Information Collection and Exchange

Publication No. M0042

NONFORMAL

EDUCATION

MANUAL

ace rps CEmber 042 NONFORMAL EDUCATION MANUAL
Nonformal Education I

NONFORMAL

EDUCATION

(NFE)

MANUAL

PEACE CORPS

2004

INFORMATION COLLECTION

AND EXCHANGE

ICE NO. M0042
ii Peace Corps

INFORMATION COLLECTION

AND EXCHANGE

This publication was produced by the Peace Corps Center for Field Assistance and

Applied Research. It is distributed through the Information Collection and Exchange

(ICE). For further information or additional copies, please contact ICE at the Peace

Corps and refer to the ICE Catalog number that appears on the publication.

Peace Corps

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development workers.
Nonformal Education III

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ iv

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... v

CHAPTER ONE

What is Nonformal Education? ............................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER TWO

Assessing the Situation and Defining your NFE Approach .................................................. 11

CHAPTER THREE

Learning Activities: From Assessment to Evaluation............................................................ 29

CHAPTER FOUR

Creating an Effective Learning Environment........................................................................ 36

CHAPTER FIVE

Matching Learning Methods to Learning Objectives and Audience ...................................... 84

CHAPTER SIX

Creating or Adapting Materials from Local Resources ......................................................... 122

CHAPTER SEVEN

Bringing It All Together ....................................................................................................... 144

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 157
iv Peace Corps

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The content of Nonformal Education is grounded in the theory and practice of some of the great

educational thinkers of our time including Paolo Freire, Howard Gardner, David Kolb, Malcolm

Knowles and Bernice McCarthy. This new manual includes information from the previous Peace

Corps publications, The Nonformal Education Manual (ICE No. M0042) and The Nonformal

Education Training Module (ICE No. T0064) as well as current research from the field of education. In addition to presenting the most current research and thinking in the field of education, the

manual also includes field-tested ideas, activities and tips drawn from the experiences of Peace

Corps Volunteers and staff around the world.

The Peace Corps recognizes and appreciates the work from the field, contractor, and education

specialist and other headquarters staff that made this new publication possible. Gratitude is also

expressed to the various writers and publishers who gave permission to reprint and adapt their

materials.
Nonformal Education 1

INTRODUCTION

WHY A MANUAL ON

NONFORMAL EDUCATION?

Whether or not you have heard the term nonformal education (NFE) prior

to joining Peace Corps, as a Volunteer you will engage in NFE in some

way throughout your service. In fact, teachers, extension agents, small

business experts, health workers, agricultural specialists—indeed, most people

who are involved in “development” in any way—are involved in the sharing

of skills and knowledge or changing attitudes, and as such, are engaged in

some degree of nonformal education. At the root of NFE is a participatory,

grassroots approach to helping people to clarify and address their own

needs. In many ways, NFE goes to the heart of what it means to be a

Peace Corps Volunteer—a respect for local knowledge, a faith in the wisdom of the people, and a humble awareness of one’s own strengths, gifts,

and challenges.

This manual is intended to provide both practical skills for engaging in

nonformal education and some underlying theory to help you define and

develop your own approach to NFE. Based on two previously published

Peace Corps resources, Nonformal Education Manual (ICE No. M0042)

and Nonformal Education Training Module (ICE No. T0064), this resource

represents a combination and elaboration of those manuals to bring together

the best thinking from the past with the most current approaches in the

field of NFE.

WHO IS THIS RESOURCE FOR?

The most obvious audiences for this manual are education Volunteers and those agriculture, business

development, environment, health, youth development, and other Volunteers who are called upon to facilitate learning activities in their work, whether for in-school or out-of-school youth, colleagues or other

adults. This manual includes ideas for those Volunteers who require theory and practical skills to conduct

training workshops and learning activities in their communities and schools. However, NFE is more than

an approach to training and session design; and as such, the reach of this manual extends far beyond those

leading NFE sessions. NFE provides a powerful philosophy and an effective approach for identifying and

creating learning opportunities and facilitating change in a community; therefore, it is an important tool

for any Volunteer.
2 Peace Corps

In addition to Volunteers, many other groups will find this manual useful in their work:

Host country national (HCN) counterparts, including

teachers, health workers, agriculture extension agents,

business advisors, community leaders, and anyone wishing

to work on individual or community development, using

respectful, participatory approaches.

