One of the most common struggles for new trainers is keeping the flow in class. You find yourself moving along in your lecture, then get to an activity, and have difficulty keeping it flowing. Or you find your participants drifting off without knowing how to get them back. If you are a new (or not so new) instructor, keeping an even flow can be a challenge.
Remember that participants complete activities at different paces. To manage the flow, tell participants a specific amount of time they have for the task. How long? Don’t set the time based on the slowest group, but set a time that is about what you predict your quickest groups require to complete the activity, or perhaps a little more, based on your experiences. Participants should have enough time to figure out the activity and complete some amount of it, but need not fully complete all activities.
The second flow challenge newer instructors often have is knowing how much to talk, and how much to allow for discussions and activities. Too often, instructors (and training manuals!) take an “if time permits” attitude to discussions and activities. The problem with this approach is that the activities themselves provide the “active” in “Active Learning”. My rule of thumb is to review the course and lesson objectives. If an activity directly performs the action of one of the objectives, or develops a skill essential to accomplishing an objective, then it is not optional.
What are optional are any explanations that do not lead to participants’ accomplishing those skills. Another rule of thumb is to imagine yourself as a participant in the class, with Ben Stein as the instructor. Ask yourself a few questions as that participant: “What would I rather do to learn this content: play and talk, or listen to someone else talking?” If you’d choose not to listen to someone else lecturing incessantly, then verbose explanations should be optional in the class, not activities.
When training, note in your manual any place where instruction drags. After class, review your notes, and look for ways to keep participants actively thinking and doing during the pauses. Creating flow will go a long way to keeping participants engaged and learning.
Beating the Lunch-Time Lull June 30, 2007
You know that thing about training, where everything is going along just fine, you break for lunch, and then the inevitable happens (cue shreak from “Psycho”): siesta time.
I just went to a training class where I learned the cure for the 1:30 nap: milk and cookies. Okay, well, milk is not necessary, but it goes so well with cookies that I had to suggest it. In my class, we reconvened after lunch, and had about 30 minutes of training time before a 10-15 minute break. It’s just enough time to digest food before getting drowsy.
Waiting for us at the back of the class was a stack of cookies and brownies, sodas, and coffee. It was great. The walking helped digest the food, and the sugar helped keep us going.
You wouldn’t believe the number of students in the class, all of them trainers, who commented on the geniousness of a cookie break.
Now, I need a brownie.