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You may know that active learning keeps your audience alert and interested, but how do you make your training more active? Here are six dependable steps to try:
- Use assessments to boost self-awareness and to personalise the learning content. Assessments help the learner understand their own strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. In turn, this enhanced understanding helps your learners to see how the course content is relevant to them.
- Use small group simulations or case studies. Have each group discuss the challenge at hand and the possible options before collectively deciding upon a way forward. The group is responsible for delivering the best result possible. Therefore, you will need to observe and evaluate their efforts.
- Use artistic and dramatic techniques to create visual metaphors. Metaphors help us to understand complex phenomena. Have groups come up with a way of representing a problem by arranging themselves as a frieze, or even as a moving and talking image. Alternatively, have individuals create their own metaphors for the topic at hand (e.g., feedback is like fruit in that it works best when it is fresh and nourishing).
- Create learning experiences and then debrief learners on their experience. Learning experiences refer to real (e.g., abseiling) or mock (e.g., roleplaying) situations that contain some degree of inherent challenge, risk or tension. Learning occurs when you debrief participants on those experiences, exploring what they did, what worked and didn’t work, why they did what they did and so on.
- Use games and simple exercises to revise and test key content. Repetition is still a key ingredient in successful learning. Games provide a fun way to revise material and check how much of it is being absorbed.
- Provide opportunities for learners to practise new skills and receive feedback on their attempts. While many “active-learning”‘ strategies are simply hands-on methods for acquiring new knowledge, knowledge alone is seldom enough. By setting up small practice exercises, you help learners develop competence, not just know-how.
By incorporating active-learning techniques into your training, you will be better able to engage learners’ attention and you will help them to forge deeper levels of insight into the material being covered. However, when learners are unfamiliar with content (e.g., new managers) you should use direct instruction as your key technique, and active learning as a useful supplement.
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