Make learning experiential

Create opportunities for people to practice the thing you’re talking about.

People learn what you teach them when they have an opportunity to practice what they’re being taught. This covered repeated in education materials. This is why there are many exercise and workbooks on topics too.

As books on play and games also point out, you learn even faster and more effectively when learning is done in a fun way. We’ve had enough dry, unexciting teaching sessions, so give your people fun and playful ones, and they will remember and be able to apply what you covered more easily.

You can make your teaching and learning sessions more experiential in many ways. The goal is to give people chance to try what you’re talking about, and to also discuss that experience with other participants too. This provides a short retrospective of what they’ve done, which helps the experience consolidate.

Use the 4Cs for structure

Sharon Bowman writes about the 4Cs in structuring your sessions. You can combine them as needed – always in groups of 4 – to suit your needs. These mean people are more engaged, have more opportunities to talk and think, while also having a chance to practice what is being covered too.

Connections let people think about the topic and compare it with what they already know. They might also consider what they want to know on the topic.

Concepts is the ‘lecture’ part where you might do more talking than the others. This might also include some review activities and discussion too.

Concrete practice is where the participants practice what they learned in the concepts section. This might be a simulation or other exercise that represents one or more of the ideas talked about earlier.

Conclusion is the wrap up and review of what they did. By comparing each other’s experience the participants also gain other perspectives on what they learned.

I found these ideas so useful I rewrote all of my lectures to use the 4Cs. You can break up a 45-50 minute lecture period into three or four of these cycles. You do need to take the room layout into account, but sometimes, as I found, you can also change rooms too. Ask. You might be surprised.

Find out more about this by reading her Training from the Back of the Room book. You can also find a number of practitioners teaching her approach too. Plus there is a lot of the ideas and exercises online too. This means you can explore, and experience the ideas, before you spend any money.

Combine the 4Cs with other activities

The 4Cs are only part of the story. Create opportunities for people to pause, reflect, and share their thoughts too. Writing while listening is hard work, so create gaps where people can take notes. If possible, create exercises that get people moving too. They expend more energy and oxygen when moving, which aids learning too.

This is where you can be imaginative and align your learning goals with what you want people to experience and remember the next day. What are the two or three things you want them to remember? Ignore the obscure parts. What’s the key thing all of the others forgot when you asked them to apply this in practice? Create something that makes that thing experiential.

Your Idea might not be as successful as you wish the first time you do it. That’s ok. It will be better the next time. It is also better than not doing a participatory element too. I’ve found that even when you fail in your exercise, you still have enough to show or illustrate what should have happened. Failures are also memorable too.

Use this with your people

Find your topic and make it experiential. What can you do to make it easier to remember? What is at the core? Is it about applying an idea, or a process to something? Can you find a game or exercise that someone else created?

You can often find other people’s exercises to use for this too. You don’t have to always be original. Borrow, explore and expand on other people’s ideas for your sessions.

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