacher of adults, it serves as a metaphor for adults and learning. As learners, we thrive on challenges that are slightly beyond our reach, but reachable. In fact, research is clear that adults learn best when provided with learning tasks that really make them stretch. (Thank you, Dee Dickinson, for this exercise.)

    Here are three ways trainers can help adult learners stretch.

    Make it challenging, but present it simply. One of the biggest challenges we have as trainers is to present complex subjects simply. Strive to say things in the simplest possible way. This involves real practice for trainers, not just a quickie “run-through.” One way to challenge learners is to periodically “shut up” during the training. Provide opportunities for learners to discover things themselves. Don’t feel compelled to explain everything. Act as a facilitator to their process.

    The excuse trainers often give for lecturing is “I have to cover the material!” Interestingly, this phrase can be taken in two ways. One of the meanings of “cover,” after all, is to “cover up”, or obfuscate. By trying to cover everything, we confuse, muddy and even lose the core, “must-know” content elements.

    I encourage you to use the Acid Test when developing a workshop: When time limitations and a desire for simplicity mean you can only include the “must know” elements of a topic, first figure out what those are. Then identify the “nice to know” elements. Strip them out. Leave them behind. You can inject meaningful small-group activities into the class time you gain.

    Make it fun. A great trainer once said: “I make ’em laugh, and when their mouths are open, I throw something in for them to chew on!” Humor and creativity come from, and create, the same chemicals in the brain. People are much more open to learning when they’re having a good time.

    How to ensure the learning process is fun? Part of the answer is to have a good time yourself. If you consistently don’t enjoy what’s happening in the classroom, something’s wrong. When you provide engaging, relevant learning activities (NOT “fluff”) students have more fun. You will, too.

    Organize chunks of material into one larger chunk. Research shows that people’s brains can only hold on to a maximum of nine items at a time. So trainers need to create meaningful chunks of training that condense several pieces of information into one. In their excellent book, “Telling Ain’t Training,” Stolovitch and Keeps provide this example:

    • The four cardinal points of a compass are north (N), east (E), west, (W), and south (S). (four items to store in memory.)
    • Remember this acronym: NEWS (one item to store in memory, so it’s easier to retain.)

    Identify which parts of your training your can “clump together” to make easily-managed, larger chunks.

    Helping adult learners successfully stretch directly correlates to the amount of preparation we do. How willing are you to truly think things out, develop helpful metaphors, and ensure your own thinking is clear and logical? If you experience any “fog” about any portion of your topic, your learners will, too. One of Malcolm Knowles’s essential principles for adult learning is “Respect.” We trainers respect learners by truly being prepared–not only to “cover the material,” but also to help them stretch their limits.

    Read more articles about Training Development. Learn about Guila Muir’s Trainer Development Workshops.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.