7 Responses

1. First training session

   Hi WeeG

   My first thought was – is learning to count to 10 in Japanese the kind of training/teaching session you will be delivering in your role? Maybe your tutor has advised you to do something like this, but if not I would have a think about whether this is a good use of your time. Is there something you will be teaching in real life that might be more suitable?

   If  you do go with it, though, how about coming up with a list of questions they could all go round and ask each other, to which the answer is likely to be the numbers one to ten. Things like

   How many children do you have?

   How many siblings to do you?

   How many houses have you lived in in the last ten years?

   How many jobs have you had in the last ten years?

   How many cars have you owned in the last ten years?

   How many goals did your team score last weekend?

   How many days have you had off sick in the past year?

   How many staff report to you?

   How many windows are there in this room?

   How many Shredded Wheat can you eat?

   that sort of thing……

   This would certainly fill ten minutes and it would be relatively lighthearted too, after the concentration of learning what is probably a very tricky topic.

   Good Luck

   Jenny

    

2. 30 minutes is not a lot of time- really

   Hi there, taking your idea lets look at the sections of the session you need to cover to make it as effective as possible for all of your participants: intial question to the group should aim to generate some motivation for them to learn what you have so a question like, how mnay uses can you thikn of if you could count to ten in another language (assuming non of your participants are japanses speakers already). Or how many times could you use a foreign language (numbers from one to ten in a day). Once you have the motivation to learn you will need to provide the structure of the content for the group – we will be spending fifiteen minutes familiarising and applying the Japaneese words and then ten minutes to capture individual learnings and formulate learning action plans. If you allow 5 minutes for the motivation sectino thats 30 packed minutes of effective learning.    

   A lot of woudl be excellent leanrning sessions miss to maximise their potential by not allowing sufficient or any time for motivating participants to learn the content (generating their own motivation to learn even if the subject is regultory or compulspory in some way), applying the new skill or information and littel or no time for personal reflection. Ten minutes time for reflection and planning will be much too little for some reflectors and far too long for activists who will need to be encouarged to plan for action at this stage and will be genrally happier doing this verbally with other activists.

   Good luck with the session.

   Cheers, Nick       

3. Learning Cycle

   Hi WeeG

   I would do your 15 minute version you have already planned but stop every minute or 2 to explain what you have done and why…ie explain the learning cycle and how you are being sympathetic to 4 learning styles.

   So the title of your session is now How Learning Principles are Used and you will demonstrate this by teaching them how to count up to 10 in Japanese. 

   You will now have 2 seesions running simultaneously, 1 to teach and 1 to explain. Might need to wear a hat for half of it so they know when you are in "explaining" mode?

    

4. Counting in Japanese

   If you are teaching people to count in Japanese my guess is that you will be using an Accelerated Learning technique (starting with an itchy knee!). If so, I’d make a brief addition to your session on how such techniques can be used in training. I’d also add, for balance, something really serious and grounded about the business benefits or about when more gravitas is beneficial. If all you do is the Accelerated Learning technique without any surrounding explaination, they may (or may not) warm to your creativity but they won’t get a sense of your ability to select when and how to use different techniques for different business challenges. That sound like 30 mins to me.

   Guddorakku

   Graham

5. You Tube

   You could round off your session with this to send them on their way with a smile on their face…

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCyy63Yk5-o

    

    

6. Focus on the aims of the task

   Hi there –

   Some great suggestions here from other contributors, but I am slightly worried that you may end up over-complicating the task.

   I would start with the aims and objectives of this part of the PTTLS course; it is likely that you will be assessed on your ability to design and deliver an appropriate training session, but check exactly what the assessors will be looking for and plan accordingly.

   You’ll find it useful to consult an appropriate text book; my own favourite is Training in Practice by Steve Truelove. Chapter 5 on "Designing learning events and strategies" is extremely relevant. Truelove takes you through the stages of the design process including the design of activities and exercises. It is important that these are integral to the learning and not viewed as padding or fillers.

   My final point is that it is vital to try out your training session to ensure it is effective. You mention in your original post that your current session only takes 10 – 15 mins. I would be extremely surprised if you are really able to get your audience to learn to count from 1-10 in Japanese in such a short time. Don’t forget that you should include a quick test to ensure that the learning has taken place.

   Hope these comments are helpful, and best of luck!

   Fran.

7. Hobby

   Also worth considering that it is best to train people in something you are really familliar with such as your hobby or other skill you have.

   This will feel much more natural to you and your observers than 1 to 10 in Japanese.

    

   (assuming you are not Japanese of course, in which case ignore this post!)