This Tip explains how to save teaching time for new learning for the participants if you don’t teach what they already know.
Don’t Teach What They Already Know
When starting with the lesson plan in designing a training program, consider what your target group of participants may already know. You will never have enough time to cover all the content and include all the learning activities you want. So you have to be selective.
You don’t want to waste time teaching them what they already know.
The greatest amount of time in any participatory training program should be saved for the practice time. This is when the participants will have an opportunity to test their new learning and practice it so they start to feel more confident in their own competence.
Therefore, if you have six hours to accomplish six learning objectives, do not allocate one hour for each objective.
Instead, think about what the learners may already know. Then plan to check for their level of learning.
You can begin the process during the design phase by sending out a pre-test. The pre-test should ask content questions that will give you a clear idea, through their responses, of what they already know. Their responses will also direct you to the content that will need to be taught and practiced.
If you can’t send out a pre-test, you can have the participants complete it at the beginning of the program. Or you canse an interactive exercise, such as a discussion question, a questionnaire, or a case study.
Working in small groups, the participants will be able to demonstrate their knowledge and/or prompt each other to remember the information.
In this fashion, you may be able to cover two or three of the learning objectives in an hour or so. This will leave more time for what is truly new learning for the participants to be sufficiently taught and practiced.
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
