Adult Education and Facilitation

Training is a big part of the work I do with the ILAB team at Code For Africa (CfA) , whether virtual or physical. One of my goals for 2024 is to improve my training skills and add curriculum development to my skill set. I seem to be in line with the Knowledge team at CfA because the first Training-of-Trainers session held this year was on Effective Facilitation Skills led by Mary Mbuve, CPM . I’m going to highlight a few of the principles I learned and will be implementing in my trainings going forward.

First I’ll start with the term, Andragogy. Andragogy is the practice of teaching adults. Knowing how adults learn is essential to knowing how to teach adults. 

Some of the adult learning principles that stood out to me are: 

1. Show motivation behind the activity: Adults are self-directed and can’t be forced to learn. Knowing the importance of a training/activity will make them motivated to learn. When designing a course/activity, the goals should be clearly stated so that participants know what benefits they stand to gain from taking the course.
2. Establish the audience experience: What is the current experience of the participants (beginner, intermediate, expert)? This will guide you as a trainer in defining your scope, designing your curriculum and preparing/choosing your training resources.
3. What is the problem gap?: Now that you know the experience level of your participants, you can define what skills they lack and tailor your session to address this.
4. Immediate application: Let your training be directed towards application. Adults like to know that what they are learning directly impacts them (in this case their work).
5. Respect for prior Knowledge: This is similar to number 2 but here, while training, show interest in what the participants already know. For example, if you are doing a practical session, how have they previously carried out that task? How can your training improve on existing knowledge or supplement it?

As someone who does a lot of my learning online, these principles helped me understand my learning patterns and why some courses work for me and some don’t.

Now over to facilitation. Facilitation is the process of guiding and enabling group interactions to achieve a productive and inclusive outcome.

Techniques for Effective Facilitation

1. Establish Clear Objectives: Define the scope to be covered
2. Create a safe space and manage group dynamics: Encourage balanced participation. Participants will likely cut across different personality types, your goal as a facilitator is to ensure that everyone feels safe and is encouraged to share their opinions without bias or prejudice.
3. Active listening: Be keen on verbal and non-verbal cues. Take note of those who speak and those who don’t. Ensure that those who don’t speak are still carried along.
4. Facilitate decision-making: Your goal is not to make decisions for the participants but to help them decide by themselves.
5. Use visual aids: I probably don’t need to explain this, many of us learn better when we are given the right visual cues. Show rather than tell.

Note: In training our goal is to ensure that participants remain in the zone of active learning rather than passive learning. This includes group discussions, learning by doing and teaching others. If you haven't noticed, I am using one of the active learning methods by writing this short piece.

I hope I summarised this well Mary Mbuve, CPM . Thanks again to the knowledge team at CfA for organising such an interesting session.

Tolu O. Adeyemo Dr. Damilola Aderohunmu Eunice Muchuna JOSEPH DOKHARE