marc

Having just completed two weeks of training to French Speaking participants in Mali, I was reminded that there are approaches and techniques that are universal to training, regardless of language, literacy, culture, ethnicity or religion. I have categorized these into the “Four E’s” below:

Energy

marc

Yes and No. In a sense the traditional concept of “teacher” is one which has diminishing impact. The notion of what a teacher is and does is changing and being increasingly replaced and extended by the role of guide and mentor. More than “redundant”, teachers are at risk of becoming irrelevant. No longer are teachers the bastions of knowledge and harbingers of a single, right way of doing things. Moreover, learners are not looking for that structured, linear style of learning either. In a Post-Google world, learners are wired to use networks and search engines to find answers quickly.

marc
One of the most common challenges for trainers is getting the group to refocus and return to their seats after an activity, particularly when this activity has been noisy or ends in bursts of laughter.  Similarly, a lot of time can be lost to the trainer when their group does not return in a timely fashion after a break.  A few months ago we went to our brains trust of training colleagues and former students with the simple question: How do you get your participants back on time? Below is a summary of the best tips we collected: 1. Tune them in!
marc

I continue to be amazed at how little preparation seems to go into presentations. Outside of our training and assessment space, I do get an opportunity to see a range of presentations via conferences and workshops and whilst the presenters tend to have good subject matter knowledge they seem to lack an ability to plan for an effective transfer of this. Therefore, I thought it was timely to share my seven easy steps for success when session planning.

marc

As I sit silently in a self-made lock down to complete my latest book about training games, I thought I would take a break and consider the wider process of becoming published.

More and more, educational institutions are asking for staff to contribute to their professional development through scholarly activities such as conducting research, presenting papers at conferences or having articles accepted for publication. The question we get a lot from our students is “how do we get ourselves published, the first time?”

Here are some hints:

marc

Even experienced trainers with the latest resources and most interesting training material can be thrown off course by the behaviours of difficult participants. Therefore, it is important to load the kit bag with a variety of tools and techniques to overcome the dilemmas presented by some students.

marc

When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added an interesting backhander to the establishment. ‘‘Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,’’ Gates said. There is almost a fanatical obsession with testing in education without the same rigour invested in determining the right fit between learner and teacher.

marc

I am a big fan of US online retailer Zappos. Founded in 1999 with the goal of becoming the premier destination for online shoes, they have moved well beyond this point both in terms of product offerings and corporate stature. Through their innovative business practices, great customer focus and unique employee engagment methods (they were named as one of America's top 100 companies to work for according to Fortune Magazine in 2009) Zappos now occupy the position of one of the key companies to watch when it comes to developing best practice learning organisations.