Peace Corps training staff who wish to train Volunteers in

nonformal education techniques and approaches, or who

want to enhance the NFE aspects of their own facilitation

styles.

Associate Peace Corps Directors (APCDs) who may wish

to model NFE approaches for Volunteers and trainees in

their projects.

ORGANIZATION OF EACH CHAPTER

Each chapter builds on the theories and activities of the others, so there is some benefit to reading the text

from start to finish. But each chapter may also be read as a stand-alone module. Whether you choose

to read the book from cover to cover or decide to skim through it for topics that are of particular interest

to you, we hope that you will find theories, activities, techniques, suggestions, and lessons learned from

other Volunteers, to guide you in developing your own unique approach to NFE.

PRE-READING STRATEGY

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

Each chapter begins with a table that outlines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that you

should have to be effective in the capacity described in that chapter. Beneath each KSA, there

is a space for you to evaluate your current knowledge, skills, and attitudes, along with an

opportunity to create a learning plan to address any gaps in your KSAs.

READING

This section of each chapter provides important concepts and theories along with vignettes and

“lessons learned” about the experiences of Volunteers and HCN counterparts.

IDEAS AND APPLICATIONS

Each chapter contains activities to help you practice NFE in training, in your community, or

at work. Use the ideas in each of these sections to explore NFE approaches and to develop

your own particular style. This section closes with a list of reflective questions to help you

process the information.

KEY RESOURCES

A number of ICE publications, books, and online resources are listed at the end of each chapter

to guide your further study of any of the concepts provided in the text. These resources can

help you if you find that you still need to work on any of the KSAs after you have read the

chapter.
Nonformal Education 1

WHAT IS NONFORMAL EDUCATION?

IN THIS CHAPTER

PRE-READING STRATEGY .................................................................................................. 2

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes ..................................................................... 2

READING ..................................................................................................................................... 3

NFE in Action: Peace Corps’ Application of Nonformal Education ................................. 3

Formal, Nonformal, and Informal Education ........................................................................ 4

Basic Concepts of Adult Learning Theory ........................................................................... 9

Working with Youth .............................................................................................................. 11

NFE and CCBI in the Formal Education System ............................................................. 11

Asset-Based and Problem-Based Approaches ..................................................................... 12

Facilitation Basics .................................................................................................................. 14

IDEAS AND APPLICATIONS ............................................................................................. 15

What Type of Education Is It? ............................................................................................ 15

Reflect on Your Own Experiences with Nonformal Education ........................................ 16

Practice Nonformal Education in Your New Culture ......................................................... 17

KEY RESOURCES ................................................................................................................. 18

CHAPTER 1
2 Peace Corps

PRE-READING

STRATEGY

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude

The chart below provides you with an overview of the content of this chapter, a chance to reflect on

what you already know, and a place to identify those concepts, skills, and attitudes that you want to

learn, enhance, or improve.

Before reading the chapter, spend a few minutes with this chart.

1. Review the knowledge, skills, and attitudes listed.

2. Note those you already feel confident about in the row entitled “Your strengths.”

3. Note those you wish to study more in the “Your plans to learn more” row. Then use the materials

and activities in the chapter to learn in ways that are stimulating and meaningful to you.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ATTITUDES

Knowledge, skills, • Definitions of formal, • Effective • Respect for the

and attitudes useful nonformal, and communication knowledge and skills

to NFE informal education • Listening and of others

• Differences between observation • Self-confidence

and applications of • Identifying cultural • Patience

formal, nonformal and factors that impact • Flexibility and

informal education teaching and learning adaptability in respond-

• Distinctions among ing to participants’

teacher, trainer, and needs

facilitator

• Adult learning theories

• Understanding of

asset-based and

problem-based

approaches

Your strengths

Your plans to

learn more
Nonformal Education 3

READING

NFE IN ACTION: PEACE CORPS’ APPLICATION

OF NONFORMAL EDUCATION

While the nonformal education approach may seem new to Volunteers who have spent their lives in the formal school system, various

manifestations of NFE have been active for centuries in traditional

societies. In West African villages and towns as well as in the early

United States, young people are apprenticed to local blacksmiths,

carpenters, seamstresses, and tailors to learn a trade through firsthand experience or on-the-job training.

