By Matt Richter

Many in our field have chosen to use the word "Facilitate" in place of the word "Train" or "Teach." To avoid the debate, we have been using the phrase "FACILITATIVE TRAINING."

Why so? Well, most us recognize training is more than content dissemination, and that the phrase "facilitative training" isn't all that different. It's marketing. But it makes people perceive the interactivity more. 🤷‍♂️😁 More importantly it reminds trainers to interact and not just dump content. In other words, teach well!

Good methodology recognizes that teaching is complex. It is contextual to what the objectives are while adjusting to the experience levels of the participants. It aligns to the stage in the overall curriculum. To learn more on this, I strongly urge you to read ALL the books of Paul A. Kirschner (& others).

To TEACH/TRAIN means to provide/impart knowledge-to instruct in a subject. Teachers assess. They provide feedback. They provide guiding structure through the learning process toward an educational objective. They use activities to provide practice opportunities. The word, TRAIN, is just a synonym for TEACH. Corporate L&D uses TRAIN instead of TEACH. But, beyond context, there's no real difference.

FACILITATION guides through the use of questions. It's the process of ensuring all in the room have a voice and get heard. Good facilitation mediates conflict and sets a tone of respect & trust among participants. One facilitates when running strategic planning, brainstorming, or problem solving. But, facilitation by itself, is not teaching or training. It has its place and is an important process. But, the goal is different.

A good teacher/trainer uses facilitation as a process for various activities when instructing. For example, using various questioning techniques is highly effective when teaching. But facilitation is a single technique within the greater teaching domain among many techniques.

Thiagi and I run a workshop called "The Facilitative Trainer". For us, the phrase is the combination of engaging participants through the learning process. Strictly, though, "engaging through the learning process" is redundant. Again, it's marketing.

FACILITATIVE TRAINING involves teaching, but correctly done teaching that is interactive. It involves facilitating SOMETIMES, but with the objective of learning. We get to the goal of knowledge acquisition and skill development, but through the process of EXPECTED interactivity. Nothing more than EFFECTIVE teaching techniques.

When taught properly, learners have a greater sense of autonomy & agency as they engage in the process. There is an enhanced sense of connection between all in the room to varying degrees throughout. This is motivation. But motivation doesn't make learning happen, it only keeps them trying. Link in comments for more on this topic.

Good facilitative training (good teaching) employs good instructional design.

Here is a link to more on the Motivational topic: https://ldaccelerator.com/lda-blog-1/open-the-motivational-door-and-let-the-learners-in-and-keep-them

As for the books by Paul Kirschner et. al., I strongly recommend the following:

HOW LEARNING HAPPENS, written with Carl Henrick.

HOW TEACHING HAPPENS also with Carl.

EVIDENCE-INFORMED LEARNING DESIGN with Mirjam Neelen.

TEN STEPS TO COMPLEX LEARNING with Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer

and, of course, the wonder URBAN MYTHS AND MORE URBAN MYTHS with Pedro de Bruyckere and Caspar Hulshof.