The Creative Training Idea Book

Inspired Tips and Techniques for Engaging and Effective Learning

Robert W. LUCAS

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9780814426999
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Verwaltung

Trainers have to be creative if they want their participants to feel excited, challenged, and involved. The Creative Training Idea Book is packed with instructions for using activities, games, puzzles, toys, and props to increase energy and active participation in the classroom, and reveals how to think creatively about training in any situation. Based on the author’s nearly three decades of training experience, this invaluable resource gives trainers the tools to adopt a fun, energetic approach that will make for a stimulating learning environment. Readers will learn new methods for: * setting the right tone * uncovering participant needs * grouping participants and selecting leaders * avoiding and reclaiming turned-off learners * encouraging and rewarding participation * and much more! Filled with checklists, forms, resources, and dozens of ""Bright Idea"" blurbs, The Creative Training Idea Book will help trainers and their learners achieve maximum learning results.

Brain-Based Learning

The human brain: a spring board from which we can leap into the magical world of genius.”

Dilip Makurjea
Superbrain

Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, and when applying the concepts covered, you will be able to:

• Describe the theory of brain-based learning and how it impacts the training experience.
• Use knowledge of brain functioning to design programs and environments that will stimulate participants.
• Apply recent brain research findings to your training programs to enhance learning.
• Recognize the elements of learning.
• Create training programs focused on multiple levels of intelligence and the different learning styles possessed by participants.
• Assist learner retention of information by developing program content and delivery methodologies to reinforce memory.

Brain-based or brain-compatible learning theory focuses on concepts that create an opportunity in which attainment and retention of information are maximized. These concepts incorporate the latest research on the brain and encourage application of findings to training and educational learning environments. In this chapter you will explore how the brain functions in an effort to better recognize ways to develop creative approaches to training adults and to use props, activities, and incentives offered throughout the rest of the book.

A key to the successful application of brain-based learning theory precepts is for everyone involved in the learning process (program designers, managers, trainers/educators, and learners) first to understand the structure of the brain and how it works. They must then identify personal strengths and areas for improvement related to the theoretical concepts and modify approaches to learning accordingly. They must also consciously focus on learner needs and learning styles to ensure that program format and delivery are effective.

According to brain-based theory, learning is an active process in which challenges, ambiguity, and situations encouraging creativity are presented through use of accelerated learning strategies such as those covered in this book. Everything from the environment to personal actions impacts learners. Participants are prompted to think outside the box when examining information and issues. Problem-solving, questioning, ongoing interaction, and feedback are important elements in the absorption process, and are used freely. Learners are also provided with many opportunities to make associations with knowledge and skills that they already possess while forming new thinking patterns and making additional connections. These connections are strengthened by the use of analogies, simulations, metaphors, jokes, stories, examples, and various interactive techniques.

In brain-based learning environments, materials and instruction must be learner centered and delivered in a manner that is fun, meaningful, and personally enriching. It must also provide opportunities for participants to have time to process what they experience so that they can make mental connections and master content. In doing so, learners can increase personal comprehension and better grasp meaning and potential opportunities for application.

To ensure you are adequately addressing true participant needs when creating program content, take the time to do an advance assessment of what participants already know related to your intended session topic(s). You can accomplish this by mailing a questionnaire to participants and their supervisors a couple of weeks before the scheduled training. You can also conduct face-to-face or telephone interviews, hold focus groups involving those who will be attending and/or their supervisors, or visit work sites to observe on-the-job behavior of participants related to the program topic. Take the information gained into account as you design program content.

If advance assessment is not possible, write closed-ended questions regarding program content on flip chart paper and post these on the training room wall. Have participants respond to the questions as they enter the room. You can also pass out 3 × 5 cards or blank paper and have them respond to questions that are either collected or discussed in small groups and then offered to the entire class. These techniques and more are discussed in greater detail in later chapters of this book.

BRIGHT IDEA

Facilitator Preparation

To understand and apply concepts of brain-based learning to training and education programs effectively, you must be aware of what research has found and how it impacts learning. Explore brain-based or brain-compatible learning on the Internet. Also, attend conferences and workshops and read books and articles on the topic, such as those listed in the Resources for Trainers section in the appendices.

• THE DYNAMIC BRAIN

Although it is impossible to condense everything that scientists and researchers know about the human brain and learning into a single chapter, several important concepts pertinent to understanding the brain, learning, and memory are highlighted in these pages.

Recent decades have brought forth an exciting era of neuroscientific (life science that deals with anatomy, physiology, and biology of nerves related to behavior and learning) and cognitive research (related to factual data and knowledge) into the composition of the brain and how it functions. This brain-based or brain-compatible learning research has uncovered a wealth of insight into how the human brain develops, thinks, learns, and retains information. From the research, we have learned much about the physiological structure of the brain, what impacts brain development, and ways that learner motivation can be influenced. Researchers regularly explore the role of such factors as gender, age, body rhythms, emotions, and environment in shaping our reactions to stimuli and thinking.

Research also indicates that the human brain is a wonderfully complex organ that continues to grow, evolve, and learn as a person ages. “Perhaps the most potent feature of the brain is the capacity to function on many levels and in many ways simultaneously. Thoughts, emotions, imagination, predisposition, and physiology operate concurrently and interactively as the entire system interact with and exchanges information with its environment.”¹ The exciting part, related to research findings, is that trainers and educators have an ongoing opportunity to influence that growth in learners.

The brain is composed of three major structures: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The largest part of the human brain (cerebrum) is covered and protected by a thin layer called the cerebral cortex or neocortex. This thin layer of nerve cells constitutes about 70 percent of the nervous system and serves to gather and decipher patterns received into the brain by identifying relationships between objects, data, and other stimuli. Further, the cerebrum is divided into a left and a right hemisphere (see Figure 1-1) and made up of four areas called lobes—frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital (see Figure 1-2). Each lobe is responsible for a different function.

FIGURE 1-1. Brain hemispheres (cerebrum)

The frontal lobe is located around the forehead and is responsible for such things as problem-solving, creative thinking, planning and organizing, judgment, and will power. The temporal lobes are located on both the left and right sides of the head. They are tasked with such functions as processing sounds, language meaning, and some memory. The parietal lobe is found on the top rear area of the brain and receives and processes higher sensory data received, as well as assists in processing language input. The occipital lobe is located in the back middle section of the brain and has primary responsibility for vision. Some scientists believe that there is also a fifth area imbedded in the midbrain called the limbic system. The limbic system includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala (see Figure 1-3). It accounts for 20 percent of brain volume. Scientists believe that this area is responsible for, among other things, body regulation, emotions, attention, sleep, hormone production, sexuality, and smell.

FIGURE 1-2. Lobes

Because of the brain’s ability to multitask or process many pieces of stimuli simultaneously on different levels, you should remember that using a traditional structured or linear ap...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Preface
• CHAPTER 1 Brain-Based Learning
• CHAPTER 2 Lighting the Creativity Lamp
• CHAPTER 3 Setting the Stage for Learning
• CHAPTER 4 Opening with a Bang
• CHAPTER 5 Creating a Stimulating Learning Environment
• CHAPTER 6 Grouping Participants and Selecting Volunteers
• CHAPTER 7 Engaging and Energizing Learners
• CHAPTER 8 Making Your Visual Message Sizzle
• CHAPTER 9 Keeping the Communication Flowing
• CHAPTER 10 Celebrating Successes
• Glossary of Terms
• Resources for Trainers
• Tools for Trainers
• Graphics for Trainers (Communicating with Graphics)
• Index