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Encouraging Participation

Active Reviewing Tips for Dynamic Experiential Learning - http://reviewing.co.uk Roger Greenaway's Active Reviewing Tips 3.2 ~ ISSN 1465-8046 This free opt-in publication from Reviewing Skills Training reaches 770 enlightened people a bit like you :-) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please forward to friends who share your interests. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ IN THIS ISSUE ~ 1 ~ INTRO: Encouraging Participation ~ 2 ~ TIPS: Encouraging Participation ~ 3 ~ LINKS: Save People and Trees ~ 4 ~ NEWS: Open Training Workshops ~ 5 ~ FUTURE ISSUES ~ 6 ~ About Active Reviewing Tips ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A C T I V E . R E V I E W I N G . T I P S ~ ~ FOR DYNAMIC EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ~ ~ the free monthly newsletter associated with the ~ ~ 'GUIDE TO ACTIVE REVIEWING' http://reviewing.co.uk ~ ~ Editor: Roger Greenaway roger@reviewing.co.uk ~ ~ Vol. 3.2 ~ ~ ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 ~ INTRO: ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION. How to encourage participation in reviews Despite your best efforts to get everyone fully involved in the learning process, some people still choose to stay on the sidelines. So how can you get everyone eagerly taking part? Here are some tips to encourage participation in reviews. If you have any to add, please let me know  - and I'll include them in the next issue. Send your email to: roger@reviewing.co.uk Please note that these tips assume that participants are reasonably happy about taking part in the ''doing/experiencing'' part of experience-based learning, but that in your group there are a few people who switch off during reviews and who contribute very little. Here are 7 strategies to encourage participation in reviews. This list also serves as a numbered index to examples that you will find further down the page. 1) INVESTIGATE Find out why people are not contributing, what would make it easier for them to contribute. 2) FACILITATE Make contributing easier. Use tasks. Give preparation or thinking time. Encourage the use of visual aids. 3) CLARIFY Clarify expectations and objectives 4) DEMONSTRATE Show how experience-based learning works. 5) CHANGE Change the dynamics. Create smaller groups. Silence louder group members. Use temporary rules and gimmicks. 6) CONSULT Consult the group. Give responsibility. Ask the group to come up with solutions. Be open. Use transparent training. 7) INSPIRE Be radical - do the opposite, change the routine. Be imaginative - make reviewing at least as appealing as the activities being reviewed. Above all, ensure that reviews are alive to learners' needs. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 2 ~ TIPS: ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION. 1) INVESTIGATE Find out why people are not participating This is an obvious place to start, but it can be a 'Catch 22' if people remain quiet when you ask them why they are quiet. By putting people on the spot you also risk making them feel even more uncomfortable - and even more reluctant to get involved. So find a way of finding out - perhaps asking them on their own or via someone who knows them well. You are not guaranteed (and may not want to hear) the whole truth and a full explanation, but you should learn enough to improve participation levels. Find out what would make it easier for people to participate Review the initial experiences of the group by asking people to complete the following sentence beginnings in paired interviews. If you use these as rounds in the whole group, be sure to allow passing. What's good about the atmosphere in this group is ... It is difficult to speak up in this group when ... This group is good at ... This group is not good at ... I would be happier in this group if ... I would take part more in reviews if ... I would learn more in this group if ... I would benefit more from reviews if ... Sequencing - yours or theirs? Sometimes people will find it difficult to contribute because the sequencing of your questions or review tasks is out of tune with the stage that they have reached (however sound the theory on which your sequencing is based!) . Find out if you are going too fast, too slow or are heading off in a different direction. Allow for individual variation in learners - who have each had different experiences and who each learn in different ways at different depths and different speeds. Encourage diversity in learning however convenient it might be to streamline the process and attempt to find one pace and style for all. 2) FACILITATE Make contributing easy. Use tasks If people like doing tasks but not reviews, then set up reviews as tasks for groups or sub-groups to carry out independently e.g. creating cartoons, maps, graphs, collages, songs, news reports about what they have done. This may not take learners all the way round the