Outline
The Implementation Phase
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In the Field
To some, this may sound like the easy part, but it is actually the hardest part of the system. Good trainers can make a poorly developed program work well and a well developed program work great...bad trainers can make neither work.
Management Plan
The course management plan is implemented by ensuring the courseware, class setting, and staff are ready. The learners must be scheduled and notified. Any prereading material must be sent to
them ahead of time. The training staff may require training (Train-The-Trainer) to perform their roles in the learning process. They must be given time to prepare and rehearse their instruction.
Instructor Preparation
(Laird, 1985 [based on U.S. Civil Service estimate])
- Course is five days or less - 3 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
- Course is between five and ten days - 2.5 hours of preparation for each hour of training
- Course is over 10 days - 2 hours of preparation for each hour of training
One of the items that comes out of this phase is the Training Management Plan (TMP), sometimes called the Course Management Plan (CMP). No matter what it is called, it should contain the following information:
- A clear and complete description of the course.
- A description of the target population.
- Directions for administering the course.
- Directions for administering and scoring tests.
- Directions for guidance, assistance, and evaluation of the learners.
- A list of all tasks to be instructed.
- Course map or course sequence.
- Program of Instruction - How the course is to be taught.
- A copy of all the training material, i.e., training outlines, student guides, etc.
- Instructor and staff training requirements (needed and accomplished).
- Any other documents related to the administration of the course.
The TMP informs the trainers of all factors related to a particular training program. If a new trainer studied the TMP, she should be able to implement the instruction with little
or no difficulties.
Conduct Training
The courseware is brought to life by skillful trainers. By skillful, we mean involvement is the focus, rather than favorable impressions such as oratorical skills. We are less concerned with platform skills and more concerned with skills that facilitate learning. The days of long lectures are over! Learning is achieved by focusing on the learners. If you want someone to put on a great show, then hire a struggling actor. They are often cheaper than a good trainer. Good trainers can bring a poorly designed course to life and make a well constructed course great.
Trainer, Instructor, Coach, or Facilitator
What are all these titles we use to describe ourselves and others, whoose job is to guide learners to reach a learning objective? It seems as if every organization has its own title. For a starter, a brief definition of the major terms:
- Trainer
- Directs the growth of learners by making them qualified or proficient in a skill or task.
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Instructor
- Gives knowledge or information to learners in a systematic manner.
- Coach
- Instructs, demonstrates, directs, guides, and prompts learners. Generally concerned with methods rather than concepts.
- Facilitator
- Makes it easier for learners to learn. Guides a team towards the results for which it exists to achieve and then the team maintains or improves its competency for continuing to achieve results.
Now, does all the above sound like your job description? If not, it should. For this is what a trainer is and does. To keep it simple, this guide will use the term trainer.
The Art and Science of Training
Just as an actor has a repertoire of skills that he uses to perform on-stage, a trainer has her repertoire of skills that she uses to train others. Some of these skills may come naturally, while others must be practiced and learned. Although most of these skill are based on scientific fact or theory, knowing when and how to use them is more of an art. The rest of this chapter will focus
on these skills that a professional trainer needs.
The Three Learning Factors
There are three factors that must happen for a successful learning experience to take place:
- Knowledge: The trainer must know the subject matter. She also provides the leadership, models behavior, and adapts to learning preferences.
- Environment: The trainer must have the tools to transfer the subject matter to the learners, i.e. computers and software for computer classes, adequate classroom space, courseware such as lesson plans and training aids, etc. The trainer must fuse these training tools with the learning preferences of the learners.
- Involvement Skills: The trainer must know the learners. Easy enough, you say, "I have a student roster that lists their names, departments for which they work, and I always ask them to give a short introduction about themselves at the beginning of the class." But, do you really know your learners? What are their real goals for being in the classroom? What are their learning styles? What tools do they need to help them succeed? What are some of the affective-tools that will help you to help your learners succeed in the learning environment you have been charged with? You must also coach the learners to become self-directed, intrinsically motivated, goal oriented, and open to learning.
