Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

4.1 Introduction

Training aids are simply devices which by appealing to and thus providing stimulus to one or another of the senses facilitate the training process. The definition is deliberately broad. Anything the instructor places in front of the trainee that adds a sensory channel beyond the spoken word is a training aid: a whiteboard sketch, a model, a clip of video, a folded sheet of A4 standing in for an aerofoil, a tennis ball used to demonstrate Coriolis. The category is not defined by sophistication or by cost; it is defined by function (does it stimulate a sense the trainee would otherwise not be using).

Training aids material is about using that stimulus deliberately. The danger an inexperienced instructor runs is to treat aids decoratively (the slide is on because the slide is always on) rather than functionally (the slide is on because the trainee needs to see this diagram now). The four sections that follow address that distinction: 4.2 How Aids Assist Learning explains why aids work; 4.3 Techniques for Using the More Common Training Aids covers how to use each common aid type well; 4.4 Uncontrolled Note Taking and 4.5 Controlled Note Taking cover the trainee's own note-taking, the most basic and most easily neglected aid in the room.

4.1.1 Purpose of Training Aids

In the training process, the trainee is continuously being introduced to new concepts and processes which are comparatively complex or abstract, or lie beyond the range of his past experience. To aid the learning process the instructor has to present the subject in such a way that it is:

  • MEANINGFUL.
  • MEMORABLE.

Training aids can assist greatly in this task.

Meaningful and memorable are the two operational tests for any aid. Meaningful means the trainee can see how the new material connects to what they already know and to the task they will perform: a diagram that shows where this system sits in the larger aircraft architecture is meaningful in a way that a list of subsystem names is not. Memorable means the trainee will still hold the material days or weeks later, when they encounter it on the line: an aid that produced an "ah, I see it now" moment in the briefing room is more memorable than a paragraph of text that produced only a nod. An aid that fails both tests is not earning its place in the lesson.

4.1.2 Range of Aids

There is a vast range of available aids that can be used. Each has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Some will be more appropriate than others in certain instances.

Some of the most common aids are:

  1. Whiteboard.
  2. Computers.
  3. Flip charts.
  4. Videos.
  5. Magnetic board.
  6. Posters.
  7. Charts.
  8. Overhead projector.
  9. Slide projector.
  10. Models.
  11. Books.
  12. Notes.

This list is not exhaustive, because anything you use to convey the message effectively is a training aid. An example of this is a piece of A4 bent over to make an aerofoil shape, a tennis ball for Coriolis, two pieces of paper to demonstrate Bernoulli's Theorem.

Even at a well-established organisation, not all of the above list of training aids will be available. The good instructor is able to make do with what is available, or make their own aids as required.

It must always be remembered though that the item is only an aid and is not intended to be a substitute for a lesson or instructor. This false impression is often gained when the more sophisticated aids are used (e.g. PowerPoint), to the detriment of the learning process.

Structure

Training aids material follows a deliberate structure:

  • 4.2 How Aids Assist Learning: the underlying sensory and pedagogical rationale, plus the operational subsections on when to use aids and how to select an aid for a given lesson.
  • 4.3 Techniques for Using the More Common Training Aids: a thirteen-subsection walk through each common aid type (whiteboard, computers and laptops, PowerPoint, simulator-brief PowerPoint use, audio recordings, flip charts, overhead projector, video and DVD, models, posters and charts, books, hand-outs, notes and précis), with the specific technique tips for each.
  • 4.4 Uncontrolled Note Taking and 4.5 Controlled Note Taking: the two contrasting trainee-side strategies for capturing what was taught, with their advantages and disadvantages.

Read 4.2 How Aids Assist Learning before 4.3 Techniques for Using the More Common Training Aids: the selection criteria in the former are what tell you which subsection of the latter actually applies to the lesson you are planning. Read 4.4 Uncontrolled Note Taking and 4.5 Controlled Note Taking together: they are not alternatives between which the instructor chooses once and forever, but two techniques the same lesson can use at different points (uncontrolled while the instructor presents, controlled when the instructor needs the trainee to capture a specific definition or procedure verbatim).

4.1 Introduction follows directly from 3.1 Introduction, which dealt with the verbal and questioning techniques the instructor uses in delivery. Training aids material is the visual and material counterpart: the techniques for the non-verbal, sense-stimulating side of instruction. Together, 3.1 Introduction and training aids material define the instructor's classroom toolkit; 5.1 Introduction and 6.1 Introduction then move from the classroom into the operational training environment.

Training aids material assumes 2.1 Introduction. 4.2 How Aids Assist Learning explicitly invokes learning theory's definition of visual impact, and the multi-sensory rationale for aids ("the more senses that are involved in the learning situation, the better we tend to learn") is the operational expression of the human-information-processing model from 2.7 Human Information Processing and Memory. An instructor who has not yet read learning theory will be able to apply training aids techniques mechanically, but will not understand why the techniques work.

Connections