Hi, I'm Candice Elliot, and I am a human resources strategist, and I work with businesses helping them to develop training systems, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Many, many, many years ago- it seems like a different lifetime- I learned how to teach English as a second language, and the method that I was taught was the learner-centered method. It's something that I have kept with me ever since that time.
The idea behind a learner-centered method of training or teaching is that the person who is learning isn't just receiving a whole bunch of information and then being expected to know everything right away. The idea is that you present information, you provide the person with what's called controlled practice-- They get to practice, and that it has limitations on it, so they can't totally mess everything up.
Then, you provide them with free practice after they've shown you that they are getting to a level of mastery and that they continue to practice. Testing and quizzing is also a part of this method. How does that work in the work environment.
For example, if you have a retail establishment and you have a new retail associate who is learning how to speak to customers and provide them with the products that you have that fit their needs, you might take some time at the beginning of [00:02:00] their employment with you to describe your company's method, how you greet customers or how you let them search around on their own for a little while, or how you ask them what they're looking for, and then how to know from what they say what it is that you have in the store that meets their needs.
Then, you would have them shadow someone. They would be listening while someone else is performing your method, what you use in your store that you know is successful for you. Then, they would have someone shadowing them. They would be the person who's asking the guests, "What are you looking for? Okay, here, we have these beautiful things. Would you like to try any of these on?"
Then, the person who shadowing would be able to give them correction, and it's important that that person gives them honest and direct and clear, concise, immediate correction about what's going on. That way, the person can learn quickly. A lot of learning is habit-building. At the start of building habits, the more direction we can have to hone our habit-building the better, and it has to be kind. It has to be thoughtful. It has to be in a way that the person can hear it, but it is a training, so they're supposed to be learning. This is a normal part of a training program is to provide this type of feedback.
Then, once this new employee has demonstrated their proficiency in being able to talk with guests and to provide them with products that they're looking for, and then to help bring the sale to a close, then you can let them be more free and let them not shadow anymore and have other markers for seeing how their performance is going, providing them [00:04:00] with ongoing training on special topics that are related to new products that you have or changes that are coming forward, or maybe you've gone to some seminar and learn this new thing and now realize that you want to implement it in your business and telling all of your employees about that.
That's the theory behind learner-centered training. The reason that I have found it to be so effective is because it really involves the person who is learning in the system. The learner is able to provide their own feedback. They're able to come up with answers on their own, and they're able to try, but have a little bit of a safety net. They're able to expand their skill set over time, and then they're able to hopefully be free and thrive and maybe one day be able to train others.
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