T4T of experiential learning

Training for trainers of experiential learning is a 6-day long international training involving 21 participants from 7 countries: Slovakia, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Netherlands. The training is a follow-up of several successful trainings organized together with our partners in last years. In this training we will focus on three crucial aspects of experiential education: trainer, group and programme. 1. Trainer Personality of the trainer is one of the key elements of successful training. Trainer is opening the door. Everything matters: look, hair, clothes, energy, experience, preparation, plan, sensitivity, openness, empathy.. Areas in which we are going to explore the element of Trainer are:  roles | what roles can trainer adopt, what does role mean etc.  competences |presentation skills, planning, management etc.  trainers style | different styles, acknowledging one’s own style, ability to switch among styles etc. 2. Group When two people meet, they form a group. More people make it more complex. Process of group formation – group dynamics - is unique and is never copied again. Still, it has some common features we can consider when creating learning programmes. We will focus on actual group processes and their impact on program. How you, as a trainer, can cope with specific group behaviours. How to support the group processes in order to maximize the effect of learning. We will go through the different stages of group development and learn more about specific types of activities, suitable for specific stages. We will explore the concepts of “killers of the group process” and you will have instant opportunity to put new understanding into practice. 3. Programme In the programme part we will focus on principles and basic rules we use, when creating experiential education programme – the programme dramaturgy. It is the way we put the programme parts together in order to achieve chosen learning goals. We will analyze a play as a crucial part of a programme. A play can be a game, an activity, a review part, anything we do with a group. It has various aspects that we should pay attention to – theme, goal, principle, rules, form with motivation, surrounding, atmosphere etc. Afterwards we will go through the common stages of a program preparation. Speciffically: • needs analysis as a basis for any kind of programme, • theme and goals as a frame for the programme scenario, • experiences as a tool to achieve set goals, • reviews as a tool to reflect on experience and use its outcomes in the daily lives.