In societies as diverse as Nepal, Ghana, and Guatemala, clan

and village leaders respected for their age and hereditary status

pass on information about agricultural practices; traditional birth

attendants educate new mothers in caring for themselves and

their babies; and religious leaders impart wisdom through

parables, riddles, and the influence of their own personal virtue.

Through dance and song and oral narrative, through puppet

theatre and play acting, through one-to-one teaching and group

facilitation, people all over the world have used nonformal

education methods to pass on traditional knowledge and ensure

that each new generation learns the wisdom, harmony, and

stability of the old.

The Peace Corps uses nonformal education methods to further

its goal of development in people to people terms: helping

people develop the capacity to improve their own lives.

Although it may seem that development activities center

around ‘things’ such as community gardens, wells, or a school

computer lab, the real strength of the project is that the

community has learned to identify what they would like to

see changed, used their own strengths to do so, and learned

new skills to achieve their goals. The flourishing garden is a

wonderfully tangible product, but the sustainability of the

project lies in the skills and abilities the community has

gained through the process. The role of the Volunteer is to

work with host country nationals to facilitate the process, and

nonformal education methods can be used from the initial

assessment stage to the final evaluation and realization of the

process and product.

For more information on the role in the Volunteer in development, read the Peace Corps’ publication Roles of the Volunteer

in Development: Toolkits for Building Capacity, Washington, DC:

Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. T0005]
4 Peace Corps

FORMAL, NONFORMAL, AND

INFORMAL EDUCATION

FORMAL EDUCATION

For most Volunteers, it is simple enough to relate to the notion of formal education—one gets an image

of a classroom and established curricula, teachers, and students with a clearly drawn hierarchy, tests,

and milestones. Consider Diane’s experience as a new education Volunteer. Although the faces, language, setting, and even her own role may be new to Diane, the situation is comfortingly familiar. After

spending at least sixteen years in school systems herself, Diane was quite accustomed to classrooms,

tests, and the traditional roles of teachers and students.

DIANE

Diane had never taught school before, but she tried to muster up her courage as she

walked through her classroom door that first day on the job at her new post. She tried not

to be nervous as she clutched her lesson plan and remembered how well her practice

sessions had gone in training. Still, she felt a lot of pressure; after all, how well she taught

these students would determine how well they would do on the national exam, and that

would determine whether they got into university, and that might make the difference between a life of poverty and a life of hope. So she would have to make sure she covered

all of the topics in the curriculum fully so that the students would be able to memorize them

all and would do well on the exam. Maybe she would even help them learn some new testtaking skills. And hey, she thought, as she looked at the giggling, blushing group of students

in front of her, just because we had so much to learn, didn’t mean we couldn’t have any

fun! She swallowed her worries, smiled cheerfully and introduced herself...

At its best, formal education involves a government that recognizes the value of an educated citizenry

and supports school systems with curricula designed to meet changing societal needs. Parents and

communities are engaged to enhance the impact of motivated and talented teachers who empower

enthusiastic youth to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their goals. When the above

elements are not present, the formal education system can seem, at worst, like a warehouse to “store”

youth as they grow or the one-way “banking education” Brazilian educator Paulo Freire described. His

analogy likened formal education to teachers depositing knowledge into their students’ heads, much like

depositing money into a bank.
Nonformal Education 5

The reality is that most formal education falls somewhere in between Diane’s example of a formal

education approach and the next discussion of a nonformal education approach. Motivated and talented

teachers work in every country, and over the past few decades, ministries of education involved in

education reform have supported the evolution and application of more holistic, participatory approaches. Learning objectives, while still designed to meet testing requirements, are also intended to

enhance students’ capacity for critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and personal growth.

For Peace Corps Volunteers working in the education sector and for other Volunteers conducting

health, environment or other lessons in the classroom, this evolution has meant that nonformal

education approaches can provide valuable tools in motivating students and designing lesson

plans. The goal of Volunteer work in formal education includes addressing curricula requirements

using (or training teachers to use) learner-centered, participatory experiences and extracurricular

activities that engage students in their own intellectual growth and achievement.

