Certified Adult Learning Facilitator

Take your Workshops to the Next Level

Become a Certified Facilitator of Adult Learning On-Line Course

Quick Links: Overview, Module One, Module Two, Module Three, Further Information & Course Purchase

******NOW APPROVED BY THE NCBTMB FOR 20 CE CONTACT HOURS*******

Most teachers and trainers of adults are enthusiastic presenters who know their topics well. Many however have had no formal training in educational methodology. Helping participants learn is the point of all presentations, whether they are hour long lectures, week long seminars, business and industry training programs,, or academic courses. Even if you are a natural teacher, a sound grounding in Adult Learning Theories and Strategies will take your presentations to the next level and ensure your success in helping Adults learn and grow.

PURPOSE OF COURSE: The purpose of this on-line course is to enable participants who teach adults in a variety of settings to develop skills in organizing, facilitating, and evaluating their programs in terms of Adult Learning Theories and Teaching Strategies.

GOAL OF COURSE: The goal of this course is to certify individuals who have demonstrated competence in the course objectives as Certified Facilitators of Adult Learning.

Becoming a Certified Facilitator of Adult Learning involves 3 parts.

Module One: Learning to use the Principles of Adult Learning to organize your presentations and make them sing! Includes developing learner centered objectives for a course, class, or training session you currently teach or plan to teach in the future.
Module Two: Discovering your own teaching/learning style and learning how to teach adults whose learning styles differ from yours. Includes taking a Personal Style Inventory and using that information to plan workshops that incorporate a variety of teaching/learning techniques. Plus you will learn to develop key facilitation questions to ensure participant understanding of your topic using the Experiential Learning Cycle.
Module Three: Teaching for Competence and CEU program approval. Includes designing workshops to meet standard CEU requirements by developing Pre and Post Tests, and presenting workshop information in the language required in CEU application forms.

Competence in Adult Facilitation will be determined through the completion of individual assignments which will be reviewed by the course facilitator and "discussed" via email with each participant. This individual attention and feedback is the hall mark of this course and makes it unique from other on-line courses.

Successful completion of the objectives in all modules, including feedback and revision from the course facilitator, will result in a Certificate Issued to the participant as a Certified Facilitator of Adult Learning.

PROGRAM FACILITATOR

During the 1980’s, Dr. Jill Henry, EdD, PT, APP traveled across the United States and Canada teaching academic and clinical teachers how to teach. She published 5 major articles on the teaching/learning process in referred professional journals. She was an educational consultant for the American Physical Therapy Association, planning national teacher training events. She also consulted with Richmond County public schools on “Training the Trainer” programs and was a key player in corporate training programs offered by the Augusta Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Since moving to the mountains, teaching and presenting with efficacy remains a passion for Jill. There are basic skills that anyone can easily learn to improve their workshops and presentations. Complete this on-line course and receive your certificate as a Certified Facilitator of Adult Learning.

Module One
Adult Learning and the Experiential Learning Cycle

Andragogy, or the study of adult learning, developed out of a realization that there is a difference between the way adults learned as children, and the way they approach learning as adults. As children, learning was often of no immediate, practical value. The focus was on memorization and simple skills, on essentially lower level objectives. Children learn what they need to learn for "later", whenever later is. Subjects are taught to prepare children for college entrance examinations or vocational careers. The result of the learning is a "grade", which must be earned to graduate. Yet most adults take an entirely different approach to learning. Home improvement is a good example. A couple decides they want a deck out their back door. They have determined the objective, and now proceed to buy books, talk to lumberyards, and do any number of learning activities to build their deck. The completed deck serves as the evaluation product and method. Self-help books and tapes are another example of adult learning. Many adults set out to improve their memories, lower stress, gain happiness... on their own. They have set the objectives, developed the learning methods, and eventually evaluate their own success at meeting the objectives.

This is a self-paced, adult learning program designed to help you become a better facilitator of adult learning whether you are teaching in formal academic settings, training in business and industry, or teaching adult workshops and continuing education programs.

OBJECTIVES: During this module, on-line participants will:

Design Workshops and Courses using the principles of Adult Learning (Andragogy)
Develop learner/participant-centered objectives in the 3 aspects or domains of learning (Cognitive – what you know, Affective – What you feel about what you know, and Psychomotor – What you are able to do with what you know.

REQUIREMENTS:

Participants in this program are asked to have with them any teaching materials that they have used to teach in the past or are planning to use to teach in the future. If materials are “inside their heads” only, that’s OK too. The content of these materials may be anything from using herbs to teaching a CEU course, from understanding personal vision quests to teaching physical exercise or mental meditation. Using their own materials, participants will experience developing learner-centered objectives

Module Two
Personal Styles of Teaching and Learning

MODULE TWO: PROGRAM SUMMARY

If everyone in the world learned in the same way, then teaching would be easy. In fact, most people teach as if they believed that they do. The typical seminar is lecture based. The presenter prepares a lecture, then delivers it to his or her audience. The problem with this method is that it only addresses one type of person, and one method of teaching. Studies have shown that when the teaching method is lecture-only "telling", that recall after 3 hours is 70%, BUT after 3 days is only 10%. However, when the learner is talking and doing (as well as seeing and hearing), recall rises up to 90%. It may be nice to know that your audience remembers what you said when you talk to them after the presentation, but what do they remember 3 days later? It's the 3 days later that we are after, and the 3 weeks, and the lifetime of the learner.

