By Ashraf Al Shafaki

What follows is a group of tips for trainers which I have come up with from my experience as a trainer.

Initiate

Use Appetizers

At the beginning of a training course and at the beginning of each training session, use appetizers to entice students to learn and condition their minds in a way making it ready to accept and digest information. This can be done by providing an overview of the whole course or session and outlining the main points that will be covered as well as the way by which such points will be covered.

This conditioning of the minds is essential and makes minds eager to know more and ready to accept and process information effectively. It works in a way similar to how food is processed. First people smell food, this leads to their stomachs starting to get ready for digesting that food. When the food is actually presented, the person then eats with great appetite and his or her stomach processes such food effectively.

If, however, the food was presented without enticing the appetite of the person first, there will be little interest in eating it and the stomach might not process it effectively and might even be overwhelmed with the food presented to it. In the field of learning, this phenomenon can appear in the form of lack of interest of students, inability to comprehend and remember information and boredom.

So next time you start a new session or course, make sure you first introduce the students to the outline of the course or session in order to wet their appetite and make their minds better conditioned to receive and effectively digest the information you will be providing them.

Manage Student Expectations

Managing trainee expectations right from the start of a training course is a key to its success and to reaching trainee satisfaction during and after the course. If students expect the course cover specific points then discover it does not cover them they get disappointed and dissatisfied with the course. Not only should a trainer manage students expectations regarding course content early in the course but also their expectations for the methods used during the course for delivering the training itself.

A successful trainer should anticipate student concerns, reservations or expectations that would not be met and gently convince students at the start of the training course that a path alternative to those expectations would the best path the follow and the one targeted by this training course.

Example: For instance the trainer anticipates that students would want him to cover all content in the material provided to them while he has in mind to cover only the more important topics in it then he should let them know that he is aware of the cover-all-content approach yet he will be following the other more focused approach and gracefully convince them with the superiority of his approach or the positive reasons of his selection of such approach.

Explain

Introduce the Need before the Concept

Let students first feel the need for the new concept you will be introducing then introduce the concept after that. This will let them see the new concept as a natural progression and feel its usefulness and its role and thus understand it better and be able to use it well in solving problems.

The process should go something like this. The students have already digested a previous concept and you have given them a practical example demonstrating such a concept in action. You then go ahead and try to extend that example to include more functionality or solve new problems. You show that to achieve such new functionality or solve that new problem the concepts already introduced fall short of doing so or that they can do so but with great difficulty. You then go ahead and introduce the new concept demonstrating how it easily solves the new problem or adds the new functionality.

By introducing the need for the new concept first and letting students feel such need, they are better able to grasp the new concept in a solid way and see it as a natural progression of the other concepts. This will enable learners to understand the new concept better and to be able to use it appropriately whenever a need for it arises and whenever a problem comes out whose solution can be accomplished using such concept.

Let Students Deduce Concepts Naturally

Lead students into deducing the new concepts you are introducing by themselves. Let them reach the new concept as a natural result or natural progression. This makes the concept unforgettable, understandable and makes it fit in nicely with the rest of the knowledge and understanding they have in their mind. They will thus be more able to use it and think creatively about solving problems with it.

Explain First, Label Last

When introducing a new concept, do not start by first giving the name of that new concept. Terminology can sometimes clog the channel of understanding in the brain. Instead, start by describing the concept itself in easy terms. Try relating the new concept to something the students already know. Try to derive the new concept from common known things and introduce it as a natural progression of things. After the students fully grasp the new concept, then and only then may you mention the term used to describe such a new concept.

This method enables the brain to comfortably place the new concept in its correct place, fully comprehend it and be able to use it with natural ease later on. If you start by mentioning the name of the concept, the mind might go astray in a wrong direction and it would not be easy for you to bring it back again to fully comprehend the new concept you are introducing. So whenever you are introducing a new concept, label the concept last.

Always Give Real Life Examples

When introducing any new concept, start first with a real need to solve a real life problem and give an example of solving such a problem using the new concept you are introducing. Never give trivial examples that are of no use in reality. Such a practice confuses the brain. Using examples that solve real life problems based on real needs to introduce new concepts works best with the way the human mind works. Not only will this be a greater motivator to learners, but it will make them understand much better and be able to go forward in their learning with confidence and with a stable step.