Characteristics of Formal Education

· Usually in a classroom setting, although not just school-based

· Content is usually predetermined by teacher or other person/group in authority (perhaps even the

Volunteer)

· Pre-established hierarchy between teacher and student

· Often culminates in a formal test or proof of knowledge

NONFORMAL EDUCATION

While the characteristics of formal education seem self-evident, nonformal education is a bit more

difficult to define. In fact, there are many different definitions of NFE, and a number of perspectives

about the true meaning of the term.

NFE is defined differently by different practitioners—some say that NFE is any out-of-school learning,

others stress that participants need to design their own learning activities, while others say that nonformal

NFE is touchy-feely. It’s

more for fun—it’s not

really learning.

You should never use

a formal test or proof

of knowledge in NFE.

NFE means adult

education. It can’t really

be used with kids.

NFE is participatory

learning that takes place

outside of the classroom.

NFE means flattening the

hierarchy between teacher

and student.
6 Peace Corps

teaching methods can be incorporated into all learning. Let’s take a look at the work of another

Volunteer as we begin to develop our own definition of nonformal education.

As you read about Marisol’s experience, reflect on the following:

Who decided what the women needed to learn?

Who took responsibility for the learning?

What resources did each person bring to the experience?

What kinds of learning activities did the group engage in?

What was Marisol’s role in the small business sessions?

MARISOL

Marisol’s assignment was to work with women’s groups at village community centers to

help them develop small business skills. Since the women rarely had time to come to the

community center, Marisol spent a lot of time going from house to house, visiting the

women and chatting with them while they did their daily chores.

After four months of listening and observing the women, Marisol felt ready to bring some

of them together—the ones who already owned businesses—to help them to upgrade their

skills in marketing and management.

The first group consisted of only two women, one who made soap and the other who tiedyed cloth using indigo that she made from local plants. As the two women became friends,

they discovered that both of the small businesses had the same problem: lack of access

to a market. However, the soap maker had thought of some clever advertising, and the tiedyer had a way of reducing her production costs to almost zero. In their conversations they

gave each other a few new ideas and came up with a plan to get free transportation to

a larger town together on market day.

From this first experience, Marisol discovered that the local women already had most of the expertise

they needed between them to improve their sales and management. Slowly, the group grew by word

of mouth, and then began to expand to other villages. In group meetings, Marisol stayed in the

background, facilitating discussion and sharing among members, arranging for field trips that the

women chose themselves and occasionally offering advice on specific business methods.

Think again about the questions posed earlier. Some of the features of nonformal education that you

may have identified include:

Focuses on the learners’ needs: The women actively identified their own needs and proposed

solutions.

Uses the learner as a resource: All of the women, including Marisol, shared knowledge and skills.

They were all respected and valued for their contributions.
Nonformal Education 7

Stresses relevant activities and practical outcomes: The focus of the learning was the improvement of the women’s own lives and that of their families and communities. This was true

for Marisol as well, who learned how to make soap and tie-dyed cloth and gained fresh

perspective on the lives of the women in her town.

In Marisol’s case, the women learned from each other through unstructured discussions. But some

nonformal education experiences include more structured activities and training. As you read Tana’s

Peace Corps’ experience below, think about the following:

How are Marisol’s and Tana’s experiences similar?

How are their experiences different?

What elements of nonformal education are present in Tana’s

experience?

What learning activities did Tana use?

TANA

Tana came to a small village in Thailand with seven years of public health experience in

the U.S. behind her. As part of her assignment, she was expected to teach prenatal care

to the women in the community.

Tana contacted key village leaders and traditional birth attendants, prepared flipcharts and

posters with carefully drawn diagrams, and set up meetings to talk about prenatal care to

the village women. But to her surprise, only a handful of women turned up at the first

meeting. Although she encouraged discussion and asked people for their opinions, nobody

spoke up; in fact, most of the women sat with their heads lowered and would not make eye

contact with Tana. Tana closed the meeting and went home embarrassed and angry and

unsure about her next steps.

Since Tana was not yet fluent enough in the local language to discuss this with anyone in

her village, she asked one of her Peace Corps trainers for advice. Endang was sympathetic

but pragmatic when he said: “The women you met with weren’t protesting learning about

prenatal care; they were embarrassed at the way you talked about such a sensitive subject.”

