One program demonstrated how moving furniture can make learning. more effective.
Past articles, including The number of group members determines activity success of failure and How to use first day of class seating assignments to get to know your students have focused on establishing an interactive environment at the start of a learning program through seat assignment.
This Examiner witnessed a highly effective method of doing just that while monitoring a learning program yesterday.
A central theme of the program, teaching supervisory skills, was to extend yourself and take charge. The instructor repeatedly made the point that the top five percent of business professionals succeed because they are not afraid to take a risk.
As a demonstration of that philosophy, the instructor did not engage in the standard introductions. He instead divided the participants into two groups. Next, he directed the participants to rearrange their tables and chairs into a team area. He then told the participants to begin. The whole room was transformed as it shifted from lecture style seating to group-focused arrangements. The instructor next had each group pick their leader based on individual initiative during the reconfiguration activity.
It was an excellent example of—as suggested in How to design an effective orientation program in eleven steps and How to design a learning activity in nine steps—thrusting participants into an activity that foreshadows the program message. Moving furniture can, it seems, make a program more effective.
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