learning cycle, but high levels of participation are likely both during and after such tasks. Ask direct questions to individuals but give some warning to the quieter people so that they have time to prepare a response. Give people questions to think about Give out questionnaires to help individuals (or pairs) to think things through in preparation for a group review. Questions can be the same for everyone, or can be personalised, random or self-chosen by everyone from a group-generated list of questions. Give people time to think In ''guided reflection'' people lie down while you talk through the events and prompt their thoughts with questions (that they answer silently inside their heads). After 5 or 10 minutes finish by focusing people's thoughts on what they will say to the group - or to individuals in the group - e.g. thanks, appreciates, apologies, regrets, congratulations. Well judged ''guided reflection'' can greatly improve the quality and quantity of communication within a group. Encourage alternative ways of communicating Encourage the use of pictures and objects as visual aids - to help people to focus and express their thoughts and feelings. Visual aids are also useful 'props' for those who lack confidence. 3) CLARIFY Clarify mutual expectations (about the processes) Create a climate in which it is easier for everyone to contribute. Some 'ground rules' may help you achieve this. Try to get 'rules' expressed positively - as DOs rather than as DON'Ts. If 'rules' sounds too much like school, find a more positive (and accurate) title such as 'Mutual Expectations' or 'What we expect from each other' or 'How we can encourage each other'. Body Image To encourage everyone to contribute to this process of clarifying expectations, place a big sheet of paper on the floor - big enough for a volunteer to lie on. Ask everyone to help draw the body outline. Then give everyone a felt pen and ask them to write down what they want to experience during the course within the body, and experiences they don't want outside the body. (This is about processes rather than about goals.) Then ask everyone to step back and say what they can do to help prevent the 'unwanted' experiences (outside the body) from happening and what they can do to help generate the 'wanted' experiences - those written inside the body. Clarify personal objectives Understanding people's motivation towards the course as a whole will help you (and them) to see where reviewing fits in. Will reviewing help them establish or clarify objectives, or help them achieve their objectives? Or both? Rather than coming up with a standard explanation of why reviewing is important, you can explain how reviewing (of a particular kind) can help them achieve their particular objectives. DEMONSTRATE Show how experience-based learning works. People may expect to learn simply by taking part in activities and just listening in reviews. People may not fully appreciate why their participation in reviews is so important - especially if this is a new way of learning for them. You can urge people with slogans like ''The more you put in the more you get out.'' But it is far more convincing (and easier to understand) if you can involve group members in an active and credible demonstration of how experience-based learning works. [Remember the scenario - everyone IS taking part in activities but some are taking a back seat in reviews.] Blindfolds and Observers One of the most effective (and fun) ways of demonstrating the value of reviewing is to set up a team of observers watching a group carry out a task blindfolded. At review time, the people who were blindfolded are keen to find out what was happening that they didn't see. Feedback can be one-to-one if half the group are observers. Then ask people to swap roles (i.e. the blindfolded are now observers and vice versa) and continue with the task or set up a new one. After a second review everyone will have been asking questions and giving answers. To put the icing on the cake explain that all the exercises on your course are in a sense 'blindfold' projects - i.e. no-one ever sees the full picture (even when not blindfolded), and that by sharing thoughts and observations we can all see and learn a lot more. Time-Outs or Process Breaks Another good way of explaining how experience-based learning works is to create a half-time break in a physical problem-solving exercise. Explain that this time-out is like half-time in a game of two halves, and that this break makes it easier for everyone to think about possible changes in strategy before going in to the second half. For some people reviewing at half-time will make a lot more sense than having a review when the game is over. When this is the case, encourage frequent 'process breaks' rather than saving everything for a 'post-mortem' at the end (when it is too late to make changes). Encourage groups to take time out from working on the task and to take a look at how they are working together as a