Endang reminded Tana of the traditional puppet show she and her training group had

attended early in pre-service training. As she talked the problem over with Endang, she

learned that puppet shows were the traditional forum for sensitive topics. Puppets could do

and say things that flesh and blood people would never discuss openly. Even mixed audiences

could discuss the actions of the puppets and learn valuable lessons from them while being

entertained.

While Tana knew that to be fully effective she would need to further develop her language

skills and gradually become closer friends with the people in the village, she felt that using

traditional puppets could get the women talking. Tana returned to her village ready to try

this new approach.
8 Peace Corps

Tana’s story seems a bit like formal education in some ways. The content has already been

determined, and Tana seems to have more of a teacher/trainer role than Marisol. Nevertheless,

Tana was engaging in nonformal education.

How did Tana confront her initial difficulties in reaching the members of her community?

Think about Tana’s discussion with Endang. Why did she seem so open to his feedback and

advice? What does this teach us about giving and receiving feedback?

What do you think will be the overall outcome of the puppet show?

If Tana does a content appropriate lesson (such as the effects of water pollution) using puppets with

students in a high school classroom, would this still be an example of NFE?

As you can see from both of these stories, NFE is an approach to education. It is not absolutely

distinct from formal education in its methods; participants exercise varying degrees of control over the

process, from designing all of their own learning and using the facilitator as a resource person as in

Marisol’s story, to attending a learning activity where the content is mostly planned in advance, as in

Tana’s case. In some ways, we might imagine formal and nonformal education along a continuum—

from high to low facilitator control, and from low to high learner participation.

In a nutshell, NFE is an approach to education that can be used with adults, youth, or children, within

the classroom or outside of it. An integral part of NFE is that learners participate in the design,

development, implementation, and evaluation of their own learning.

INFORMAL EDUCATION

If you imagine learning on a continuum, as suggested on page 9, informal education would be

at the far end from formal education. We all learn informally every day; it’s almost incidental.

Learning informally can be as simple as learning a new fact or skill by listening to or observing

a friend or colleague, or actively going to the library in search of specific information to suit

your needs. Also referred to as “lifelong learning”, informal education is usually initiated and the

content determined by the individual learner to suit his or her needs as they arise.
Nonformal Education 9

BASIC CONCEPTS OF ADULT LEARNING THEORY

The Peace Corps’ practice of nonformal education owes much to traditional learning practices,

and has been further enhanced through the theory and practice of some of the great educational

thinkers of our time. Some of these theorists will be discussed throughout this book, and you

might explore others by reading texts suggested in the Key Resources section of each chapter.

Some of the most influential thinkers in the field of nonformal education include:

Paulo Freire

Freire used “problem-posing” methods to raise awareness of social issues and to stimulate action by

disadvantaged groups. Using a process of problem analysis, reflection, and action, his approach to

Teacher/

Student

dynamic

Environment

Content

Teaching/

Learning

methods

Teaching/

Evaluation

tools

Formal tests are supplemented

with students’ application of

learning within the community

N

Learning is practical and related

to real needs; applied in the lives

of people within the community

I Formal test or “proof

of learning” F

Primarily participatory N techniques

Completely participatory methods;

participants assess and reflect on

their own learning

I Lecture primary source

of information delivery F

Participants actively identify

learning needs and methods,

guided by a facilitator

N

Determined by teacher

or other authority F

Learning setting is more N casual and impromptu

F Classroom environment

Equal partnership among

facilitators and participants N

F Pre-established hierarchy

Continuum

Learning may take place

individually, or can be

shared within a group

I

Learning may occur

in any environment I

Determined completely by

participants who assess own

needs and identify solutions

I

Formal (F) Nonformal (N) Informal (I)
10 Peace Corps

education was based on the belief that community members need to be encouraged to think

critically about problems in their daily lives in order to make decisions and take action.

Howard Gardner

Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences has had an enormous impact on the field of education.

Gardner posits at least seven intelligences (musical, spatial, linguistic, logical/mathematical, bodily/

kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal), and asserts that successful learning experiences should

engage as many of these intelligences as possible.

Malcolm Knowles

Knowles popularized adult learning theory and offered ways to apply it in learning activities.