Provide Whole Examples

In the same way that eating whole wheat is good for the health, feeding the mind with whole examples is way better than giving the mind a fragment of an example. Dissecting a whole example, throwing away part of it then presenting students with only partial examples can be harmful. The problem is that many inexperienced trainers would think that bey removing extra 'baggage' from an example they are making it simpler and easier for the brain to digest. Such trainers tend to feed their students minds in small tidbits trying to provide them with the alphabet with which they can later put together in various combinations to build whole functional systems that solve some problem. This approach of providing the alphabet or the tiniest building blocks first might be suitable for teaching a computer, but not very effective for teaching humans. The human mind tends to comprehend and operate on things in a holistic way. Providing the mind only with the building blocks and rules that govern the putting together of such building blocks can handicap the human mind and hold it back from quickly creating solutions for real problems.

The holistic approach has been used even in teaching children how to read. Preschool children have been taught to read by teaching them whole words before teaching them the alphabet. Such approach proved highly effective. When teaching programming or even providing training in using a computer program, it is best to provide students with holistic examples; examples that are complete and functional.

Hammer the Basics

It is much better to have a strong focus on teaching the core concepts of a technology and hammer such concepts in the minds of students than to spread the learning process thin and dilute their knowledge with a spread of advanced topics.

A misconception might be that if students are able to grasp advanced concepts of a technology, then this means they are very good with its core basic concepts. In practice we find many developers waste a lot of time due to absence of clear vision and a fuzzy knowledge of some of core basic concepts. If such concepts were grasped firmly from the beginning, such developers would have been able to progress much more rapidly in developing software. This also helps in avoiding a large percentage of bugs.

Having strong solid basics also helps a developer run fast and go forward boldly in writing code. The clarity of vision and solid steps makes going forward with speed feasible. Conversely, a person with shaky basics would have to go slowly being pulled back by his lack of clear vision and foggy sight.

Instant Gratification

A trainer by definition is more experienced in the subject area he or she is teaching than his or her students. A trainer is well aware of the usefulness of the information and skills he is providing to his or her students. A common mistake among trainers and teachers is to act as if their students also are aware of such usefulness of a concept or skill new to them. A trainer might thus force some new concept or skill into the minds of his or her students because he/she knows it will be of great importance to them in the future.

Being useful for students in their future is not a sufficient motivation for students to learn a new concept or skill. A trainer might be well aware of the importance of some skill and how much positive effect it can have on the future of his students, yet communicating such importance to his students is usually not possible. Students will come to appreciate and understand the importance of such a skill only in the future when they start using it in real life. The right way to overcome this common problem is to provide a parallel yet instant use for such new concept or skill. By showing students how they can use that new concept or skill now they will be motivated enough to absorb it. Otherwise, the trainer will be met with great resistance and the mastery level of the students for that skill or concept would be low.

Oblige Students to Practice

It is not enough that a student would understand a new concept, instruction or technique. It is of great importance that the learner practice with his own hands using such a newly learnt element. Creating something is one of the best ways to really absorb what one has just learnt. Constructing something with what one has learnt helps in digesting and fully understanding the newly learnt elements. It also helps one be efficient in using such learnt elements next time one is in need of using them. Students must learn by doing.

Allow Students to Play with New Concepts

Playing is one of the best ways to learn. Children are fast learners due in large to their usage of play. Playing can be a speedy way of learning new things and learning them well. Playing enables one to tackle new situations, understand concepts well and discover new ideas. Play also opens the doors for creativity and the ability to create and problem solve. Play is a great motivator as well as a strong mental enabler.

Let students play with the new concept they have just learnt. Let them create things with it. Let their brains go wild. The problems to which students can use the newly learn concept can be demanding ones and realistic but do not need to be of practical use. While examples you introduce to students should have direct practical value, the creations of the students themselves do not need to be of practical value. You should encourage students to create things with the new concept they have learnt if only for the fun of it. This is an excellent exercise for the brain and allows students to feel comfortable in using such newly learn concept.

Let Students Teach

One interesting variation you can resort to during a training session is to let a student explain some concept to one of his colleagues or to the rest of the class. You can use this technique when there is some concept that you have already explained before but still one or more of the students cannot get it while there are others, or at least one other student, who understands it well.

