The learners' declaration of rights

July 1, 12:23 PMWorkplace Training and Development ExaminerLenn Millbower

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Workplace Training and Development Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Places please for effective instruction

In this article series, dedicated to Independence Day, we offer a learners' declaration of rights that every trainer, teacher, and speaker should pay attention too.

Children are blunt. They will tell you exactly what they think. Adults on the other hand are usually polite and evasive. It makes delivering learning tricky. You can alienate learners without even knowing why.

Presented below is a peek into what some adults may be thinking during learning events. It may not be a perfect declaration of rights, and not all learners would agree with the statements in it, but perhaps it can help trainers, teachers, and presenters better understand learner needs and expectations.

The Learners Declaration of Rights

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for adults to enter a classroom, it should be the responsibility of the trainer, teacher, or speaker to focus all instruction, activity, and conversation on our needs. And when those learning leaders have not exhibited sufficient focus on the learners, the learners have a right to state what they expect.

Therefore, we, your learners, in an effort to create a more perfect classroom, and with uncharacteristic honesty, wish all trainers, educators, and speakers would deliver to us respect, enthusiasm and a focused pursuit of learning.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

We are adults – We expect to be treated like adults. Even if we are young adults, do not appreciate instructors a few years our senior calling us “kids.” Honor us for who we are and what we already know. We are your equals, even when required to listen to you. You do not know more than us, just more about the subject you have been tasked with teaching us.

We are individuals – We expect to be regarded individually. Honor our learning preferences. Just because you enjoy a certain type of activity, presentation method, or delivery technique, doesn’t mean we want to be exposed to it for the entire learning event. Don’t present everything in the same way. Vary your presentation so you reach us in whatever way we learn. Conversely, don’t ignore your own learning preference. Just because you get it already doesn’t mean we do too. Strive for balance in your delivery and reach out to us with a wide variety of learning techniques.

We need a comfortable environment – We don’t want to feel like you have us captured in a prison. Until you sit in our seats (literally) you can’t know how uncomfortable they are. We don’t want to squirm all day long. We also don’t want you to keep the room ice-locker cold as a trick to keep us awake. Learning rooms are already cold, unfriendly places. You are asking us to enter an unfamiliar room, sit with unfamiliar people and admit to you (who we have never met before) that even though we are adults, we don’t already know everything. All of this makes learning uncomfortable. We also don’t like it when you stand directly behind us to exert your power over us. If we are falling asleep, it may be your fault. The more you put us at ease, the more relaxed and focused we will become.

We have short attention spans – With pagers, BlackBerrys, iPhones, work and home pressures, and the latest Jon & Kate gossip, we do not have much time to spend listening to you. Our attention spans are even shorter than the experts say. Five-minute segments would be plenty long enough. Keep it pithy and you will maintain our attention.

And speaking of Jon & Kate, there is an update we can't wait to see on YouTube. We'll continue this declaration tomorrow.

Your learners

- to be continued -