Knowles believed that the needs of adults in education differed a great deal from the needs of

children. He popularized the term andragogy, “the art and science of helping adults learn” to draw

a sharp distinction between adult learning and pedagogy, the instruction of children. He suggested

that because children had yet to assume responsible, independent roles in society, teachers and

parents tend to make the decisions about what and how they should learn. But because adults have

a wealth of life experience and have already assumed responsible roles, it is important to respect

slightly different principles when engaging in adult education. (See Adult Learning Principles inset.)

David Kolb

Kolb popularized an awareness of learning styles, and created a model that suggests four different

categories of learning—concrete experimentation, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization,

and active experimentation. Kolb created a methodology for incorporating these four categories into

every learning experience—the “experiential learning cycle.” His work is described more fully in

Chapter 3: Learning Activities: From Assessment to Evaluation.

 Bernice McCarthy

McCarthy expanded on Kolb’s work and the research on left and right brain processes to create her

4MAT System. McCarthy suggested four learning types: imaginative learners, analytic learners,

common sense learners, and dynamic learners. Her 4MAT System is a thoughtful framework for

approaching lesson design, and it is detailed in Chapter 3: Learning Activities: From Assessment to

Evaluation.

Adult Learning Principles

Adults:

· Expect to be treated with respect and recognition.

· Want practical solutions to real-life problems.

· Can reflect on and analyze individual experiences.

· Have different learning styles.

· Are motivated by the possibility of fulfilling personal needs and aspirations.

· Are capable of making their own decisions and taking charge of their own

learning.
Nonformal Education 11

It is probably clear that there are a number of parallels

between adult learning theory and our earlier definition

of nonformal education. The link between NFE and adult

learning theory is so strong, in fact, that many

practitioners assert that NFE is adult education, and that

it cannot be used with children and youth. But consider

some of the principles of adult learning listed above. Do

you think they also apply to children and youth?

WORKING WITH YOUTH

In many cases, Volunteers will find themselves working on a youth education project within a school

or attached to an organization. In these cases, the curriculum is largely predetermined and specific

goals must be met by teachers and students. Even though this is a formal education setting, there are

many opportunities to use nonformal education methods to assess, inform, and evaluate student progress.

Increasingly, Volunteers may find themselves working with youth who are not attending school. Outof-school youth differ from in-school youth in several ways. Differences include: more unstructured

time, fewer adults providing support and encouragement in a learning environment, more vulnerability

to physical and emotional abuse, and more exposure to daily pressures of meeting basic human needs.

Because these youths generally lack the structure other youths have, nonformal education projects can

be most beneficial to these often vulnerable populations. Volunteers can act as agents of change by

assisting youth to develop critical life skills: identifying their own needs, facilitating informationgathering sessions (this could be a more formal lesson given by the Volunteer, a planned group activity

or club or a demonstration lesson) and helping them to evaluate their own progress.

For more information on working with youth, refer to the Peace Corps’ publication Working with Youth:

Approaches for Volunteers, Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. M0067]

NFE AND CCBI IN

THE FORMAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

A teacher within the formal education system can easily

incorporate nonformal education methods in varying degrees

inside the school. Certainly teachers in the formal school system

must be responsive to the realities of an established curriculum,

protocol, and testing standards, but NFE can be creatively

incorporated into any classroom. You can do a quick needs

assessment to determine knowledge gaps, or an end of unit

evaluation to see if the content was learned and to see if you

need to reinforce any information with follow-up lessons.

Encourage conversation or energize a sleepy student group with

a quick icebreaker activity, or use several different teaching

methods to deliver one lesson to reach students with different

learning styles. You will learn more about all of these tools in

later chapters.
12 Peace Corps

Your familiarity with and ability to employ NFE methods will also help you facilitate Community

Content-Based Instruction, or CCBI. CCBI is Peace Corps’ adaptation of Content-Based Instruction,

which is a way of incorporating culturally appropriate, real-life examples into an existing curriculum

so that learning activities are more relevant to students’ lives. Using CCBI, you might:

Identify the needs of your community with your students. Perhaps students might conduct a

participatory needs assessment and discover that HIV/AIDS is a major issue in the area. (See

Chapter 2: Assessing the Situation and Defining your NFE Approach for more information on

conducting participatory needs assessments.)

Incorporate the topic into syllabus requirements. For example, students might be required to

learn about probability; instead of using a textbook example to work through, their examples and

practice might include working through some problems involving HIV infection rates.

