Let’s say that you are designing training in a ridiculously short timeline (say, 3 days to get ready for a 1/2-day course or 3 weeks to put together a 3-week course). There are many ways to save time and still have respectable, professional-looking course materials. Of course you’ll do a great (but quick) job with… Continue Reading
Sometimes training is just what’s needed, and sometimes, not so much. When should we employ training? When not? So, what makes training good? How do we anchor it so that it will help us meet our goals? Here are brief descriptions of eight essentials. The “Why” Matters. The reason for our training is to help… Continue Reading
What to do when you’re trying to get people motivated to learn something? A colleague and I were just teaching a 2-day class for adults in a large organization. They are all trainers or training evaluators, and we were teaching them how to use a new rubric for evaluating instructors. The rubric is based on… Continue Reading
Let’s say you’ve come to the end of your talk or the end of a training module. You want to know if anybody has questions. Here’s a question people ask all the time, and usually, it’s the wrong thing to ask: “Do You Have Any Questions?” Here’s why: this is a “closed-ended” question. It asks… Continue Reading
What do you think of on-the-job training (OJT)? Inefficient? Slow? Time-wasting? Maybe. But if we add structure, it can be faster and better. Structured OJT: On-the-job training with objectives, a schedule, planned practice, supporting materials, and well-prepared coaches. Let’s say you have a few people starting jobs they don’t know how to do. A couple… Continue Reading
49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College If you teach or train children or adults, you can find techniques in this book that are well worth everyone’s time. They come from David Lemov’s careful observation of the intersection of two things: Uncommonly high achievement data from unlikely schools Extraordinary teachers who get… Continue Reading
