TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Samar Zughool
The training for trainers aimed to equip youth workers, sports trainers, and adult educators with the competencies on how to use sports as a base to create and implement innovative educational tools for sustainable development by developing interpersonal skills and civic engagement of adult learners who identify as women and are in NEET.
The training course used sports and their based-techniques as innovative tools for adult education, lifelong learning, and soft skills development.
As the leading trainer accompanied by a co-trainer, I developed an innovative methodology that combines inclusive education with sport, soft skills development, adult education, lifelong learning, gender, and intercultural sensitivity learning.
At the end of the training and as part of the experiential learning cycle, the participants developed and implemented educational tools that use sports for soft skills development; then, we conducted reflection and evaluation for the further development of the tools. This was an essential step as the participants later contributed to developing Intellectual Output two, a toolkit containing alternative educational tools that use sports for interpersonal skills development, civic engagement, gender, and intercultural sensitivity learning.
The participants were twenty youth workers, trainers, educators, and sports leaders from North of Macedonia, Turkey, Slovenia, and France.
I was the leading trainer from the Povod institution for culture and development of international relations in culture in Slovenia, accompanied by a co-trainer from the interhuman solidarity organization in Poland.
The consortium consists of CSOs, Youth organizations, and sports clubs based in Slovenia, The Republic of Turkey, North Macedonia, and France.
The methodology combined inclusive education with sport, soft skills development, adult education, lifelong learning, gender, and intercultural sensitivity learning. The tools were interactive and designed to be implemented in the four stages of the experiential learning cycle. The participants created and implemented five tools in international subgroups on the fifth day of the program. We tested the tools and conducted reflection and evaluation afterward. Below you may find outlines of some of the sessions I implemented in the training.
1. Dancing with intelligence. Dance and emotional intelligence:
Learning objectives: learning about dance as a form of sports that develops emotional intelligence that includes a variety of soft skills for personal awareness, regulation, and interpersonal communication. This is through learning by doing and through transforming emotions and wishes into movements and actions for personal expressions and for team building.
Training tools: a space for moving and dancing, music, and a camera. Printed out slides that represent the five elements of emotional intelligence.
Time: 90 minutes
Implementation: First, the trainer facilitates 10 minutes of guided meditation to identify two emotions and one wish for each participant. The participants take their time to transfer these emotions and wish to dance moves. You ask the participants to stand in a circle and to share their inputs on a voluntary level for those who would like to show their moves at this stage. Later you open a place of reflection and input, followed by a presentation of the first two elements of emotional intelligence: self-awareness and self-regulation. You continue by asking the participants to go into groups. Each group will learn the moves from each participant, and then they will choose a piece of music, create a cerography, and perform it to the broader group. After each performance, you facilitate a discussion on what kind of messages (emotions and wishes the participants) were trying to show. After all the performances, you present the three remaining elements of emotional intelligence (social awareness, empathy, and motivation). Provide a self-assessment questionnaire on emotional intelligence. Facilitate a reflection on emotions and thoughts during and after the exercise, followed by an evaluation of how things can be done better.
Outcomes: the participants learned about dancing as a form of sport and explored the concept of emotional intelligence as a base and resource of soft skills. The participants learned about dancing as an innovative educational tool to stimulate and enhance self-awareness in connection to social interactions, empathy, and networking.
Resource: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14647893.2019.1708890?journalCode=crid20
2. Our dancing chairs (cultural awareness through sport):
Learning objectives: to build the capacities of the trainers, educators, and sports leaders by learning how to use sports and its based tools for cultural awareness as a civic competence that requires soft and hard skills.
Training tools: chairs for the number of participants, music, speakers, and two different rooms. Two trainers or facilitators shall be included in this experience.
Time: 120 minutes
Implementation: You divide the participants into groups one and two. In one of the two rooms, the rules of the known game “dancing chairs” are applied and explained in a collective format: after the music stops, all people must be seated. Those who have more people sharing the chair with them shall be honored. In each round, you take one chair out. In the individualistic room: each person shall have a chair to set on; those without chairs lose and get out of the game. After the participants play in the two rooms, you conduct a reflection and evaluation. You present the cultural awareness of Geert Hofstede, and you distribute a questionnaire to measure the self-awareness and cultural understanding of the participants. You facilitate a discussion on which type of sports were present in this activity and what was it for? You may always refer to the dictionary created by the group.