group and how individuals are feeling about the part they are playing. Observation Walk One of my favourite introductions to how experience-based learning works is to send a group on a short independent walk that I call 'Observation Project'. The walk ends at a meeting place that is inspirational and makes people want to open their eyes wide and look around (e.g. a scenic viewpoint on top of a building or a hill, or a place beside some amazing architecture). The review at this point is a series of rounds (passing allowed - as always) in which people report one observation at a time. If prompting is needed I ask people to comment on what they observed about the environment (near and far), about each other, and about themselves. I then point out how experience-based learning (in groups) depends on the sharing of observations about things, others and self. The more you open your eyes and your mouths the more you will learn. CHANGE Change the dynamics Create smaller groups The size of the group can be critical. People tend to speak up more the smaller the group - depending (of course) on the mix of people in each small group. Create smaller groups of like-minded people First ask a question that can be answered on a scale and define the two ends of the scale. For example: ''If you think the quality of teamwork was brilliant stand at this end of the line. If you think teamwork was hopeless stand at the other end. Or find a point in between that fits your point of view.'' Before anyone moves, ask them to choose the point they are going to. Once in position on the line, people find themselves standing close to people with a similar opinion. They have found like-minded people on this issue! Divide people into 3's and give them 5 minutes to prepare to report back to the whole group on why they chose their particular position. Silence the louder group members If you are not careful you will end up embarrassing the quieter members and upsetting the louder ones. So how you set up these 'gimmicks' is important. Say something like this: ''I believe that everyone in this group will get much more value if the quieter members participate more. Do you share this belief?'' Discuss any issues that arise in response, then (if appropriate) say: ''Sharing a similar belief is a good start. I have a few gimmicks that will help get you there more quickly. I'd like you to give them a try. But please speak up if you feel these gimmicks are getting in the way.'' Ask the group to form up in a line with the most frequent contributor at one end and the least frequent contributor at the other end. Compliment the two or three people at each end ... ''the most frequent contributors - I/we thank you for giving so much. The least frequent contributors - I/we thank you for your consideration - thinking carefully before speaking up. The ones in the middle - for getting it just right.'' Ask people to sit down in this new order, and in the discussion that follows always give those who normally contribute least the first opportunity to speak. Explain that this is not ''pressure'', but is an ''opportunity'' to have your say before everyone else takes the words out of your mouth. Check with the group from time to time if they are happy with this new seating arrangement (and rule) or would prefer to change. The following gimmicks are described in Playback: Conch or Talking Stick, Matchsticks, Biscuits, Ball of Wool, Sociometric Diagrams, Question and Answer Only, Summarise First http://reviewing.co.uk/pbk.htm CONSULT Consult the group When you face a problem as a trainer such as trying to encourage more contribution in a group, there is rarely much to be gained from being 'secretive' about the problem you see and how you are trying to solve it. If the group don't know what you are up to, this may slow down the building of trust between you and the group. Also the problem you see is probably one that they are also keen to solve. So explain the problem as you see it and how you are thinking of tackling it - or why you are unsure about how to proceed. Encourage comment. Ask for ideas. Enlist their support. You may find plenty of ideas and support coming from group members. Your toolkit is not the only resource you can draw on. I call this 'transparent training'. It instantly gives you a much bigger toolkit, but use it too much and the group may think that yours is empty! INSPIRE Be radical - do the opposite, change the routine. Be imaginative - make reviewing at least as appealing as the activities being reviewed. Above all, ensure that reviews are alive to learners' needs ... Meeting Needs ''What's in it for me?'' Despite your best efforts, some individuals may find that what you are offering during the reviewing stage is neither meeting their needs nor helping them towards their goals. It often happens that a lot of thought is put into designing EXERCISES that will stimulate and engage learners. But how much thought do you put into designing REVIEWS that will stimulate