Remember the Adult Learning Credo?

I loved reading my colleague Andrew's post last week because it reminded me of some training that I used to provide on liquid vacuum trucks and on high-pressure pressure washing and refineries. 

My company wanted to have a training program that was better than any of the competitors in that space. We created a training program that revolved around hands on training. An eight hour training day that had about one hour of power point as an introduction then seven hours of hands-on training that was procedurally-based and drills executed and led by the trainees. When I was in the military I recognize the power that drills provide and learning material. We would execute drill after drill after drill of the same procedure first in the daytime and then at night until everyone and the team knew exactly what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. I brought that same aspect to our liquid vacuum truck and Hydro blasting training. And we found similar results to what you described in your passage. The other thing we provided was the ability for the trainees to train one another. If you remember our program planning class there was the adult learning credo that said:

"When I only hear, I forget.

When I hear and see, I remember a little.

When I hear and see, and ask questions and discuss with someone else, I begin to understand. 

When I hear, see, question, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill. 

When I teach someone, I master what I have learned." (Cafferella & Daffron, p. 188)

I really enjoyed allowing the learners to become masters of what they learned by having to teach it to one another. It really put them in a separate place than just being passive learners. The only thing I wish I could've done was provide some after the fact space learning reinforcement. Something that after they left the class they could refer to and be reminded of the learning objectives. Overall though the class was very similar to what others have expressed, I really enjoyed allowing the learners to become masters of what they learned by having to teach it to one another. It really put them in a separate place than just being passive learners. The only thing I wish I could've done was provide some after the fact space learning reinforcement. Something that after they left the class they could refer to and be reminded of the learning objectives. Overall though the class was very similar to what you expressed in your discussion post.

One piece of my training that was different than most others is that I was teaching people who already had a job and who in several cases were leaders in our organization. They were not inspired to take the class by a mandate in order to get their job. What I found though was that our organization did not provide training opportunities to this cohort of employees so that when they had the opportunity to train they were hungry for it and jumped in with gusto. In some cases especially if the training is on a Saturday it was a tough sell to get them to be motivated but in the end the opportunity to train always one out and the employees Additionally as you said much of our training was not just skills training but safety training that they could use on the job to keep themselves safe. This helped to inspire them to learn as well. left excited and content for having learned something. Additionally as many have said much of our training was not just skills training but safety training that they could use on the job to keep themselves safe. This helped to inspire them to learn as well.

References:

 Caffarella, R. S., & Daffron, S. R. (2013). Planning Programs for Adult Learners; a Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass.

Adult Learning Credo

I ran across an Adult Learning Credo in my class the other day. I loved it, wanted to remember it, and so have created this post:

When I only hear, I forget.

When I hear and see, I remember a little.

When I hear and see, and ask questions and discuss with someone else, I begin to understand. 

When I hear, see, question, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill. 

When I teach someone, I master what I have learned. 

 

Facilitaition

We discuss often at work the role of a facilitator over a trainer. We have 10 or more trainers in our organization, but only a handful of facilitators. Facilitation is tough. How do we ensure that the learners are learning what we intend, but allowing them to get to the learning point by themselves or as a group rather than be told. 

I think a lot about the adage, "show don't tell" when writing novels. Many first-time authors will just provide information and not allow the reader the richness of experiencing the story through expository details. Similarly, I'd much rather facilitate than train. 

Facilitation is similar to providing guideposts and handrails to the class. So, back to your question, we always allow the class to take the subjects wherever they want to go with them and when we see that they are struggling, taking too much time, or just way off course, we provide a prompt or a handrail to help guide them to the point we want them to come to. It's an art not a science. 

We have another course that provides the exact opposite experience. We are audited regularly to determine if we are saying the right thing at the right time in the right order, and if we go too far off script we are reprimanded by the governing authority. This class however is for very inexperienced learners. Our leadership classes where we facilitate rather than train is much more experienced learners. 

I doubt they'd appreciate being told rather than being provided the opportunity to learn themselves. I also think this allows the learner the chance to learn via their preferred learning preference. They can discuss, they can white board, they can use information from their smart phones, they can tell stories, whatever they most want to get the point across to their teams. 

This discussion reminds me of the discussion I had on behavior-based safety and the adult learning credo from Cafferella and Daffron (2013) "When I only hear, I forget. When I hear and see, I remember a little. When I hear and see, and ask questions and discuss with someone else, I begin to understand.  When I hear, see, question, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill.  When I teach someone, I master what I have learned." (p. 188). (see HERE).

So often I feel that when we facilitate we are helping the learners skip ahead to that last part of the credo. When they teach themselves and their groups they are mastering the content rather than just learning it. Long and short, guideposts and handrails are what we provide, and if we see them wander a bit we let them so we can determine if they find their way along naturally. 

References:

Caffarella, R. S., & Daffron, S. R. (2013). Planning Programs for Adult Learners; a Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass.