Lessons on How to Make Participatory Training (Chika-Chika on Apr.5)
Background
“How is everyone creating equal learning opportunities in the trainings?”
It was asked everyone by Tehreem Aftab after she shared the challenges faced in her activities at the meeting on January 7th, held for sharing POA progress of alumni of ILDC 2023.
As requested for further discussion, Tehreem, Aman and Salam decided to organize a rather informal meeting (Chika-Chika) with inviting more alumni and learning community members who seem experienced same challenges.
Date
April 5th, 2025 (Zoom)
Participants
*ILDC 2023: Salam (Moderator), Tehreem (Case presenter), Aman, Thadsa, Rehan
*ILDC 2024: Abayed, Himal, Konthea (Kamikura-san_SHARE Cambodia)
*ILDC 2016: Aaron
*ILDC 2019: Chhaya
*HEC 2023 & 2024 and Organizing members: Abhishek, Vijaypal
Case Sharing
Tehreem introduced a case of the training that she organized for youth group members using a participatory approach. Due to participants’ diverse perspectives towards a topic, she thought the training could not bring them to a common understanding within the allocated time.
Guiding questions
After presentation, the participants identified three guiding questions and discussed on them in small groups.
1. How to manage time effectively in terms of participatory training?
2. What are the strategies to ensure all participants have equal learning in limited time?
3. What are the roles of participants and facilitators in managing conflicts (=different opinions)?
Lessons from discussion
*The participants realized that the Question 1 and 2 are overlapped with each other.
For ensuring equal learning in limited time allocation, facilitators (and participants) will;
– Be clear about the participants’ background and the learning expectation
– Ask participants to decide the ground rules -> Make them own the training
– Make sure the topic based on the lowest capacity of the participant
– Simplify the objective and information for ensuring equal understanding
->Write down on paper, make them convinced
– Use chart and illustration to express complicated and conceptual things
– Select participants considering homogeneity in terms of learning needs and knowledge level (⇔Considering diversity of participants, be clear about how much gap is manageable)
– For small group discussion, assign one person to clarify the objective and help other participants
– Be careful about result-oriented approach and process-oriented approach.
– Minimize, modify and prioritize the topics to focus on the issues deeply
– Ensure that each participant should be given a specific time for discussion
– Share the time schedule clearly to make clear about objective and discussion points.
– Provide pre-study materials/assignment, that helps participants prepare for the session
– Evaluate the participants’ own participation attitude
For effective conflict management, facilitators (and participants) will;
– Help the participants clearly understand about difference
– Help the participants respect different views
– Give equal opportunity to express their points
– Foresee possible questions that might be asked and prepare their own responses in advance
– Start with icebreaking to build strong relation among the participants
– Support each other to overcome the language barrier
– Trust and respect everyone’s point of view
