Make an Impression In Your Next Classroom Session with Training Techniques that Work!

Confessions of a SAFE-AHOLIC, By: Stephanie Zizzo, ASHM

In the world of Safety, there are countless opportunities to sit in training sessions, whether you are at a conference looking for your CEU's or at work learning about the basics of Fire Safety. About how many of those classroom sessions have put you to sleep? Or how many have you walked out of feeling, “Wow... I want the last 40 minutes of my life back...” Engaging adults as learners, especially in the classroom setting, must go beyond the lectures and the PowerPoints; capturing an adult mind requires more than that. Group discussions, role-playing, storytelling, and simulations are just a few great techniques that should be incorporated into any training classroom.

I read an article in the Professional Safety Journal, titled “Engaging Learners”. In the article the author Fred Fanning discusses how people only remember about 20% of what they hear. This means when you take your Machine Guarding course, you walk out only remembering 20% of the extremely important procedures because it was read to you from a PowerPoint. You have not only lost valuable information but, are now at risk of endangering your life and the lives around you...

How do we avoid losing so much info? One of my favorite techniques to use while training is simulation. While I was teaching a First Aid course to a group of student employees at Grand Valley State University I used a “golf cart accident” simulation to get the students involved in a semi-real situation. I had a volunteer pretend he had been in a accident in a golf cart and toward the end of my presentation I told the students there had been an emergency that we needed to attend to right away! We all rushed outside to find our fellow co-worker covered in red corn syrup blood (it looked VERY real!!). The students used what they had learned during the training session to provide proper first aid until the “EMS” could arrive.

Though creating a simulation requires more time and energy and sometimes an extra buck, it is well worth it. According to the article by Fanning, while adults only remember 20% of what they read and hear, they remember 60% of what they do.

The best part about being a trainer is that you can use your creativity to help others learn skills for a certain job or project. In class while I was a student at GVSU, my favorite professors were the ones who had so many great stories! Storytelling is one of the most effective training tools that I have have ever used or taken part in. “Storytelling can impart complex information in an understandable manner” (Fanning, 2011).

I will never forget one of my classes in college when my OSH professor explained to us about Lockout/Tagout. He told us the story of a man who worked at a dog food plant. He informed us that he went into the mixer and forgot to lockout the machine...someone came and turned it on and the exact words from my professor were “they were picking him up with a spoon...” I remember going back to my dorm and telling everyone that story. I also remember how important is it to practice the procedures of Lockout/Tagout.

The bottom line is it is important to use multiple methods to “break-up” a classroom training session and engage users. Don’t use just one method. Combining PowerPoint™, simulation, interaction, and Q & A keeps students actively thinking. Segmenting with a video training program on the topic is a great way to engage students, especially a video program that shows real working situations and on the job activities while explain best safety practices. For many topics, hands on training is extremely beneficial and sometimes required. The old “lecture and lab” concept still works today.

Remember that the responsibility of training students can be very rewarding if you put in the time and effort. Use your personal experiences and your creativity to make the learning environment worth while and interesting. Challenge yourself and your students to create a fun and effective classroom!

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