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Sharon L. Bowman, M.A.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINER & SPEAKER

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  Sharon's responses to common questions from trainers, teachers, and website readers. Send your questions to SBowperson@gmail.com for posting on this page. Updated 4-28-10

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Dear Sharon: What do you do with students who resist accelerated (active) learning? Just Wondering

Dear Wondering: Here are some options to consider –

1. Give the right to pass. Always give students the “right to pass” during any activity – the right to learn by observing instead of doing – as long as they don’t interfere with other students’ learning.

2. Tell them why.Tell students the educational rationale behind the activity – the goal, structure, and brain-based reason for doing an activity instead of lecture alone. Assess the specific number of students who are resistant to active learning. Often, it might be only one or two students, not the majority, and they will come around once they see how effective (and enjoyable) the interactive strategies are.

3. Talk privately. Have a private conversation with the resistant students to determine what is causing the resistance. It might be they have outdated assumptions of what teaching/learning should look like. Or they might be the few who are truly auditory learners and who learn well through lecture. Either way, now you can address their concerns.

4. Give choices. Give them assignment options – independent work like reading, answering chapter questions, writing a topic-related essay –that they can do in lieu of activities.

5. Be patient. You are changing the teaching/learning paradigm held so dear by so many instructors and students. Change takes time. So be patient – they will come around.

6. Use a variety. Finally, remember that a variety of instructional strategies, including lecture (albeit in shorter rather than longer segments) works best.

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Dear Sharon: What advice can you give me when there are 75 - 100 participants who attend a session. I have no problem with 50 - 55, but could use some help with the larger numbers. My favorite size groups are 25 - 40. Also, all sessions will be conducted in a gym-type room with theater-style seating. HELP! Thank you for your time. Just sign me: A Huge Fan

Dear Huge Fan: There is no difference with handling larger numbers - just a few logistical things to keep in mind and options to consider (see below). But you can make ANYTHING interactive, even with theater-style seating. Think about options like suggesting that they: "stand up while doing this ..." turn to a neighbor and make sure no one is left out ... turn around to the person in front or behind you ... stand and form a small standing group of 3 or 4 people ... move to the aisles and form standing groups ...." Here are more ideas:

1. If possible, move the events to the cafeteria where there is more room to move than gym-type rooms. If not possible, then make sure they pair up with one or two people seated next to them and that they stand and stretch at times during the session - to keep oxygen flowing to their brains and their bodies awake along with their minds.

2. If in a flat room (not on gym bleachers) move them away from the seated area at a certain point and have them do a Walkabout activity (scroll through the Articles on my website - the Walkabout article is there for you to download).

3. Post charts on walls that they can move in groups of 5 - 7 to a wall chart and write answers to review questions you've posted there. This is a Gallery Walk activity from The Ten-Minute Trainer. Click on the Articles link and scroll down.

4. Set up a group management signal before you begin and test it with them - a simple noise signal like a whistle, chime, or music will do - and they must stop, freeze, and turn their attention to you when they hear it. This will save you a lot of grief. You can also use Bob Pike's favorite: "If you hear my voice, clap once. If you hear my voice, clap twice. If you hear my voice, clap three times." He's done that with groups of 500 or more, and by the time he finishes, everyone in the room claps and then is quiet.

I hope these ideas help. Remember, even large groups need to stand, move, talk, and connect in order to learn – it's just the logistics of involving them that will change. And plan on all activities taking a little more time because of the group size.

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Dear Sharon: How do I get started as an independent trainer – working for myself rather than for one specific company? Need a New Job

Dear New Job: Here are a few ideas to think about. Act on the ones that seem helpful to you. Best of luck with your new journey!

* Go within. First, get clear inside your own mind, heart, and spirit with what you feel passionate about and what you want to do with that passion. Separate yourself from your ego, if you can (that’s a hard one for all of us!) and discover what it is about training that calls you, apart from the fame and fortune (both of which may take awhile to manifest!). A fabulous book to help you begin this inward journey is Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (FYI - it isn’t about art!).

* Do it for free.  Create two or three small (one hour or so) workshops that you can offer to local community groups, businesses, churches, and the like, and do them “pro-bono,” i.e. gratis. Also, send in presentation proposals to major conference events in your specific field of expertise (two in the general training field are: www.vnulearning.com and www.astd.org). Usually, conferences don’t pay their presenters, but it is good exposure and practice. This will give you practical experience with your material and with different groups of people. Always get written feedback about what worked and what could be improved.

* Ask the experts. No two journeys are alike, and each independent trainer that I know had his/her own way of beginning the journey. So ask around, talk to people, read books, go to workshops, and gather as much information as you can. Then follow your own heart and mind - know that your journey will be as unique as you are, and that’s the way it should be. Two great sources for learning from the experts are: www.summitconsulting.com (get Alan Weiss’s book Getting Started In Consulting, as well as his free website articles) and www.nsaspeaker.org (National Speakers Association - you can attend the NSA conferences even if you aren’t a member. NSA is a wonderful resource for learning about the business of speaking and training).  

* Keep your day job (at least for awhile). It doesn’t have to be either/or. It can be both/and. You can do workshops on weekends, holidays, and vacation days. Sometimes your employer may let you take unpaid leave to speak or train. Or, within your own organization, you can collaborate with your company’s training department to offer your specialized workshops  (if that isn’t already part of your job).

* Take baby steps. No, you don’t have to have a business plan, business card, brochure, flyers, marketing capital, office, public relations agent, or a lot of money - at least not at first. Many independent trainers who have all this now didn’t start their journeys with these pieces in place. You do what you can, choose one or two small steps to move you in the direction of your heart’s desire, and then walk through the doors when they begin to open.

