Participants are not blank slates
Among the skills the National Boy Scouts of America used to include in its Junior Leader Training program was one called Effective Teaching. In the updated National Youth Leadership Training program, this has been re-christened Teaching EDGE™ (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable).
At no time before getting started are the trainers given an opportunity to assess whether the participants actually know anything. The trainers assume the learners know nothing and teach from scratch. Now when was it ever true that every participant in a training experience start off with the same level of skill?
Even were that true, how does the trainer know whether the participants actually learn anything? Trainers teach participants to evaluate using the "start, stop, continue" method, but they never apply it to their own objectives, as in, "What should we stop doing because it isn't helping?"
Originally conceived by Bela Banathy as "Manager of Learning," this competency has been watered down until it is no longer a recognizable part of anything taught during the NYLT program. In this change, the BSA National Training
staff reveals their complete lack of understanding of the competency.
Learning should establish respect
In
a nutshell, Manager of Learning describes a system for exposing
learners to the need to know and involving them in their own learning. Because the competency doesn't assume that the participant is a blank slate, it establishes mutual respect between the trainer and trainee.
It is not only one of the competencies taught in the program, it is a method for leadership development
which we embrace as essential to participatory, experiential,
leadership development. In re-christening the competency as "Effective
Teaching," the default attention once again shifts to the instructor.
We believe the main attention belongs on the learner: did they actually
learn anything new?
In Manager of Learning, the focus is on the learner
The
reason the competency was named "Manager of Learning" is because we
have shifted our attention from instruction to learning. This does not
mean that we minimize the importance of instruction or the role of the
instructor.
The significance of instruction is not questioned here at all. The point that is made here is that the learning task
is the nucleus around which to design instruction. The role and
function of instruction should be viewed in its proper relationship to
learning. It should be planned for and provided for accordingly.
Instruction is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Its function
is to facilitate learning. 1
The effectiveness of the learning experience is not measured by the
effort made by the instructor but by the amount of learning achieved by
the learner.
The emphasis is on learning
A "manager of learning"
is not simply a teacher. Teaching connotes activities too typically
requiring a lecture hall and a large number of desks. The phrase
manager of learning is carefully chosen. The emphasis is on learning, not on what the instructor teaches. Your job, as a manager of learning, is to help the participants to become more effective leaders.
Managers
of learning are different from "teachers" or "instructors." They know
that people learn as individuals, not as a class or group. They know
each individual is important; therefore, each individual leader must
learn or all will receive an inferior program. Whoever accepts the
responsibility for managing learning must use unusual techniques to get
unusual results.
The trainer is more than a teacher
A "manager of learning"
is not simply a teacher. Teaching connotes activities too typically
requiring a lecture hall and a large number of desks. The phrase
manager of learning is carefully chosen. The emphasis is on learning, not on what the instructor teaches. Your job, as a manager of learning, is to help the participants to become more effective leaders.
Managers
of learning are different from "teachers" or "instructors." They know
that people learn as individuals, not as a class or group. They know
each individual is important; therefore, each individual leader must
learn or all will receive an inferior program. Whoever accepts the
responsibility for managing learning must use unusual techniques to get
unusual results.
Manager of Learning builds in respect for both the trainer and the participant. It assumes that trainers can discern the different capabilities of participants, and gives them the opportunity to alter the objectives as needed. The participants only get the information they need in that adds to what they already know.