Group 2 - Practice Analysis Paper

Lisa Melby - Commented on Group 3 & 4     Lianne L. - Commented on Group 1
Chris - Commented on Group 1&3      Tikila Welch -Group 1

The Active Training Credo

What I hear, I forget.

What I hear and see, I remember a little.

What I hear, see, and ask questions about or discuss with someone else, I begin to understand.

What I hear, see, discuss, and do, allows me to acquire knowledge and skill.

What I teach to another, I master.

Gone is the yesteryear when unskilled trainers “trained how they were taught”, which oftentimes resulted in a dumping of information on people who are not interested.  Now there is a great demand for skilled trainers who have formal education; they understand the needs of the business and act accordingly.  These types of trainers take great pride in developing training sessions that “fit” their audience, situation, and/or customer.  Successful sessions are a feather in the hat of the presenter/trainer, but what happens when training goes awry?  What should the presenter do to rectify the situation?  This paper will focus on four examples of training outcomes from our group; two positive training examples from Lisa and Chris, and two negative training examples from Lianne and Tikila.  These examples will also include theories and concepts that have been learned and how they apply to the examples themselves.

Lisa's Example

In order to retain my present employment as a sign language interpreter, I am required to attend workshops; professional development if you will.  A specific workshop I attended was for educational interpreters (those who work in a K-12 setting).  The key concept was Bloom’s Taxonomy and how teachers like to utilize it in their teaching and lesson plans –

some background knowledge: interpreters are supposed to ask the

classroom teacher ahead of time for lesson plans so that they can

prepare and practice.  Teachers will tell them the objective and which

level of Bloom’s the interpreter needs to focus on.

The presenter for that day incorporated many features into her presentation.  For example, she provided visual aids in the form of packets and videos.  ‘Presenters that use visual aids appear more professional, clearer, more persuasive, more interesting, and more effective’ (Lawson, 2009).

Packets are well-thought-out material that allow the participant to follow along and to also write notes on.  Being able to bring the packet home and refer back to it later is a plus and it also keeps people actively involved in the training. Active training is the “most effective means of delivering training; research shows that people understand concepts better and retain information longer if they are actively participating in training”.

 Videos allow presenters to reinforce material.  In my situation, presenters for interpreters use videos to show how a concept is “signed”.  Mentoring and small group sessions are beneficial to the participant and provide time for practice and feedback.

Feedback is an important feature of the learning cycle and if given (received) at the optimal time, can be very beneficial.  The key is for the facilitator to provide enough safe opportunities for overt action; the learner has to act (practice the new concept).  If one is too embarrassed to perform (act) a new skill in front of their small group or peer, they miss-out on the opportunity for feedback, therefore missing out on valuable learning.  Likewise, if the participant does not have an opportunity to reflect on their work, they fall prey to ‘repeating the mistakes over and over again’ (Mackeracher, 2005).  “Only through reflective activities can mistakes be identified and plans developed to avoid repeating the same mistakes” (p. 89).

            In terms of my example, the environment in which the presenter trained us in seemed to be the behaviorally complex environment.  In this environment “the emphasis is on providing opportunities to apply knowledge or skills in practical situations.  The information brought to the situation has been abstracted by the learner from previous experiences and is compared with information that can be extracted from the immediate situation…facilitating techniques that seem to support active experimentation include hands-on activities…simulations,…mentoring…” (pp. 90-91). 

            In my case, I came to the workshop with the knowledge that I already had -  good/bad, useful/not useful –, learned new information (in the form of a new concept, “Bloom’s Taxonomy”), then learned how to apply the previous (signing) skill with the new educational concept (the level of Bloom’s taxonomy from the classroom teacher that is being applied to the lesson).  The presenter provided time for participants to experiment with new concepts and also time for feedback from one another and time for her to provide assistance and instruction.   

Chris's Example:  Ego

         My good experience starts with losing your ego with help with adult learners. Ego will kill your creditability with adult learners. We as adults don't respond to well to ego. Lose your ego and gain an audience: Here’s the thing, while there may be an ‘I’ in speaking, it’s so not about you. Shocking as it may seem, your audience is almost never as focused or bothered about you (the speaker) as they are about themselves. Most audience members are much more interested in the old marketing mantra of WIIFM – what’s in it for me.

Most importantly, teachers in adult education need to convey to students that they can make mistakes without being humiliated or put down. “If you are trying something and it doesn't work stop and try something new,” says Colin Rose in Accelerated Learning. If people are embarrassed by a mistake, they will not want to try again. Also, it can be helpful to enable students to see the bigger picture, so that they understand the relevance of what they are learning and become fully engaged in the learning experience – without the interference of defense mechanisms. So spend less time worrying about how you look or sound, check your ego (if you have one) somewhere before you speak and concentrate all of your energies on the only thing that counts – what your audience gets out of the experience.

