In past articles I have compared group facilitation and teaching to cooking in the sense that successful educators vary ingredients all the time to keep things interesting or to “spice up” their teaching/group facilitation. In doing so they always keep in mind the key components that make it happen. There is a lot of room for creativity, style and adaptation in cooking but there are key rules and fundamental ingredients needed in order for a cake to rise or a sauce to thicken.

Over the past few months I have been inspired by my experiences facilitating workshops with educators from all over the US and Canada who are committed to enriching the lives of the youth and adults they work with. As I reflect on the feedback from participants in these workshops there were common “ah ha” moments or key learnings that participants took away from these group experiences. These all had to do with the importance of taking time to build a strong foundation of understanding, empathy and trust within groups, empowering learners with choice and control, thoughtfully sequencing activities to maximize learning outcomes and the importance of reflective practice; all key ingredients in recipes for group success. In the next few posts I will share articles on these topics.

Here are some of the “key” ingredients or techniques educators should consider as they build a strong foundation for learning within groups and classrooms:

The experience starts the moment a group enters the room (or even before).

Create a “Hook” to engage participants as they walk in the door. The first few minutes of a class or group session can be a great opportunity to draw learners into a positive learning experience and increase engagement. This can be a way to welcome group members or students into the classroom or meeting space and focus their attention on the tasks at hand. It can help learners transition from the experiences at home, on the commute, or in the hallway that impact learning so that they can be fully present in the learning space. Research on the brain and learning is demonstrating that the first moments of a learning experience are a key opportunity to increase engagement and retention (for more on this subject check out the series on engagement in March and April’s Inspired Educator blog posts).

Start off with style!

Introductory activities set the tone for a program and future group interaction. Think carefully about using appropriate beginning activities that build rapport and trust in incremental ways. Take time for this process. When people are given an opportunity to interact and share with each other step by step they gain comfort with the group process and build the capacity to go more in depth later on.

Make thoughtful choices, beware of the “ice-breaker”.

When choosing “ice breakers” or introductory activities find those that build rapport, camaraderie, connections, shared understanding, commonalities and goals in an enjoyable and non-threatening way. Often icebreakers can do the opposite of what was intended when people are put “on the spot” too early in the group process. When people are asked to perform a task like memorizing names or speaking/standing in front of the whole group before they have built comfort and basic trust they actually might “check out”, become embarrassed, and/or form negative associations with the experience. Try beginning with partnered sharing activities. This gives participants an opportunity to warm up by interacting with just one or two others at a time before sharing with the larger group. Thoughtfully sequence activities to build the capacity of trust and sharing over time.

Choice and control are essential.

People learn best when they perceive a sense of control, they have choice and ownership over their learning experiences. Think about creating opportunities that build this sense of choice and control for participants or students from the very beginning of the program or school year. Empowering learners to set reasonable parameters around their participation creates an atmosphere of healthy trust and will actually increase involvement from reluctant participants. In experiential group work, facilitators often aim to create change by pushing comfort zones and challenging learners. People do learn from challenges, but there can be a fine line between a challenge that helps move learning forward and what the educational philosopher John Dewey (one of the earliest proponents of the philosophy of experiential education) would call a miseducative or potentially damaging experience.

Create opportunities for students/participants to make choices within an experience. Consider techniques such as:

• adding rules to an icebreaker that allow the “it” person a way out or an option to participate at their own pace
• inviting participants to volunteer rather than calling on them to share
• allowing participants to pass during group discussion

This will help participants experience what John Dewey called “perceived internal freedom” and help them buy into the group process.

Creating situations that allow introverted group members some kind of out or aid gives them an opportunity to participate fully and warm up to the group process. They learn to trust that you won’t put them in a situation that is embarrassing or puts them on the spot before they are ready. This technique used during a warm-up game can pay off later in the group process.

By building trust in this way, group members start to share and engage at their own pace and become more willing to push their comfort zones later on when it really matters.

It is important for groups to learn and honor names.

Knowing and using each others names in a respectful way builds trust and positive communication establishing a supportive group environment. A person’s name is very important to them and should be honored with correct pronunciation and proper use. Presenting a series of activities that help participants use and practice names can be very helpful to establishing a strong foundation of trust and understanding. I like to weave name activities and practice into introductory activities in a “natural” way starting with simple partner greetings and sharing before engaging participants in a whole group name activity. I try to avoid contrived name activities that put people in the “on the spot” too early in group process or require them to feel under pressure to memorize. In upcoming posts I will share some of my favorite methods for introducing and reinforcing names in a palatable way.

Establish and reflect on healthy group norms.

Help group members create an environment where they feel responsible for themselves and each other and are willing to speak up when there is a breakdown in communication or an issue that affects the safety or potential experience of the group. It is ideal when the group takes that responsibility rather than the facilitator or teacher. Group norms are the behaviors that exist in every group, good or bad. It can be helpful for groups to formalize agreements about acceptable behaviors to improve their ability to work together. In my experience it helps to not do this on the first day or hour of class or group but rather after they have spent some time together so they get to know about their group dynamics and what they will be encountering together. Norms should be reflected upon and revisited throughout the year or program. (There can still be leader imposed ground rules or expectations put forward on day one, but participants should be increasingly involved in defining group norms as they move forward and encounter challenging situations together as a group).

Reflect and “check in”.

Intentionally making time for the group to reflect, and “check in” with each other is integral to group process, so that experiences can be built upon one another and related to real life and future learning.

