Wie schaffen Sie eine unterstützende Lernumgebung für aktive Lernende?

I agree - I would also add that it is important to know your audience. Identifying what type of learning style, can give a clearer picture on how to communicate instructions and goals.

In my experience there is a tendency to rush to action and spend too little time and setting the aim. Being in action, (doing), feels like the place of value. High value learning outcomes typically come as a result of slowing down during this initial phase. Spending time getting increased clarity on the desired outcomes can be the key to real progress.

People learn by doing. As trainers, we love to think that our wisdom is what elevates our audience. It's not. We can provide tips and tricks, but providing a supportive environment in which participants can actually try out the activity and receive intime feedback is invaluable. Build these activities into your agenda or lesson plan.

Provide regular feedback to students that reinforces their strengths and encourages them to improve in areas where they may be struggling. This can help create a positive feedback loop that motivates students to continue learning and growing.

One thing that I find particularly helpful is creating a space where people feel comfortable to wrestle with the content. Sometimes the adjustments we need to make as trainers emerge from our participants grappling with ideas that may take longer than planned.

The key take away is to make sure everyone knows the problem. One of the issues in development is using critical thinking to define all scenarios possible to solve a problem. To many times we get bogged down with doing things the same way and don’t allow for gathering quickly everyone’s input. Remember, there are no wrong answers, only question that don’t get asked.

Creating a collaborative learning environment is so important. In my experience this comes from truly believing that you are there to help people learn from one another as well as you, not to tell them the 'right way'. An active learning environment requires a willingness to learn from all parties, with the facilitator there to lead the process. I've seen too many where this is not the case.

Train by doing. Example, setting up a network the first time can be a challenge for anyone, even trained professionals. In a classroom setting it would be nice not to use the book the entire class, so why not set up a network in the class, hands on? Of course the instructor will be there to assist and walk the students through their first set up. Every network is not the same! After being in the field you learn this the hard way. Many corporations have THEIR way of doing things, that, more then likely, have nothing to do with the way Microsoft wants a network to look. Is this wrong? No! It is their way of doing something that may work better. After the class is done, time for review and questions that may have come up.

Providing intime feedback to active learners is vital (after you've given them the opportunity to 'learn by doing'). We need to avoid the 'compliment sandwich', rambling war stories, and the list of every single thing that can be improved upon. Instead, identify the top issue that needs to be fixed, narrow the issue by repeating back to them their own words or actions that can be improved upon ("In the exercise, you said....."), give them the fix, and then explain your reasoning. Including rambling advice or general tips is just noise that won't be absorbed.

A key factor in evaluating such an activity is ensure that the goals are defined and documented BEFORE the activity starts. The process should also be documented and the views of users and providers about that collected along the way. Essentially, if you are not sure where you are trying to get to, you won’t know when and if you have arrived. An alternative but riskier approach is to have an external evaluator look at the process and measured outcomes and from that extrapolate what the goals must have been. This Goal-Free Evaluation is tricky but can generate interesting insights into what is actually happening against what you thought (or hoped) was happening.

Hands-on learning and knowledge sharing: I feel that it is exceptionally important to allow the trainee hands-on experience with open discussion on how and why certain tasks are performed. It is also important to keep an open mind and allow a fresh set of eyes to work on how the tasks are performed or how they can be improved for each individual.