Peer Share Vs. Presentation

I logged this entry on 5 Jan in my note book and has completely forgotten to transfer it in here.
Anyhow... I had wanted to record this -

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5 January
I conducted January's 2-Day Orientation Training yesterday and today and I felt some things have changed, permanently.

There is this part in Orientation where I'll usually share information of our company's competitors with the trainees. That was how it has always been done.

BUT!

Something is different this time around and it's a refreshing change in 5yrs. I split the trainees into groups and gave them all the brands to research on and present their findings in class the next day. At first I was worried that some were more reserve than others and may not carry out their tasks. When I announced, at the end of day-1, that they'd have to do these research homework, they didn't look shock or unhappy. I took that as a huge relieve.

In fact within the groups, they delegated tasks further to each team mate pretty much on their own, so everyone gets 1 or 2 brands to research on and was not left out.

I thought that even if they've missed out a few details, I'd be glad that they'd found most of the information on their own.

The next morning, some of them planned to meet in the classroom early to consolidate their group findings and I found that really responsible. They did the sharing in class after that and I am confident this must have helped them remember better than if I were to feed them the information via presentation. This also made them more active and interactive with a sense of ownership.

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I guess in the past I tend to worry too much that giving activities or homework would take away their time to rest since all of them work long retail hours. Perhaps, the thing I should really do right now is - let go of that and be more generous with giving them opportunities for research works or discussion that could be eventually be useful to those who could learn through sharing individual projects and aid help them in this learning rather than worry about them having no time to rest.

I should have faith and allow them to research more often in future. This will help empower them with the ownership to learn and also peer-share. I'm pretty sure that this way, they will instill the learning deeper too. All gain and no loss.

YES. I shall be doing that often!

Alright, time for more lesson plan adjustments! :)

Happy.