Reflection brings learning to life. The educational philosopher John Dewey (1933) who is known as one of the forefathers of experiential education believed that in order to truly learn from experience there must be time for reflection. Reflection creates relevancy and meaning in an experience and helps learners make connections between their educational experiences and real life situations. The practice of reflection itself is one of the most useful human skills in that it develops insight, one of the hardest important tools to teach and learn.

Regular “check-ins” create a forum or opportunity for participants to share what is working, what they need from each other, and for celebrating successes along the way. Reflective practice is best when it is a dynamic ongoing part of your lessons, not just something facilitated at the end of an experience or as a follow up.

Take time up front to build your group.

It takes time to sequence and build healthy trust between participants and teacher/leaders. Time and experience together can build comfort enhancing meaningful group sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings. This builds the foundation that will allow you to engage learners in more challenging activities, fosters more responsibility and control over their learning and increases their ability to move learning forward. You will find that time spent from the beginning of your program or school year building relationships, ownership and reflective skills pays off later in many ways!

Like any good good cook, remember to experiment and blend your own personality, creativity and style with the chemistry of the group into the recipes for positive group experiences. Mix it up and add a little spice here and there, just don’t forget those key ingredients that hold it all together and help make the full flavor of the group come experience through.

The experiential approach to education and group work is based on the idea that change and growth take place when people are actively (physically, socially, intellectually, emotionally) involved in their learning rather than just being receivers of information. The philosophy of experiential education was promoted by John Dewey, an educator and philosopher in the early 20th century along with others during the progressive movement in education. The progressive movement aimed to move educational practices out of what many thinkers believed had become the narrow and limited realm of traditional education.

John Dewey and his peers felt that “modern education” was ignoring the common sense observation that people learn most when they are actively involved in their learning and find the material relevant and attractive in some way. He emphasized that learners need to feel a sense of control and ownership over learning situations. A tenet of experiential education is that in order for learning to truly occur students should be provided with opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences so they relate, connect and transfer to real life.

This approach promoted the idea of focusing on the “whole person” in education including one’s physical, emotional and intellectual growth. Learners were encouraged to experiment and think independently. Many vocational programs came out of this movement, as did Montessori programs.

These ideas put forward nearly a century ago are now being supported by studies of the brain and how people learn. In the past few decades, new technologies such as brain imaging have become available, allowing neuroscientists to identify optimal conditions for learning. Many educators and theorists such as Erik Jensen(Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 1998) and others call approaches that take advantage of these optimal conditions for learning “brain based” learning.

Brain-based learning theory emphasizes many of the same principles of experiential education such as the value of combining physical action and reflection in learning, giving learners choice and control over their learning and creating novel and relevant learning situations.Studies of the brain and learning are showing that physical involvement in learning life lessons creates “body memory” i.e. if students learn a lesson about leadership, communication or physics, in an active way- they could be more likely to retain the lesson longer and integrate it better into their life and future learning.

Brain-based learning theories stress learners need for challenging and novel learning environments with opportunities from feedback from peers. An example of an experiential approach in a therapeutic group  might be an activity in which individuals use an art project to symbolize their personal strengths and resources and share their work reflecting and expressing their strengths with the group. A facilitator in a corporate setting might give group participants a challenge requiring group members to guide others through a maze to practice communication and leadership. In the classroom setting rather than just reading a text book, a group studying colonial history might go to the historical society, graveyards and other local history sources to create a historical guide to their community.

Principles of Experiential Education

• Experiential learning or therapy is active, not necessarily physical but active.
• Learners are actively engaged in solving problems, using creativity, posing questions, interacting with others, experimenting, taking responsibility for themselves and others and finding meaning in their experiences.
• In Experiential education the learner is a participant in learning rather than a receiver of information.
• The learner needs to feel intrinsically motivated to learn.
• Students must perceive internal freedom and independence. They need to feel like they have the ability to make choices about their experience, take responsibility in the experience and feel in control of their learning.
• Relevancy is imperative to the learner- lessons and concepts taught must feel relevant and meaningful to the learner. Lessons need to have intrinsic value and relate to real life both in the future and present situation.
• In order to truly learn, participants must have time to reflect on experience. Reflection involves thoughtful time connecting the experience to real life situations. When learners develop reflective skills, they are practicing the skill of insight that will help them in many areas of their lives.
• Experiences should be carefully chosen to meet the needs and differing styles of the learners. This requires creativity, flexibility and intention from the teacher.
• Effective teachers create opportunities for  reflection on learning experiences- helping create lasting lessons  meaning and relevance. Processing helps  the learner transfer these skills to other parts of their life.
• Experiential educators encourage spontaneous learning; students may take lessons in many different directions. Effective teachers “go with the flow” and move with the lessons the group is creating. The teacher structures appropriate experiences but they must be flexible, and act as a guide and role model. A teacher initiates learning- the student takes it from there.
• Learners need to feel fully valued, respected and supported.
• An atmosphere of fun helps open doors to learning. Learners can practice communication, cooperation, trust, problem solving and insight in a milieu of fun.
• Educators must sequence lessons so they can be built upon each other. John Dewey stated that one can learn from any and all experiences, but growth through experience must create conditions for future growth.

Stanchfield, Jennifer (2007) Tips & Tools for the Art of Group Facilitation OKC, OK: Wood-n-Barnes Publishing

McDermott, J. (1981) The Philosophy of John Dewey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.