Is Your Training Learner-Centered—and Moving?

We asked Sharon L. Bowman, president of Bowperson Publishing & Training, Inc. (www.bowperson.com), how trainers can make training “learner-centered” and why it’s important to do so.
Bowman asserts that learner-centered training is “training in which learners are actively involved every step of the way from the moment they walk into the classroom until the moment they leave. They don’t just sit there and listen.”
Trainers “need to be very aware of how much talking they’re doing vs. how much talking learners are doing,” she explains. “The person doing the most talking is doing the most learning.”
To create a learner-centered environment, Bowman also advocates “letting learners learn from each other” and lessening “lecture to increase their learning.” In learner-centered training, “learners are doing a lot of talking, discussing, sharing opinions, writing—all of that” and the trainer shifts from being a “sage on the stage to a guide on the side.”
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Trainers can help make training learner-centered by following the “10-minute rule,” she says. “After every 10 to 20 minutes of lecture, stop for 1 to 2 minutes and involve your learners in a quick review of what you just taught them.” Use quick “active review strategies” related to the content to reinforce the material, help learners learn from each other, and get learners engaged physically and mentally. For example, have learners stand up and say something they just learned or write down a few main points.
What’s the easiest way to get all learners involved in a quick review? “Nudge your neighbor,” Bowman says. Ask learners to “turn to someone seated near them and tell their neighbor three things they just learned, or a question they still have, or the most important thing they learned—anything related to what you just taught them.”
With a learner-centered approach, “the learning will stick,” she says. Without it, learning won’t stick. “If you want them to remember and use it, then it’s got to be centered on the learner rather than on the trainer.”
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In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll hear from Bowman on how to use movement to make your training more effective, plus we explore a dynamic training resource of interactive online courses covering more than 100 key HR topics.