Plan community action related to the topic. For example, students might plan an HIV/AIDS

awareness campaign, by making posters and hanging them in the community.

NFE methods can help to promote Community Content-Based Instruction within

the formal educational system, because it:

Involves students actively in identifying needs and finding solutions.

Promotes learning that is practical, flexible, and based on real needs.

Focuses on improving the life of the individual and/or community.

Encourages students to assess, practice, and reflect on their learning.

In addition, CCBI remains within the parameters of the formal education system,

as the assessment, content of sessions, and application arise out of syllabus

requirements. CCBI is a creative and dynamic method for bridging the gap

between the school and community needs.

For more information on CCBI, read Community Content-Based Instruction

Manual, Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2004. [ICE No. T0112]

ASSET-BASED AND

PROBLEM-POSING APPROACHES

Nonformal education is a rich field, and Volunteers can draw upon a wealth of theories, philosophies

and methods in practicing it at their sites—from participatory analysis to project planning and implementation, to evaluation. Two development approaches bear mentioning at the beginning, as you may

need to decide early on which philosophy, or what combination of them, you wish to incorporate into

your own work with communities. Both philosophies have their place and are most often used in

different phases of working with communities.
Nonformal Education 13

ASSET- OR STRENGTH-BASED APPROACHES

Asset-based approaches identify and emphasize the positive

aspects of a community’s resources and activities first. Assetbased approaches grew out of the observation that in some

settings, problem- and need-focused approaches can overwhelm

or depress groups to the point that they become immobilized or

fatalistic about the possibility of positive change. Asset-based

approaches seek to increase self-efficacy by starting with and

building upon what individuals and groups already possess, do,

and have accomplished. The emphasis is on identifying and

enhancing existing assets, while promoting networking among

groups and community members, and de-emphasizing blame for

existing problems. As a result, community members feel more

hopeful and motivated about their ability to address real needs.

Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s

Assets has many good activities. See “Key Resources” at the end of this chapter for more information.

A specific type of an asset- or strength-based approach called Appreciative Inquiry, is often used in

organizations. Detailed information about Appreciative Inquiry can be found in The Thin Book of

Appreciative Inquiry. See “Key Resources” at the end of this chapter for more information.

PROBLEM-POSING APPROACHES OR

EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire used “problem-posing” methods to raise awareness of social problems

and to stimulate action by marginalized or disadvantaged groups. Through a unique method of asking

questions and working in groups, problem-posing education empowers people to take concrete steps

toward improving the quality of their lives.

Problem- and asset-based approaches are

not mutually exclusive of each other.

While conducting an asset-based resource

inventory, information regarding

“problems” or “deficits” may surface.

While conducting a problem analysis,

people may focus on “opportunities” or

“solutions.” All of this information is

important to know and use in designing

nonformal education activities. In deciding

when to use either or both of these

approaches, one important consideration is

this: how you begin the dialogue

influences the energy level and

empowerment of the participants. In other

words, your first questions are crucial.

For more information, see the Peace Corps’ produced publications: Roles of the Volunteer in Development, Toolkit 1: Volunteer as Learner, [ICE No. T0005], and The New Project Design and Management

Workshop Training Manual, [ICE No. T0107].
14 Peace Corps

FACILITATION BASICS

Effectiveness in development work includes being able to communicate with host-country colleagues

and community, establishing rapport and trust and listening to what people want and need to do for

themselves to positively affect their well-being. To be able to facilitate discussions among groups of

people is a critical skill. Facilitation is a skill that encourages the members of a group to express and

discuss their own ideas. A facilitator models good leadership and stewardship but makes sure that the

decision-making rights and responsibilities remain with the learners. Facilitators ask questions that elicit

ideas, probe, and encourage everyone to participate and express views. They also paraphrase and

summarize for clarity and understanding. Good facilitation demands attention to the process of the

group, including encouraging quiet and reticent people, and controlling dominant or disruptive participants.

One important step in fostering effective learning is

understanding the subtle similarities and differences in the roles

of a teacher, a trainer, and a facilitator. Stop for a minute and

reflect on the following words—teach, train, facilitate. What

words and images come to mind for each of these?

