Put the ball in their court

Brain-friendly learning is about creating a rich experience with learners. It follows that the facilitator should aim to minimise the percentage of course time spent merely talking at the group.

A training course is not something you do to people - or even for people, but with people. Use the 30/70 rule - at least 70% of the time should be learners doing something rather than listening to the facilitator.

• Make it experience-based, not materials based. The menu is not the meal. The course manual is not the experience.
• Encourage learners to create the learning materials - presentations, handouts, job aids, checklists, quizzes and tests, stories and metaphors, role play scenarios, process flowcharts. Things that are created by the learners are usually ten times more memorable and meaningful than things created by the facilitator.
• Pose problems rather than giving answers. Don't do for the learners what they can do for themselves, or each other - except where this frees them up to do something more important.
• Teach people how to think for themselves.

Your learning activity for this week:

1. Think about a course you facilitate and analyse how the time is spent …where is the ball?

2. If your design doesn't conform to the 30/70 rule, how could you change this to make the learning more brain friendly?

3. Incorporate this change into your next event.

Be a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage!