Creating a Learning Environment

There are three dimensions to navigate when facilitating a learning experience:

• Content
• Group dynamics
• Learning process

Creating a learning environment is a process that involves all three dimensions, and refers to creating an environment in which people feel inspired, motivated and supported to learn. How can you achieve this?

• Take into consideration and foster the group dynamic first rather than diving directly into the content: support your participants to: get to know each other, connect, build trust, support each other in the learning process, enhance collaboration, use peer-support and peer-learning.
• Create a space in which the participants feel physically and emotionally safe to engage, ask questions, make mistakes and share opinions.
• Take into consideration the participants’ rhythm of learning and adapt to the preferences and rhythm of specific groups. Approach the training as part of a broader context of their daily and weekly rhythm.
• Take into consideration the broader context of your learners (cultural aspects, gender issues, diversity and inclusion, how the training schedule connects to their work and free days, holidays, other processes that might take place within the company).
• Take into consideration possible language barriers. Do not just assume everyone understands and is comfortable in a particular language. Explore this dimension and, if such is the case, offer support for participants.
• Make sure the content and methods are culturally sensitive.
• Ensure an inclusive training both in terms of logistics and atmosphere. Accommodate and adapt to different needs, possible disabilities, and various profiles of participants.
• Breaks are just as important as training sessions. They provide opportunities for engaging with colleagues, moving, breathing, and just absorbing and integrating the content of the training. People can’t sustain 100% continuous engagement in an activity. Even if it might seem time efficient to take as few breaks as possible, it is hardly ever learning-efficient.
• Ensure participants have free access to resources and training materials that are needed for the learning activities.
• Be punctual. Start on time and end on time. This creates predictability, accountability and shows respect for your and your participants’ time.
• Bring in ideas from divergent sources. Encourage the sharing of different opinions, respectful debates and looking at issues from fresh angles.
• Encourage questions. Support participants in questioning what they are learning, what they already know and what is taken for granted.
• When someone asks you a question, support them in finding their own answer, open the question to the group and only after provide your take on the answer. After the training people will not have access to an expert to always ask, so you need to create an environment in which they learn more than just the content. They must develop critical-thinking and decision-making skills in relation to the content.
• Create a supportive learning culture in which learning is the main focus, and people feel like members of a learning community. Support participants in both contributing to and benefiting from this learning community. Support participants in continuing the learning community even after the training you facilitate is over.
• Keep it positive. People are more engaged and feel more motivated when building on their strengths. Provide positive feedback to your participants, appreciate them when expressing opinions and showing engagement, and encourage positive peer feedback.

Be an example, walk the talk. Everything you encourage you participants to do within the training, you need to do first.