In the book Extreme Ownership (2015) by Leaf Babin & Jocko Willink they discuss how ego can be very disruptive to your business or classroom. I would summarize what they convey in the book as, if you put your own ego in check, meaning you take the blame that will allow him to actually see the problem without his vision clouded by ego. Ownership of everything!! "This isn’t his/her fault, it’s yours. You are in charge of your classroom so the fact that a student didn’t follow procedure or understand the material or information given is your fault. And you have to believe that, because it’s true.

When you talk to your class you need to start the conversation like this: “Our class is struggling in this given area and it’s my fault. It’s my fault because I obviously wasn’t as clear as I should have been and I should have given clearer steps and/or given more examples for you to follow and model. You are an extremely skilled and knowledgeable teacher, but when you can’t convey or communicate effectively to your classroom, you will have more issues of misunderstanding and lack of comprehension of the given skills. “If you approached it as he did something wrong, and he/she needs to fix something, and he is at fault, it becomes a clash of egos and you two will be at odds. That’s human nature. But, if you put your own ego in check, meaning you take the blame, this will allow him/her to actually see the problem without their vision being clouded by ego. Then you both can make sure that your classroom is functioning at the most effective level of communication, what is and isn’t best to lead to the optimal learning environment and making sure that all instruction and expectations are clearly understood.”

To clarify this point, I am not saying that you have to have 25 years on the job in order to be a good instructor. A person in a busy department or company with only 3-5 years can be just as effective as a person with 25-30 years in a rural community where call volumes are much lower. I am also not just referring to how many calls you have run, or how many classes you have taken. It is a balance of all of these. If you happen to be in a department that does not run many calls, and is a very young department, I encourage you to utilize the passion and dedication of people who want to better the department and themselves.

Lianne's Example:  Bad Training

Have you ever started a new position and the person training you wants to train at their desk in a tiny cubicle with a small computer screen?  This has happened to me on numerous occasions. You go to a co-worker's desk to learn something and the entire setup is just off.  I am seated behind them or to the left or right of them and cannot see the computer screen at all.  Then it feels like if I get any closer I will be invading their personal space, so I stay back and act like I can see what is going on when in reality I am having a hard time.   Also it is hard to hear them sometimes because their back is usually to you. This is not a conducive learning environment at all!

This is a bad situation because the trainer is not giving the full attention to the person they are training.  This method can be a good method, but unfortunately in this type of setup (at one’s desk) it is not a good method.  According to Kadian-Baumeyer, this method can slow down the production of the trainer, which I find that be very true.  This happens when the trainer is trying to accomplish training to someone who may not know anything about what they are learning, which slows down the learning process.

Tikila's Example:  Bad Experience

Lawson points out in chapter 8 that the success of training is most often determined before the participants ever enter the room (pg. 147).  I found this to be true in a recent training experience I encountered.  A few years back I attended a mandatory conference.  During the morning we had small breakout sessions that were very interesting and the participants were allowed to choose the session that they wanted to attend, this was not the case for our after lunch training.  The topic of the training was very relevant but due to many environmental factors it was not effective.

The room setup was classroom style; a very large room with rows of tables and columns that created many blind spots for participants.  This also made it very difficult for effective collaboration to take place.

The presenter was very soft spoken, and had technical difficulties with her microphone. Due to room constraints the presenter used lecture style for the duration of her presentation.  Unfortunately, she never captured the audience because she didn’t do anything to break down the barriers such as an icebreaker.

Very little is remembered about the content of her presentation because it was hard to view the one projector screen from my seat.  The training lasted about 3 hours, the presenter used lecture format, and power point presentation with some videos embedded but did not include in small group, or reflection activities. Radovan & Makovec (2015), noted in their study that participants are more satisfied when teachers show good preparation, set clear objectives, and organized a class and learning activities in a logical sequence. 

There was a sidebar conversation on how ineffective the training was considering the fact that it was geared toward a room full of early childhood trainers who believe in incorporating multiple forms of training techniques to ensure that the needs of all participants are being met.

All things considered, a trained presenter can’t please all the participants all of the time, but if trainers investigate their audience ahead of time – possibly find out certain tendencies - and know clearly what their customer or business requires from them – perhaps by a needs assessment - chances are greater that the session will have a positive outcome.

Reflection

As a group, we found that while we all are extremely busy individuals, we were able to complete the assignment on time and we are very happy about that.  We communicated as best we could through email and our Group Discussion Board.  We were even willing to receive texts and phone calls.  We are on our way to becoming a better group.

References

Kadian-Baumeyer, K. (2016, October 2). Methods for Training Employees, Mentoring, On-the-Job & Job Rotation. http://study.com/academy/lesson/methods-for-training-employees-mentoring-on-the-job-job-rotation.html#transcriptHeader

Lawson, K. (2009). The Trainer's Handbook. San Fransisco: Pfeiffer.

Mackeracher, D. (2005). Making Sense of Adult Learning (2nd ed.). USA: University of Toronto Press.

Radovan, M. M. (2015). Adult Learners' Learning Environment Perceptions and Satisfaction Informal EducATION-Case Study of Four East-European Countries. International Education Studies IES.

Rose, C. (1987). Accelerated Learning (5th ed.). Dell Publishing Company.