and engage learners? It is not enough to expect that the energies aroused during activities will keep things alive during the reviewing process. This clearly does happen on occasion, but if you find that involvement and contribution levels drop off during a review, then maybe it's time to put as much care into the design of your reviews. So what are these needs that we should try to meet in both activities and reviews? In Playback I have compiled a list of developmental needs from a number of developmental theories. I also give brief examples of how reviewing techniques can help to meet these needs. The needs listed are: BELONGINGNESS, ACCEPTANCE, CARE AND FRIENDSHIP, PRAISE AND RECOGNITION, RESPONSIBILITY, SELF-RESPECT, CREATIVITY, ACHIEVEMENT, NEW EXPERIENCES If you can offer all of these in your reviews, there will be very few people who could possibly resist taking part! You will find the relevant extract from Playback on the following web page: http://reviewing.co.uk/_food.htm#needs Since writing this article I have revisited this topic many times  - each time from a different perspective. These articles are brought together in Active Reviewing Tips 12.2 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please forward to friends who share your interests. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 3 ~ LINKS Save People and Rainforests by clicking these links once a day. http://www.thehungersite.com http://rainforest.care2.com/front.html/player82101 You can find these and other charity sites at: http://reviewing.co.uk/charities.htm I am setting up a new site at: http://trainer-training.co.uk You won't find anything there just yet - but you will hear news of it's launch in Active Reviewing Tips. Stay tuned! Buying a book? Please use my coded link to amazon.co.uk which you will find at: http://reviewing.co.uk/bookshop/ You get the same reductions (up to 50%) as going direct to amazon - plus I receive a small referral fee :-) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 4 ~ NEWS: OPEN TRAINING WORKSHOPS 2000     Castlebar (Co. Mayo, Ireland)     XCL (Mid England)     Log Heights (North England)     Resonans (Denmark) You will find dates, titles, links and contact details below _________________________________ IRELAND  Saturday 11th March 2000 Activities, Games, Adventures, Young People & 'Active Reviewing' with Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training Castlebar College, County Mayo For more information contact Stephen Hannon stephenh@iol.ie _________________________________ NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND (April, May and June 2000) A series of 3 x 1 day courses for trainers using the outdoors with Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training Venue for all 3 events: Log Heights, Ripley Castle 20th April: reviewing at the BEGINNING of a training course 24th May: reviewing in the MIDDLE of a training course 20th June: reviewing near the END of a training course Log Heights has since evolved into Azesta - same castle, same Shirley, more twist _________________________________ MIDLANDS, ENGLAND 10-11th May 2000 How to Transfer Learning and give your training lasting impact with Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training Venue: XCL, Reaseheath College, Crewe. 10-11th May For more information contact Dig Woodvine at xcl@clevermonkey.freeserve.co.uk _________________________________ DENMARK 10-11th April 2000 Working with young people in the outdoors ''Pædagogik & Friluftsliv'' Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training with Thomas Hojland and Henrik Kongsbak, Resonans Gilwellhytterne - Houens Odde, 10-11th April http://www.resonans.dk For more information contact Thomas Hojland at info@resonans.dk _________________________________ DENMARK  12-13th April 2000 Outdoor Management Development Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training with Thomas Hojland and Henrik Kongsbak, Resonans Gilwellhytterne - Houens Odde, 12-13th April http://www.resonans.dk For more information: contact Thomas Hojland at info@resonans.dk _________________________________ MORE WORKSHOPS! You will find a full list of Reviewing Skills Training Workshops at: http://reviewing.co.uk/trainingworkshops.htm You will find a link to 'testimonials' from my home page at http://reviewing.co.uk If you want to HOST a CUSTOMISED or OPEN workshop (after September 2000), please write to me at roger@reviewing.co.uk I am looking for more venues for my new 2 day workshop: How to Transfer Learning and give your training lasting impact ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 5 ~ FUTURE ISSUES OF ACTIVE REVIEWING TIPS Future Issues will include: how to use reviewing methods to develop teamwork skills, leadership skills, learning skills and transfer skills. If you would like to request particular reviewing topics or contribute to them please let me know at roger@reviewing.co.uk

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