Tried and Tested Training Techniques & the Adult Learner

On Friday and Saturday, I will be conducting workshops in Banaue. The participants are members of the Northern Luzon Federation of Cooperatives. The first workshop is on Active Training Techniques. The second is Coaching for Leaders. Since, I will have the same participants for both workshops, I decided to include a discussion on adult learning and the techniques that can be used to make learning more effective.

I prepared a short Powerpoint Presentation for that. I don’t usually use Powerpoint, but I still prepare every time I have workshops. To use or not to use Powerpoint depends on many factors. And the biggest determining factor are the learning styles of the participants. The participants of the seminars I handled last week still amazed me. I still smile everytime I remember how the school principals (yes, they were the participants) acted like my classmates when I was in first year high school. Our batch had 13 Valedictorians, 17 Salutatorians, and only 3 of 44 had no honorable mention awards during their elementary grades. I am one of the three with no honors (I still remember that some honor students who were in the lower sections felt I stole their place–what could I do, I ranked seventh among the 3000 students who took the entrance test–hahaha, braggart you might say, but just stating the facts).

Anyway, I felt that some participants were trying hard to show that they are much better than their fellow principals and the speakers. Some were overeager during activities that they started working even though the facilitators are not yet finished with the instructions.

In one segment of the workshop, my fellow facilitator felt that I treated the principals like elementary students because I went into the reading comprehension process like untangling difficulties, asking lower level questions before high-levels questions. asking them to underline important phrases, and paraphrasing some points. It sound like one. But it was not intended to demean the comprehension ability of the principal. I just used the method they are very much familiar with so we can communicate using the same frequency, or on the same plane. There are many similarities between pedagogy (teaching young learners) and androgogy (teaching adult learners) that it is understandable when people cannot identify the difference.

Of course, the usual stereotype is we use lecture for adult learners and drill for young learners. But then again, those are stereotypes. Long lectures are boring for both young and adult learners. Drills have its use for both learners. I also believe that for both young and adult learners, whom I have the privilege to share my life with, I must and always be only a facilitator of learning.

We will discuss more about pedagogy and androgogy some other time. For now, I simply invite you to look into the basic characteristics of adult learning, the art of questioning, and ways to tune in with your learners. Just keep on clicking the play button (single arrow pointing right) to see all the slides. If you want a copy of this, please email me.