Involvement Skills
To achieve a climate that is conducive to learning, involvement skills are employed. As you have tools such as projectors, lesson outlines, and training aids to help you in your training duties, these involvement skills can be thought of as your inner tools. Some of the involvement skills needed by trainers to coach their learners to success are (Laird, 1985):
Flexibility
Adapting the training program to meet the learners' needs by analyzing and responding to individual learner needs. For example, you have a outstanding word processing class that includes creating multiple columns, but little about inserting tables. If the Abacus Corporation inquired about the class, and informed you that their workers needed instruction in inserting tables, could you change your class to fit their needs? How about if it only involved one student? Not only must you be prepared to change a course before it starts, but also on-the-fly. You must consistently monitor and evaluate your learners' needs throughout the course of instruction. Do not be afraid to change your instructional steps to meet the needs of your learners.
Spontaneity
Although a good training program has structure, it should not be canned or contrived. If it simply goes step by step with no change, then why not use a cheaper media, such as a video tape?
Empathy
This was coined in the 20th century from the German word "einfuhling" (to feel with), which comes from the Greek word "empatheia" (empathes = emotional & pathus = feelings). This is the ability to perceive another person's view of the world as though that view were your own.
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The Sioux Indian Tribal Prayer reads, "Great Spirit, help us never to
judge another until we have walked for two weeks in his moccasins." |
Empathy differs from sympathy in that sympathy connotes spontaneous emotion rather than a conscious, reasoned response. Sympathizing with others may be less useful to another person if we are limited by the strong feelings of the moment.
Compassion
Alleviate stress when it is not conducive to the training program. Some stress is good...it helps to motivate us (see Arousal). Without some stress in life there is no need to accomplish a task, reach for the stars, go where no person has gone before... However, too much stress places an additional burden on most people.
Questioning
Use the Ask, Pause, Call (APC) method.
- Ask the question.
- Pause to allow learners to think. Normally about 7 to 15 seconds depending upon the difficulty of the question. Look at the learners. Do most of them look perplexed or do they look comfortable with the question? The questions you ask should help you to gauge the effectiveness of your instruction. Also, note that the pause time can be even longer (this quietness in the classroom can be quite disturbing to many), which will normally force them to answer because of the quietness. However, if you have to do this too often, you need to reexamine your training methods.
- Call on someone to answer the question. Calling on someone after asking the question allows all the learners to think. Even if a learner has no idea of the answer, he is thinking of a way not to be called upon, such as looking busy by taking notes or fidgeting with something. At least you have his brain cells firing neurons and warming up!
Some hints for effective questioning are:
- Know what you want to find out.
- Generate interest in advance.
- Use open-ended questions to elicit dialog.
- Keep the questions short. Long questions are confusing.
- Ask questions with answers that will suggest a course of action.
Trainers tend to ask questions in the "knowledge" category 80% to 90% of the time. These questions are not bad, but using them all the time is! Try to utilize higher order level of questions that require much more "brain power" (thought) and more extensive and elaborate answers.
The other categories as defined by Bloom's Taxonomy are:
- Comprehension: Involves the understanding and ability to interpret and communicate the meaning of given variables.
- Application: Implies the use of knowledge to solve problems.
- Analysis: Requires a learner to examine material or relationships of information of constituent parts and to arrive at some solution or response
- Synthesis: Requires the learner to combine elements and parts into a unified entity.
- Evaluation: The most complex of all questions. It involves making judgments, appraising, choosing, assessing, measuring, and critically inspecting some idea or object and determining its relative value or worth.
Getting feedback
This is the ability of the receiver to change and alter the message so the intention of the communicator or sender is understood. This should be done by paraphrasing the words or restating the sender's feelings or ideas in your own words, rather than just repeating their words. Your words should be saying, "This is what I understand your feelings to be. Am I correct?" It not only includes verbal responses, but also nonverbal ones. Nodding your head or squeezing their hand to show agreement, dipping your eyebrows shows you don't quite understand the meaning of their last phrase, or sucking air in deeply and blowing it hard shows that you are also exasperated with the situation.
Carl Rogers listed five main categories of feedback. They are listed in the order in which they occur most frequently in daily conversations (notice that we make judgments more often than we try to understand):
- Evaluative: Makes a judgment about the worth, goodness, or
appropriateness of the other person's statement.
- Interpretive: Paraphrasing - attempt to explain what the other persons statement mean.
- Supportive: Attempt to assist or bolster the other communicator
- Probing: Attempt to gain additional information, continue the
discussion, or clarify a point.
- Understanding: Attempt to discover completely what the other communicator means by her statements.
