As a person who is involved with transfer of learning to others, I am always on the lookout for ways to improve the way that I serve up learning.

As a professional in the field of learning there are things that I do naturally as a trainer and then there are the things I would love to do or think might work, however I don’t always have the confidence to try them out.

In the search for professional and personal development I recently attended a fabulous course. It is called How to Be a Brain Friendly Trainer.

Over the course of three fun filled action packed days, I learned so much.

Environment

I learned new ways of making the training room environment conducive to learning. Added pictures, use of colour in drawings, use of more pictures and screenshots to decorate the walls. Adding pre-drawn flipcharts in lots of colour to the walls.

I now have the course sessions on a flipchart with pictures rather than simple text to show what we will cover in the sessions.

Music

The use of music to help embed learning for those who like to listen is very important. Now when you do a hands on exercise, you will be listening to soothing classical music.

Chocolate

Provision of snacks helps when the Lizard brain is crying out for nourishment. If you are hungry or just peckish it will be very difficult to focus on learning as the hunger will take over. All you will be thinking about is I want Chocolate!

Movement

Incorporating movement helps learning. For example, when learning about cut copy and paste with bullets and numbering in Microsoft Word, I get participants to move to each other’s computers and mess up the lists. Then go back to their own and put it right. Moving around brings energy to the room.

Review

Reviewing information that has just been learned is extremely important and I learned that we need to review information many times.

Much of what I learned I realised I already did, however without the scientific knowledge that leads to better understanding of why some things work and others do not.

How do you like to learn? Do you like to be told what buttons to press or would you rather be guided? Do you like experiential learning or prefer a presentation? Would you rather do exercises to embed learning or go home a few minutes earlier?

On courses run by IT Training Surgery, you will have plenty of time to practice, demonstration files to use and a user manual to take away in electronic format.

Call us to discuss your organisation’s learning needs.  I believe that everyone needs to invest in learning – even the trainer needs to learn.

Call us on 0208 203 1774 or email enquiries@theittrainingsurgery.com or use the contact form here on the website.