Benefits

Of course you yourself, the instructor, understand the concept well but letting one of the students re-explain it has two benefits. The first benefit is that such student would usually be closer to his colleagues in terms of mentality and way of thinking. When your own method of explanation fails to reach some students, a colleague of theirs who understood the concept from you might be better able to communicate that concept to them. This does not mean you are an incompetent trainer, on the contrary, in order to use such a technique you have to be a highly competent trainer with a lot of confidence. This method could work because the student who is explaining the concept to his or her colleagues might have passed through the same mental obstacles to understand such concept and could therefore possible be able to explain it in a way and in a language his or her colleagues would comprehend easily.

The other benefit of using such technique is to provide confidence to the student who is temporarily taking the role of a trainer and to enhance his or her learning process even more. One excellent way of learning something well is to teach it to others. This very technique will provide such student with a better learning experience.

Besides the two benefits related above for using such technique, letting one of the students, if only temporarily, assume the role of the trainer would provide you with some rest and help conserve your energy during the training process. After the student has completed his explanation, you can always make comments or modifications or assertions about what he or she has said in order to correct any errors or assert what has been correctly mentioned.

Stretch New Concepts Beyond their Limits

Allow students to stretch newly learnt concepts beyond their normal usage patterns. Let students reach the limits of using a newly learnt concept. This will give students a more solid feel of the new concept and how it should be used. Using the newly learnt concepts in areas where it is not actually meant to be used helps students get a better grasp on when and where to use such a concept in the future in real life situations.

Tell the Story

When speaking about a particular concept, try to make sure that students fully comprehend why such concept came up, why it is designed in such way in particular and what problem does it solve. One way of answering such questions for many of the technology concepts is by relating the story behind the development of such concept. A brief historical overview communicated to students via a story relating the progress of such concept and its predecessors till the concept was reached could do the trick. The human mind loves stories and is able to work best and absorb knowledge best and be able to use it well when it is related in story form. A story provides sequence and gives the mind a chance to comprehend the natural development of a concept in steps.

If a complex concept that took many stages to develop was introduced directly without relating its development steps, the human mind might be paralyzed unable to grasp the thought leap leading to such complex concept. In such case the mind will just try to store the concept as is as if it was a black box without fully comprehending it. This will lead to poor ability of using such a concept in real problem solving.

Revealing the development process behind a complex concept to learners instead of just throwing the end product at them is in a way similar to dissecting a complex concept into its main component to ease comprehension. Both techniques can be used to ease the comprehension of a rather complex concept.

By tracing the development steps of a complex concept and why it has reached such a state in particular students will be able to better comprehend and use the concept you are introducing to them.

Optimize Last

Optimize last is a well known best practice in programming yet the same concept can be applied to teaching as well. When teaching students how to use some computer program it is enough to show them at first one method only for accomplishing a task. Providing them with all the possible methods for accomplishing the same task might overload their brains and would hinder the learning process making it more slow. Even just giving two different methods for accomplishing the same task would be unnecessary and would be nothing but an obstacle in the path of learning.

For instance, if a specific task can be done through a button in the toolbar, a menu item or a keyboard shortcut key, it is no good to introduce the three methods all at once. Try starting by the simplest. Not necessarily the simplest to the hand or the less time consuming, but the simplest on the brain to easily comprehend and remember, the method that is more intuitive even if it is not the fastest or most optimal method. In the case mentioned above, teaching the students how to accomplish a task using a toolbar button or a menu item might be better than starting out by providing them with the keyboard shortcut key to accomplish such task, even if the shortcut key is the faster method.

If a student is taking a long path consisting of more than necessary steps to accomplish some new task, do not introduce to him the alternative more efficient method yet. Just let him master performing the task first. Later on, you can always introduce alternative more efficient methods for accomplishing the same task. With teaching, as in programming, it is best to optimize last.

The teaching principle of optimizing last is a direct application of the principle of introducing the need first. When a student first learns a technique or method for accomplishing a new task, he or she is in need for learning a simple, easy and clear method for accomplishing the task and cannot yet feel the need for accomplishing the task with high speed or in an optimal way. As the student becomes more confident in accomplishing the task using the unoptimzed method he or she has learnt through repeated practice, he or she then becomes ready to learn another more optimized and more efficient method or technique for accomplishing the same task. The need for increased efficiency will be clear to a student who is well practiced in using the less efficient method. He or she will also appreciate learning the better optimized technique more. Thus, we see that the principle of optimizing last can be concluded directly from the other principle of starting with a need first before introducing a concept or technique. The human mind just happens to work better that way.

Motivate