* “Leap and the net will appear.” When you want something passionately enough to say “Yes!” to the risk, the work, and the challenge, and to walk towards it in spite of your fears, it almost magically appears. Maybe small things happen first (someone asks you if you can give a little talk to a community group), and later, larger opportunities appear (you get a call from a business person who heard you speak at a conference and wants to know what your fees are). In effect, “We learn to do something by doing it - there is no other way!” (Author John Holt).

* “Desire, ask, believe, receive.” From: The Artist’s Way. Enough said!

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Dear Sharon: I have a group of very serious training participants who are offended by what they say are “fluff” and “touchy-feely” kinds of activities. How can I get them to participate? No Hands-On Learning

Dear No Hands-On: You can teach them in the ways they’ve come to know and expect (most probably lecture-only with occasional slides or overheads - or deluged with PowerPoint until they are pretty-much brain-dead). OR you can do five things to move them in the direction of interactive learning:

1. Explain the educational rationale for using activities. Let them know that they learn best when ALL their senses are involved in the learning - seeing, hearing, saying, doing. And explain the reason for each activity (make sure the activity is related to the topic).

2. Give learners the right to pass. Only a few may take you up on this offer because many people, even in a serious crowd, are kinesthetic learners and want/need to move, talk, and join in.

3. Give the activities adult titles. Examples: a Dyad Dialogue instead of a Pair Share, or a Collaborative Review instead of a Group Talk.  Let the participants know that these activities are about serious learning - nothing “fluffy” here!

4. Begin with low-risk activities. These are ones where training participants can join in without calling attention to themselves. Examples: talking to the person sitting next to them, writing on a note-taking worksheet, being part of a small discussion group, moving around the room with the whole group. Log onto the Articlespage of this website and download the free articles that contain more  low-risk, interactive ideas.

5. Cut yourself and your learners some slack. In other words, be patient with yourself and your learners. When you use interactive instructional strategies, you are changing the teaching/learning paradigm. Change takes time. As your learners become more at ease with each other and with you, they will join in with enthusiasm!

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Hello Sharon: As a trainer, what should you do about the training participant who crosses his arms, leans back, fixes you with a glare, and silently dares you to teach him anything? Pushing Them

Dear Pushing: Here are six suggestions – experiment to see which will work with which learners.

1.  Let him be. If he (or she) is not interfering with the learning of others or of the group, then leave him alone. Eventually, he may loosen up and become involved. Or he may be learning even if he isn’t actively involved.

2.  Don’t make assumptions. It may not be about you. It may not be about the training. There is even the possibility that you are misinterpreting the body language (for example, some people may look angry when they really aren’t, or someone’s intense stare may really be a look of concentration).

3.  Check it out. If you wish, and if the appropriate private moment becomes available, you may want to ask him quietly, “Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Depending upon his answer, you may be able to change something that is, in fact, bothering him. Or you may not. Either way, you will now know what’s going on.

4. Take a break. If his behavior is bothering learners around him, or if it escalates and begins to disrupt the training, it’s time to call a short break. During the break, ask him to step aside to a private place in the room or hall with you. Then do five things:

A. Describe the behavior you are observing and what it is doing to the group.

B. Ask him for his response to your observations.

C. Describe what changes need to occur in order for him to stay in the training.

D. Ask him for a commitment to making those changes.

E. Thank him for his willingness to listen and to change. If he chooses not to change the distracting behavior, then at that point, you have the option of asking him to leave the training.

Remember: Never sacrifice the group for the individual. You can figure out what to do with this person later, rather than letting the group flounder while you spend time taking care of the situation.

5. Trust yourself. Often you already know, intuitively, what to do. Trust yourself to do what is best. And if, perchance, it doesn’t work out, then try something else. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to pick up the pieces and try again. And it’s absolutely okay to trust your own judgment.

 

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Dear Sharon: What is the one thing I can do to make my learners more successful? Eager to Help

Dear Eager: Involve them in the learning every step of the way.

The learners are the ones who need to be talking, questioning, writing, discussing, experimenting, doing. You need to present new information in active learning formats using one-minute review activities such as Pair-Shares and Shout Outs, collaborative group activities, graphic organizers and other note-taking tools, games, projects, demonstrations, and the like.

The more you hand the learning over to your learners, the more they will learn - easily, willingly, joyfully. The one question to ask yourself before each class or training is: How can I invite my learners to participate in this learning experience?

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Hi, Sharon: What about tips to help prevent “death by Powerpoint?” A PPT Addict

Dear PPT Addict: Four ideas, just for starters -

1.  Simplify, simplify.  Cut the number of Powerpoint slides in half that you use for one presentation or training – or at least make that your goal. What to use instead of the slides you leave out? Wall charts, handouts, note-taking pages, stories, metaphors, and quick, one-minute review activities.

2.  Use the “need-to-know” rule. Only put on the slides the “need-to-know” information – the facts your learners need to remember. The “nice-to-know” information can go on a handout for later reference. 

3.  Picture it. Include a graphic for at least every three slides. Your graphic can be a cartoon, icon, photo, clipart - anything that represents or is related to what you are teaching. Metaphors, stories, and analogies also create mental pictures. The human brain thinks in images, so a picture will stick in the mind longer than printed words.

 4.  Lose the template. Okay, don’t lose it. Just realize that anything used over and over again becomes fodder for the human brain’s “automatic pilot” or “brain secretary” (aka “reticular activating system”) which says, “I’ve seen this slide a hundred times and I don’t need to pay anymore attention to it.” So the RAS screens out any data – including Powerpoint templates – that it deems routine and irrelevant. Solution? If you must use the templates, use them only for some slides, or include a variety of graphics to make the slides comes alive again.

 

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