If you want to learn how to bring the best performances out of the people who surround you, then this straightforward guidebook on human resource development provides you with the tools you need to cause positive change. People new to the field as well as industry veterans will find practical information and guidance, including how to: ¿ facilitate dynamic adult learning experiences; ¿ help people develop confidence, vigor, and zeal to meet challenges; ¿ write the best performance criteria; ¿ establish an atmosphere where learning is always promoted. All supervisors must take responsibility in helping their employees meet expectations and become successful professionals. This also applies to ministers, rabbis, imams, and other leaders who encourage people to lead more productive and satisfying lives. Regardless of whether you are a human resource professional, it's imperative that you rise to the challenge and take the necessary steps to help others rise to their potential. Learn how to do it step by step with A Mini Course in Training Design. It provides guidance on how you can become a motivational force. Through human resource development tools, you can develop qualities such as expertise, empathy, and enthusiasm that will help you to develop training methods specialized to your purpose and to your people.

A Mini Course in Training Design

A Simple Approach to a Not-So-Simple SubjectBy William A. Welch Sr.

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 William A. Welch Sr., EdD.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-4661-4

Contents

INTRODUCTION.............................................................XITHE BOOK, IT'S FORMAT, AND FOR WHOM IT IS INTENDED.......................XII. THEORY AND PRACTICES IN ADULT LEARNING................................1ADULT EDUCATORS AND DEFINITIONS OF ADULT EDUCATION.......................3CRITICAL REFLECTION AND TRANSFORMATION LEARNING..........................4ON BECOMING A MOTIVATIONAL FACILITATOR...................................6A POWER RELATIONS APPROACH TO ADULT LEARNING.............................8II. PERFORMANCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT.........................................11SELF-PREPARATION.........................................................11ASSESSING THE CLIENT'S NEEDS.............................................13METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT...............................20III. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES..............................................28TERMINAL OBJECTIVES......................................................28ENABLING OBJECTIVES......................................................29REQUIREMENTS OF A PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE..................................29LEARNING DOMAINS.........................................................34IV. ACTIVITIES TO ACHIEVE THE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES.....................42THE EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH................................................44V. FACILITATION..........................................................57DIMENSIONS OF FACILITATOR EFFECTIVENESS..................................57VALUES-BASED FACILITATION................................................66USING DVDS...............................................................69VI. EVALUATION AND CLOSURE...............................................71CLOSURE..................................................................74VII. ESTABLISHING THE LEARNING ATMOSPHERE................................76VIII. ESTABLISHING THE LEARNING CONTRACT.................................82IX. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: A SAMPLE DESIGN.............................85TERMINAL OBJECTIVE.......................................................85ESTABLISHING THE LEARNING ATMOSPHERE.....................................87ESTABLISHING THE LEARNING CONTRACT.......................................88ACTIVITIES TO ACHIEVE THE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES.........................89EVALUATION...............................................................96X. A PERSONAL WORD FROM THE AUTHOR.......................................97BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................99

Chapter One

THEORY AND PRACTICES IN ADULT LEARNING

It is important and appropriate to begin our brief journey into the development of learning activities by exploring some of the basic fundamentals of adult learning. It is, after all, the adult population that we are primarily concerned about in this book. Additionally, "for the first time in our society, adults outnumber youths, there are more older adults, the population is better educated than ever before, and there is more cultural and ethnic diversity" (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 7). This change provides many opportunities and challenges. It provides opportunities to serve a vast market and challenges to design and deliver learning experiences to a complex mixture of clients whose needs are equally as diverse as they themselves are.

For decades, whenever the subject of adult learning has surfaced, one name immediately comes to mind: Malcolm Knowles. Synonymous with that name is the term andragogy. There is no single theory that explains all adult learning, although there have been and continues to be considerable effort directed toward that end. Knowles (1984; 1992; 1998) presented his concept of andragogy offering a difference between the learning styles and needs of children and adults. He describes the two approaches, pedagogy and andragogy, which in my view have also been misinterpreted as a dichotomy, an either/or approach to teaching, facilitating learning for children and adults. The word itself comes from the Greek words paid, meaning "child," and agogus, meaning "leader of," literally translated together meaning the art and science of teaching children (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998).

In the pedagogy approach the teacher decides what the learner needs to know and proceeds to develop and deliver the instruction designed to relieve the knowledge or skill deficiency. It is assumed that children have little if any experience that the teacher needs to consider in the teaching process. The assumption that the learner has little relevant knowledge of the subject being taught or any particularly relevant life experience that needs to be considered would create a real dilemma for anyone teaching adults. "To adults, their experience is who they are. In any situation in which adults' experience is ignored or devalued, they perceive this as not rejecting just their experience, but rejecting them as persons" (Knowles et al., p. 58). Horton and Freire (1990) insist that "you can't say you respect people and not respect their experiences" (p. 178).

After a brief review of the foregoing we come easily to the conclusion that there are situations in which adults need a pedagogical approach and children an andragogical approach. It is more about what the learner knows, his or her experience and or training in a given area, that controls the decision as to which approach is more suitable.

The andragogical approach does in fact take into account the experiences of the learner. It makes several assumptions about the learner, among them that they "have a self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions, for their own lives" (Knowles, et al., 1998, p. 65). Knowles offers additionally the following assumptions on which the andragogical model is based:

* Adults need to know why they need to know a particular thing or have a particular skill before they move to learn it.

* They become ready to learn in order to cope with real-life situations. Readiness, Knowles points out, is associated with moving from one developmental stage to another.

* They are life-centered in their orientation to learning in contrast with their youthful counterparts, who are more subject-centered oriented.

* Adults are motivated more by internal pressures, such as job satisfaction, self-esteem, and quality of life, than by external motivators, such as better jobs, promotions, or higher salaries.

It must be said at the outset that Knowles's assumptions have been seriously questioned by many, among them Brookfield (1996), Merriman, Mott, & Lee (1996), Hanson (1996), and Merriam, Cafferella, & Baumgartner (2007). In fact Brookfield questions whether andragogy is a theory at all. Perhaps the last word should be that of Knowles himself when he stated that he "prefers to think of [andragogy] as a model of assumptions about learning or a conceptual framework that serves as a basis for an emergent theory" (Knowles, 1989, p. 112).

One difficulty for some in using the andragogy/pedagogy continuum is where to place a particular adult on the continuum. After all, we know that most adults do not develop in all aspects at the same pace and thus may be quite self-directed about one set of...