Counseling
Counseling has a powerful, long-term impact on the learners and the effectiveness of the organization. There are two type of counseling - directive and nondirective. In directive counseling, the counselor identifies the problem and tells the counselee what to do about it. Nondirective counseling means the counselee identifies the problem and determines the solution with the help of the counselor. The counselor has to determine which of the two, or some appropriate combination, to give for each situation.
Positive Reinforcement (Skinner, 1974)
Throughout a program of instruction there needs to be continuous or intermittent reinforcements. These reinforcements are what cause the operates (responses) to be learned by the learner. Reinforcers can be either rewards (positive) or punishment (negative). However, negative reinforcers have the greatest effect when they are discontinued. Reinforcers do not always have to be verbal. For example, head nods, a form of gestures, communicate positive reinforcement to learners and indicate that you are listening.
Whole Brain Learning Theory
Our brain is divided into two hemispheres - the left brain and the right brain. The left side of a brain is the Dr. Spock of Star Trek (the logical side), while our right side is our Henry David Thoreau (the creative side).
Our left hemisphere characteristics include: judgmental, linear, logical, systematic, and verbal. It provides:
- Time orientation
- Language skills
- Mathematics
- Sequential processing
- Analysis
- Detail
Our right hemisphere characteristics include: creative, intuitive, holistic, playful, and visual. It provides these functions:
- Emotion
- Visuo-Spatial orientation
- Art and pattern awareness
- Intuition
- Kinesthetic
- Synthesis of information
- Interpersonal
Learning should be orchestrated so that the left and right sides of the brain cooperate. You must combine the technical step-by-step side of the learning objective with interpersonal and experimental activities so that both sides of the brain become involved in mastering the subject matter.
Using both sides of the brain to learn a new skill aids us in learning it faster and retaining
it longer. Note that the left and right brain theory is quite similar to the Three Representational Modes (linguistic, nonlinguistic, and affective).
The Learning Cycle
In a good learning organization, learning generally goes through a process
(based upon Hershey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Model) similar to
this:
- The learner starts the training as a beginner. She is very enthusiastic to learn a new skill. She may be somewhat apprehensive because she is about to enter a change process. She needs clear instructions because the task is new, and just a little bit of support to calm the stress of change.
- The level of guidance from the trainer becomes somewhat less so that the learner may experiment with the learning style that works best for her. She has now reached failure a few times in the process. Although the trainer still provides a lot of technical support, emotional support must increase to help keep her confidence high. This normally becomes one of the toughest time for the trainer as he has to provide technical support and emotional support. Technical support is needed so that the failures do not become learned. Emotional support is required so that the learner does not give up. The emotional feedback needs to be specific, such as: "You did an excellent job with the..., now you need to..."; not: "You are doing just fine. Keep trying."
- At this point, the learner has become capable in performing her new skill. The amount of guidance drops to just a few pointers so that the learner can experiment with her new skill. But she is still not sure of herself! The amount of emotional support stays high to help build up her confidence.
- The learner now returns to her job. Her supervisor provides little direction and less support so that she can begin to take ownership of her new tasks and responsibilities. She is allowed to perform. She is also encouraged to take on new responsibilities and new assignments...the learning cycle now repeats itself.
Setting Up The Learning Environment
A short question and answer guide for choosing a classroom:
- How much space (square footage) should we allocate for the classroom?
- 15 to 17 square feet per participant.
- Is there a configuration that works better than others? For example, is a wide, short classroom preferable to one that's square?
- It should be as nearly square as possible. This will bring people together both psychologically and physically. The room should be at least 10 feet high. This allows a projection screen to be placed high enough so the learners in the rear can see over, not around the people in front of them. The distance from the screen to the last seat of rows should not exceed 6W (six screen widths). The distance to the front row of seats should be 2W (twice the width of the screen). The proper viewing width is 3W (1 1/2 width from centerline).
- How much table space should we allocate per student.
- After the PCs are placed (if any) there should be at least 30 linear inches (with a depth of 18 to 24 inches) per learner. This allows them to spread their papers during activities.
- What type of seating arrangement should we use?
- This depends on the learning environment that you are trying to obtain. For some various arrangements, see Seating Arrangements.
Other
Psychological Factors in the Learning Environment
References
Laird, Dugan (1985). Approaches To Training And Development (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Skinner, B.F. (1974). About Behaviorism. New York: Alfred A. Knoph.
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