Outcomes: the participants learned by doing about cultural awareness, the different cultural dimensions, and how innovative educational tools based on Sports can be developed for adult education in cultural awareness. The participants learned the soft and hard skills required to be culturally aware.
3. "Act Out and Sink In" Challenging gender stereotypes
The learning objective: understanding gender and its impact on one’s choices in life to reclaim identities and unleash one’s capacities and power beyond social pressure and enforced social roles. To create inclusive environments that are free from ethnic and gender profiling.
Duration of the session: 90 minutes
Preparation and needed tools: Three cups. Nine small balls, sticky notes. Papers and pens. Music. Space indoor or outdoor that is comfortable for moving. A door or red tape to identify the start point. In this session, you need three people who will act as judges.
Implementation:
-Divide the participants into groups, ask them to assign a leader, and choose the name of their group.
- Explain to them the challenges:
● mathematics ( three exercises); the participants shall verbally solve one exercise after another. If the first answer is wrong, they can use pen and paper.
● belly dance. Thirty seconds of free-style belly dance based on the music chosen by the judge.
● push-ups ten push-ups (not based on ableism).
● Shooting (throwing the ball in a cup).
Explain what each challenge will look like, then give them time to assign the challenges to the people in their team. Each challenge is for one person. Inform them that they cannot change this order afterward. Introduce the judges. Each judge is in one corner.
Explain the rules: all groups go out; one competitor from each group enters the room once you open the door. Each judge is responsible for one competitor. Once the player wins, they go out, and the next player from the same group enters.
The first group that finishes the whole challenge wins.
Reflection:
● you facilitate a reflection on feelings and how the process of delegating tasks went. You can use an exercise where you put signs across the room: 1. I agree. 2. I am not sure, and 3. I disagree. You shall prepare a list of questions that makes reflective thoughts on how gender plays or did not play a role in the self-choice of choosing a challenge or delegating a challenge. (Examples to be uploaded later due to time).
● You ask about the type of sports used in the challenges and what gender stereotypes are associated with it.
● You give a self-directed assessment tool on emotional intelligence and gender sensitivity learning in connection to cultural awareness and how culture impacts gender roles.
● You ask questions about gender, gender roles, and gender stereotypes. You ask the participants to move around the room, responding to these questions. The right side means yes, the left side No, and the middle is unsure.
Theory presentation:
The theory shall address gender sensitivity learning concerning gender profiling and its negative impact on gender equality.
Evaluation:
Here, you can use self-directed evaluation tools to identify similar situations where participants felt they should stick to certain roles due to their assigned gender. The second part is about solutions to what the participants can do when they face situations of gender profiling in their lives.
In the end, you open a group evaluation discussion where those who would like to share can share the outcomes of their evaluation process.
The active experimentation happens afterward when the participants will endure similar situations in real life.
Tips and suggestions to the trainers for further implementations: When you explain the challenges, ensure they are not based on ableism. For example, if a participant is in a wheelchair, they can do the pushups in any format they decide on. Make sure to open an inclusive space where you respect the participant’s gender and gender roles approach. This session is a self-directed learning process; therefore, the theory you present can be questioned. There are no right or wrong answers but only reflections to raise awareness about gender, its concepts, and how it impacts one’s life.
Reference: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/methods-tools/gender-awareness-raising
Each participant created three learning tools based on the experiential learning cycle. The toolkit will be published soon as an Intellectual Output Two of Sustainable Development Through Sport” with the 2019-1-TR01-KA204-077742 reference number under Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnership building.
I was the leading trainer from the Povod institution for culture and development of international relations in culture in Slovenia, accompanied by a co-trainer from the interhuman solidarity organization in Poland.
I designed the methodology and co-conducted the needs assessment to create the learning activities. I co-implemented the tools with the other trainer in my team.