The learners' declaration of rights, concluded

July 3, 12:03 PMWorkplace Training and Development ExaminerLenn Millbower

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Places please for effective instruction

In the last two articles, we trainers, teachers, and presenters were “confronted” with a learners’ declaration of rights. In this article, we offer concluding thoughts on the proclamation.

“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”
Mark Twain

What the learners’ want is similar to what we want when we are the learners. There are however excellent reasons why we forget to focus on those wants. Most teachers, trainers, and speakers are:

1. Experts in their subject matter;
2. Proud of their credentials and want to share them; and are...
3. Cognizant of the responsibility to prepare the learners by sharing every possible bit of expertise they can in the limited amount of class time available.

These three points actually work against the instructor's interest.

It is an interesting fact that what matters most to the trainer, teacher, and presenters, may matter least to the trainee, student, or attendee. Experts rarely make tightly focused points. In their excellent work Telling Ain’t Training, Harold Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps make that compelling argument that experts have procedural expertise, where trainers need to deliver declarative information. It is difficult for an expert to turn off the expertise and declare, in simple terms, without exposition, the key points the learners need at the precise moment the learners need them.

Additionally, experts have worked hard to develop their expertise. They are rightly proud of their credentials. Often, they feel that by sharing their history, they help the trainees, students, or attendees appreciate what they about to learn. This too is an irony. From a show biz staging standpoint, the most important moments of any presentation are the beginning and the ending. Classroom participants are often most focused, and most likely to remember that which they hear first. When instructors begin with their resumes, even though well intentioned, they are placing their ego above their learners’ needs.

Learners rarely leave a class exclaiming, “I wish that guy would have talked some more.” The irony is that the more we talk, the less they learn. After a while, our words begin to jumble, and concepts lose their context. A better approach is to smartly limit what is said to what must be said. An even better strategy would be to get the learners to say it. The smartest instructors may in fact be the ones who say the least.

This article has gone on for some 401 words. If less is truly more, it is time to quit writing. As Mark Twain (also attributed to Blaise Pascal) once commented, “I am sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have the time to make it shorter.”

Happy Independence Day.