Chapter 3: Learner and Facilitator

What’s Inside This Chapter

In this chapter, you’ll learn:

• How learning preferences and styles affect facilitation decisions

• The multiple roles that facilitators fulfill

• Competencies required of a facilitator

• How to assess and select facilitators.

The most important skill one can gain is the ability to learn. People need to understand their learning styles to maximize their learning effectiveness. Facilitators need an understanding of learning styles so they can incorporate them into the classroom experience.

Adults retain about 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, and 50 percent of what they hear and see. But, if adults become actively involved in their learning, those percentages rise to 70 percent of what they say and 90 percent of what they both say and do (Mitchell, 1998). Facilitators can achieve this high level of involvement and learning for participants by becoming an expert at a variety of instructional and facilitative methods—and tailoring them to the learning styles and needs of the learners.