Checking Understanding During Training

When delivering training, have you ever been met with the polite nodding of heads from the group? That must mean they understand what I’m saying completely, right?

Just to be sure, I’ll ask ‘do you understand?’ ‘do you get it?’ to which they will respond dutifully, ‘yeah’. That definitely means they understand, right?

Often, these aren’t signs of understanding and more signs of ‘I’m hungry, if I nod and say yes we can go for lunch…’

If individuals in the group are Neurodivergent then this can also be a ‘masking’ technique.

In any case, the learning objectives may not be met and this isn’t an effective way of checking this.

Try this instead…

·       Ask ‘what do you understand?’

·       ‘Explain what I’ve just said to the person next to you…’

·       Present scenarios linked to the topic and ask questions

·       Do a Quiz!

·       For Motivational Interviewing training, show a ‘bad’ example and ask group to identify behaviours

·       Create posters on content