In this module we will explore 4 distinct continuums of learning and develop teaching strategies to address the learning needs of individual preferences.

Each of us has a personal preference or way of viewing our world. We will use in this module a personal style inventory and learning theory based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which views individuals in 4 dimensions or continuums of personal approaches to learning.

1. Extroversion (E) versus Introversion (I) Indicates whether a learner prefers to direct attention towards the external world of people and things or toward the internal world of concepts and ideas. This preference tells us from where people get their energy.

2. Sensing (S) versus iNtuition (N) Indicates whether a learner prefers to perceive the world by directly observing the surrounding reality or through impressions and imagining possibilities.

3. Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F) Indicates how the learner makes decisions, either through logic or by using fairness and human values.

4. Judging (J) versus Perceptive (P) Indicates how the learner views the world, either as a structured and planned environment or as a spontaneous environment.

Experiential Learning Cycles propose an iterative series of processes that underlies learning. In other words, it’s not what you teach, but how you teach it that most dramatically influences the learner.

Experiential Learning Cycles are commonly used to help structure experience-based training and education programs. It is the teacher's responsibility to structure and organize a series of experiences that positively influence each individual's potential future experiences (Dewey, 1938/1997). In other words, "good experiences" motivate, encourage, and enable students to go on to have more valuable learning experiences, whereas, "poor experiences" tend to lead towards a student closing off from potential positive experiences in the future.

OBJECTIVES: During this module, participants will:

Identify personal learning style using a Personal Style Inventory.
Plan the learning experience for different types of learners including: Extraverts and Introverts, Sensors and Intuitors, Thinkers and Feelers, Judgers and Perceivers
Facilitate the learner/participant through a 5 step Experiential Learning cycle that results in the learner being able to “take home” and apply the information in ways that improve their lives and the lives of those around them.

REQUIREMENTS:

Participants in this module will use the course materials and the learner-centered objectives they developed in Module One. Using their own materials, participants will design a presentation or workshop that includes elements to satisfy all 4 continuums of adult learners. Feedback will be given on teaching strategies and their match with previously developed objectives. In addition the Experiential Learning Cycle will be used to share their objectives and receive feedback with the course facilitator, process how these objectives may assist in a workshop they have done or are planning to do, generalize to future workshops and plan a workshop by applying the Experiential Learning Cycle to their own materials.

Module Three
Teaching for Competence

MODULE THREE: PROGRAM SUMMARY

One of my favorite words is efficacy – the power of producing effects. The Power of Producing effects is the goal of all teachers for their learners. To be effective – able to produce a particular result. This power is referred to as competence – fit, able, capable. In formal academic settings competence is tested using formal written exams and observations of hands-on experiences. In adult continuing education settings, the learners are rarely tested on their competence. But why not? When you present your material, don’t you want to believe that your participants have understood enough about what you have said that they can go home and have a certain amount of competence in it? When I teach meditation, I want the learner to be competent enough to go home and practice the techniques. I want the learner to have efficacy in meditation – I want the meditation to produce effects that change the learner’s life for the better.

And that’s where testing comes in. The simplest test in adult continuing education is a pre-test/post-test. This can be written or just done verbally. The pre-test allows the learner to get an idea of where his/her knowledge is in relation to the topic at hand. It piques his/her interest and involves the learner immediately in wanting to find out the answers for the questions that are unknown. Using the same instrument for the post-test (not graded of course!) allows the instructor to clarify any misperceptions the learner may have had during the presentation. In addition, if you are planning to apply to any organization for continuing education, a pre test and post test are frequently required as part of your submission package.

The second type of test we will be designing is a participant evaluation form. This allows the participant to tell you what was good, and not so good, in the workshop or class. You can then use the results of the participant evaluation to make continuous quality improvement in your course.

OBJECTIVES: During this module, participants will learn how to:

Describe the use of formal and informal evaluation and feedback in facilitating adult learning.
Develop a written pre-test/post-test to determine learner competence on a program they have or will be presenting.
Design a written course evaluation on a program you have or will be presenting.

REQUIREMENTS:

Participants in this program will use the teaching materials they developed in Module Two to design learning experiences, plus the learner-centered objectives they developed in Module One. Using their own materials, participants will design a pretest/posttest and course evaluation form.

FURTHER INFORMATION

This program is also available to academic faculties, trainers, and adult educators "live" and in-person. Email Jill for more information.

Portions of this program are being used by: the Naval Air Systems Command, Training Systems Division in collaboration with the Surface Warfare Officers Schools (SWOS) Command Professional Development Plan for the SWOS faculty and instructors.