How to Keep Your Learners Engaged During Training

Motivating Learners! 

When trying to reach all learners, it is vital to not only capture their attention, but keep it for the duration of the training. If you lose them midway through your presentation, you most likely will not get them back! “By requiring students to participate in ways that help them make meaningful connections with the course content and perhaps also with each other, instructors draw upon learner-centered principles and support active learning.” (Shi et al., 2023). Using fun and engaging ways of teaching helps students become more involved in the learning process and keeps them motivated to learn the new material. It can sometimes be easy for teachers to fall back on how they themselves were taught, but “as an instructional designer, it is important to think beyond what has worked for you personally and consider what will work best for your target audience.” (Brown & Green, 2024, p. 138).  Two ways to engage learners in your training and teaching is the method of Think-Pair-Share and game-based learning. 

Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share is a collaborative learning process where learners work together to share their ideas and findings from the lesson. Teachers can utilize this method of training to help ensure that all students are grasping the concepts being taught, and to quickly retrieve feedback on how the learners are understanding the material. It allows learners to be actively engaged in the learning process, rather than sitting passively listening to a teacher speak. Students will verbalize what they’ve learned in small groups, then to the whole class. This allows them to take ownership of their ideas and findings, while allowing a softer launch of sharing with the class. 

The ‘think’ portion of the method is where the trainer gives the learners time to evaluate what they have learned from the training. The ‘pair’ portion describes the time where students are put in pairs or small groups to freely share their ideas. Teachers may also present questions to the pairs for learners to discuss at this time. During ‘share’, learners use this time to address the whole class by expanding on what their small groups have discussed. 

Teachers and trainers can use this method throughout their training. This can be as short or as long of a process as the teachers would want. Many teachers like to utilize this method multiple times during a lesson, giving instant feedback to the teacher on how the students are understanding the material.

 I personally use this method multiple times throughout our day, changing up the partners or small groups to allow for flexibility and diversity of groups. It is a personal favorite of mine, as I am free to walk around the classroom listening to the groups discuss ideas and answer the few questions I have given. I like to only ask 2-3 questions, as to keep this method short and sweet. If you give students too long to discuss, many will get off track or lose focus in the material. 

Game-Based Learning

Another personal favorite training method of mine is using games to foster learning. Students both young and old love to play games. “Learner-centered instructors can deftly combine lecture and interaction into an engaging format and do so in ways that not only require learner action but also actively involve learners in shaping their learning processes and developing an understanding of course material.” (Shi et al., 2023) According to The Essentials of Instructional Design, “making use of games as instructional activity has a number of advantages: games keep learners interested in repetitious tasks, (e.g., memorizing); well-designed games are fun to play and attractive to learners; and game play can provide a relaxed atmosphere for learning.” (Brown & Green, 2024, p.145). 

There are many game-based learning opportunities for a teacher to utilize when teaching a lesson. These games can be in the form of online-gaming. Sites like Spelling City,  Prodigy Math, and Splash Learning are great examples of websites and apps that teachers can use to help reinforce the material that has been taught. Learners can also play games that a trainer creates that are specific for the course. These can be Jeopardy-type games or just quick competitions where learners compete to answer course-specific questions. These games can be used throughout the training course and lesson, or at the end as a culminating activity to assess what the students have learned. 

                                                                     Play Kahoot! 

Play Prodigy! 

In our third grade classroom, we use games throughout the day. Students use their own Chromebooks to play Prodigy Math, Spelling City, and Splash Learning during center time or when they have free time throughout the day. As a teacher, I also like to create quick games to determine how well students understand the concept. Some games we like to play in our class are baseball multiplication, Kahoot comprehension games for reading comprehension, and Jeopardy on our Smart Board that is geared toward the material learned. Students are actively involved in the games and they make learning fun for all. 

Both of these methods are integral in good instructional design. Learners who are actively engaged tend to learn the material quicker and retain the information for longer. Think-Pair-Share and game-based learning break up the sometimes monotony of the instruction, and allow for students to be motivated to learn the new concepts while making learning fun! 

References

Brown, A. & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404835

Shi, H., Hur, J., Tang, Y. M., & Dennen V.P. (2023). Instructional strategies for engaging 

Online learners: Do learner-centeredness and modality matter? Online Learning Journal, 27(4), 

271-294. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v27i4.4038