Using Demonstrations in Training

I've spent the last week preparing a two-day workshop for college faculty on active and cooperative teaching. This workshop is part of my instructional coaching work for Project DEgree and will be delivered to experienced faculty in colleges around the US who are adept with integrating curriculum across their courses. In general these skilled faculty draw from a deep reservoir of interactive strategies so this workshop will focus on two unique areas:


1) How to manage the student team issues that arise when doing cooperative learning: building teams, processes to help teams keep track of and get their work done, strategies for managing "hitchhikers" on a team, and blending a group grade with an individual grade for each student.

2) The use of demonstrations, simulations and metaphors as teaching strategies.

Any Internet search or Amazon search will yield lots of wonderful active and cooperative strategies so I don't need to provide more of the same. In my own practice, however, I've spent time developing demonstrations, simulations and metaphors that can be adapted and used to teach other content or audiences.

Focusing on #2 above, I plan to show some video clips of one demonstration and one simulation that I have adapted and used for different audiences to teach or train to different outcomes. I've placed stills of these video clips in their Participant's Packet as a visual reminder of the strategy, along with some tips for adapting and using demonstrations and simulations in general.

The first photo below is of one of my Backpack Demonstrations. In this demonstration I begin by asking participants to work in small teams to brainstorm strengths and challenges on peel and stick labels of their target population in a particular targeted situation. I've used this with child welfare workers as they consider their clients, criminal justice staff as they consider offenders, college faculty as they consider their Developmental Ed students, and with offenders as they consider their own strengths and challenges as they prepare for their upcoming release. Then I combine all of the labels in a backpack and ask for a volunteer to wear the backpack. I start my story by saying that we ALL have a backpack filled with our unique set of strengths and challenges. Normally we can't see that backpack, but for purposes of our demonstration today, we will not only see it, but see what is inside of it.

I proceed to tell a story about a person from our target population. I begin by saying that he/she is not a blank slate but comes to us with a set of strengths and challenges, some of which will be apparent when we meet them, some of which will emerge over time as trust develops, and some of which we will never see overtly but that will be in the backpack nonetheless and will impact how that person receives and processes information and even how they respond to us. I weave a story together based on the peel and stick labels that participants have created as I take them out of the backpack and apply them to the back and arms of the volunteer (with their permission, of course). The end result is a snapshot of the unique strengths and challenges that the participant in my audience (teacher, trainer, college faculty, social worker, student etc) faces and must attend to in interactions with their targeted student, client, etc.)

Usually a hush falls across the room and the first thing to change is empathy towards the individual carrying that backpack (often, the trainee's client or student)! Then empathy develops for self as they appreciate all that they must be aware of and respond to. This is a wonderful attention-gaining and buy-in activity that prepares people for the strategies and work ahead of them in our class or training for the day. Here is a photo of one of those backpack demos at the end of the activity.

Demonstrations help create a visual memory and since "vision trumps all other senses" (Brain Rule # 10 according to John Medina) and since demonstrations hold attention ("We don't pay attention to boring things", Brain Rule #4, John Medina) we are well on our way to  impacting learning in our classroom or training audience.

How do you use demonstrations in your teaching and training? I hope you'll share your good ideas in the comments section below.

Next time: Simulations and how I use them in teaching and training