In my August post I compared the art of group facilitation and teaching to cooking and promised more articles on the key ingredients that make group work and learning successful.   As with cooking, facilitation is an art that involves a combination of practice, observation, knowledge of theory and creativity. Effective facilitators act as a [...]

Jennifer Stanchfield’s post on the important ingredients for teaching and group facilitation. Techniques for maximizing engagement, reflection and building a positive group or classroom environment.

This is the second post in a series that offers ideas for actively involving learners from the first moment they enter the room for a workshop, training or classroom lesson. In my last post I shared information put forward by neuroscientists promoting the idea that the first few minutes of an experience or lesson are a key time to hook and engage learners (See March 12th post).

The activities presented in this series are some of the “tried and true” methods I have used to increase engagement, help participants transition into the learning space, make positive connections with their peers and introduce and review the academic material at hand.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work”. -Plato   Starting Off with Style: Research on the brain and learning is demonstrating that the events or activities experienced the first time learners are exposed to information greatly impact their ability to retain the information. John Medina, author of Brain Rules states: “If you [...]

Promoting new ways to engage groups in reflective practice has been a personal passion and focus of my work as an educator. From the beginning of my career as an education and clinician in therapeutic and educational settings I noticed that both facilitators and participants often struggle with engaging in reflection. In books, articles and [...]

This is a follow up on a popular post from last fall that offered ways to actively engage learners in the classroom, boardroom, training or group counseling setting.   Research on the brain and learning emphasizes the importance of breaking up lecture and direct instruction with activities that involve learners socially, emotionally and physically as [...]

A Taoist Perspective on Facilitation and Leadership To continue with this month’s theme around the qualities that make a great leader or group facilitator we are offering this excerpt from Steven Simpson’s book The Leader Who is Hardly Known. Being Hardly Known In experiential education, I do not know of anyone who does not enjoy [...]

A workshop for Advisory Group Leaders, Teachers, Camp Counselors and After School Program Staff.
Join in this interactive and fun workshop and leave with a variety of games and activities that teach and reinforce:

* Problem solving
* Communication Skills
* Conflict Resolution
* Critical Thinking
* Responsibility
* Respect
* Academic Concepts

Click here for more info.

Come learn practical ways to engage and motivate students, inspire a sense of discovery, instill a desire to learn, and create a positive and supportive learning community. Click here for more info.

Can a Lecture Be Experientiall? While in graduate school, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Jasper Hunt my professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. We were filling out conference proposal forms for an experiential education conference. He commented about the “check box” on the application form requesting us to identify which portion of the [...]