Principle 1 – Engage

To support learners in feeling comfortable within the group and with the instructor while actively involving them in the topic.

• Create an inviting adult learner setting
• Establish rapport with group members
• Connect to the learners’ interests
• Recognize that learners bring prior knowledge and experience
• Establish learning goals

Adult learners are a highly diversified group of individuals with widely differing preferences, needs, backgrounds and skills. They bring to the learning situation diverse experience that influences their learning styles and contextualizes their learning. Creating a supportive and respectful learning environment that recognizes the learners’ experience and incorporates it into the learning environment will motivate learners to become engaged in the learning process. Having clearly stated learning goals or objectives that explains “what is to be learned” and “how” it applies to the workplace will increase learner engagement.

Situation Trainer Topic: Residents’ Rights

Review the following two training scenarios and pay close attention to the contrast of teaching styles and format. Notice the difference between each in terms of the level of engagement.

Situation 1
The trainer tells the group that they are here to learn about the rights of residents and immediately begins with the first right. The trainer takes the role of “lecturer.”

Situation 2
The trainer introduces herself. She explains that an important aspect of resident care is respecting residents’ rights. The trainer explains that to be prepared to meet the job expectation of respecting the rights of residents, an administrator needs to know what the specific rights are and how to apply the defined rights to real-life care giving situations. The trainer asks participants to describe situations that they have either experienced or heard a co-worker talk about encountering in their workplace. All examples are accepted and included without placing value on any one suggestion that would indicate that it is a better example. The trainer lists the suggested situations on a flip chart to be addressed some time during the training session.

Situation Summary: Notice that in the first vignette, the presenter took on the role of lecturer. She did not engage the audience, nor did she do much to establish a sense of rapport. Contrast this with the second scenario, where the presenter covered the same general topics, but in this case, she was able to motivate participants to become more engaged in the learning process. She skillfully drew upon the participants’ interests and recognized their prior knowledge and experience. Situation 2 illustrates how to effectively initiate a training session. Some trainers think it takes time away from their content presentation to engage trainees in the session’s topic, to assist participants to feel comfortable with the trainer and learning situation. Simply beginning may take less time but it will not stimulate interest and ultimately retention of the topic’s content.

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