Participants left the 10-day Andreas Hermes Akademie MDPT training course in Johannesburg deeply impressed and full of drive. With over 70 methods for participant-oriented training, their toolbox is full to the brim with ways to get farmers in their countries more involved and thereby enable more sustainable learning.
“Important discoveries for me are the six trumps and continuing commitment of participants. I have also learned that there are no strengths or weaknesses. We only have qualities that we can use to improve our training abilities. Even so-called weaknesses have advantages,” says Elles from Malawi, who participated in the course “Methods and Didactics for Personality-based Trainings (MDPT)”.
Sharon Bowman, Training from the back of the room
From the outset, participants became absorbed in the intense, creative atmosphere with growing enthusiasm.
The event was held on behalf of SACAU, the umbrella organisation for farmers’ organisations from 14 countries in southern Africa. Together with my colleague Nanganidzai Mokoho from Zimbabwe, we organised a ten-day intensive training course that covered all the areas relevant to a training course.
Starting with creative use of materials, through a constructive feedback format, to learning psychology and group dynamics, a total of eight subject areas were covered. It was an intensive training course which involved applying over 70 methods.
The most important feature, however, was the increasing involvement of the participants. This was ensured by Sharon Bowman’s 4-C concept, which provided structure to each day.
While participants initially adopted more of a spectator’s stance, they increasingly became active participants. But that was not all – participants organised the final day entirely by themselves. They decided on both content and form and thereby played an active role in shaping it.
After all, that was the main aim of the course: to experience for themselves how powerful the learning effect is when participants are actively involved in the learning process.“I will ensure that I deliver training that is participant-focused, using the different methods, tools and knowledge I have acquired during the training. My communication skills have also improved dramatically, which is not only useful for leading (…) training courses, but also for my personal life,” says Sarita from Namibia.
Thanks to the MDPT course, Andreas Hermes Akademie has once again lived up to its claim of offering training courses that are centred around people.