As a Volunteer you are likely to have opportunities to teach,

train, and facilitate learning experiences with your community

partners at various times throughout your service. For example,

you may find you are called on to teach English lessons, to

train community members in assessment techniques, or to

facilitate meetings and other community activities. Understanding

when and how to serve in these different roles will help you be

a more effective Volunteer. In our context of nonformal

education, the roles of “facilitator,” “trainer” and “teacher” are

distinct, although they overlap in several key areas. We

distinguish among the three as follows:

a teacher follows set curriculum guidelines (usually dictated

at the national level by government agencies) to ensure that

all learners assimilate specific subject matter content at an

established standard;

a trainer addresses specific requests from individuals or groups for new knowledge and skills

relevant to their goals and pursuits; and

a facilitator guides a group through a process of expressing ideas, analyzing issues, making sound

decisions, and building relationships.

Clearly, there is a great deal of overlap in these three roles. You may find that, depending on the

learning context, the learners, and the learning objectives, you will switch from one role to another

during the course of implementing a learning activity. Having a sense of these different roles will help

you navigate them more effectively.
Nonformal Education 15

IDEAS AND

APPLICATIONS

Now that you have read about different approaches to education, it may be helpful to apply what you

have learned. Feel free to try one, several or all of these activities to practice what you’ve learned.

WHAT TYPE OF EDUCATION IS IT?

Think back on the discussion of the different approaches to education—formal, nonformal, and informal education, and adult learning compared to youth education. Now take a look at the chart below

and the accompanying examples. Where would you place each of the examples on the chart? How did

you decide where to place the examples? Is each example clearly one approach or another, or does it

encompass aspects and characteristics from several of these approaches to education?

Adult

Youth

Formal Nonformal Informal

A. A student brings a frog into a classroom and the children decide to build a terrarium.

B. A teacher sits with men in the shade and talks about HIV prevention.

C. A Volunteer works with a woman from his or her town to conduct women’s literacy classes in the

evening.

D. A health worker administers a post-test at the end of a workshop for traditional birth attendants.

E. A Volunteer shows women waiting at a clinic how to make more nutritious porridge.

F. In the classroom, children learn about how waste products can pollute their water. They then take

a walk to the nearest well, stream, or other water source to get water samples for testing.

G. Students take an entrance exam for secondary school.
16 Peace Corps

REFLECT ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES

WITH NONFORMAL EDUCATION

Think back over the many learning experiences throughout your life. List a few examples of nonformal

education that you participated in as a learner. Identify a particularly memorable experience and

analyze it, according to some of these prompts:

1. Where did it take place?

1. Who was involved, as teacher/facilitator/coach?

3. Who were the learners, in addition to you?

4. How did the learning take place? (demonstration, discovery, practice, etc.)

5. Why was the learning so memorable? (unexpected, something you really needed/wanted to learn,

exciting, long-lasting influence, etc?)

Think through this process again, but this time think about an experience where you were a facilitator/

teacher/coach. What was a particularly exciting or memorable learning experience you helped create for

others?

1. Work through questions 1-4 above in relation to that experience.

2. What specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes made you effective?

3. Are you more comfortable in formal or informal teaching situations?

4. In what ways might you need to adapt your preferred style to meet other opportunities or requirements of your work?
Nonformal Education 17

PRACTICE NONFORMAL EDUCATION

IN YOUR NEW CULTURE

As you begin to develop your own approach to nonformal education, it may be helpful to explore the

various approaches to NFE in your new culture. Whether you are still in your training group or already

at your new site, consider “shadowing” a health worker, agricultural extensionist, traditional birth

attendant, or other community outreach worker for a day or two to observe his or her approach to NFE.

Some questions to explore include:

What do you notice about the relationship between the educator and the people he or she serves?

How do they relate to each other?

What are the approaches to conversation? Is it direct or indirect? Are there differences in communication based on gender, age, status?

Do men and women participate together or do they tend to move in separate groups?

Where does the NFE work occur? Does the educator go to people one-on-one in their homes or is

there a group-learning opportunity at a community gathering area?

What specific methods and techniques does the educator use to engage the group?

What materials are used? Are they available locally? Have they been created by the educator out

of local materials? How?

Picture yourself engaging in the NFE activity. What would you replicate? What would you do

differently? Why?

Does the educator have any recommendations for you as you begin this kind of work? Is there

anything to avoid?
18 Peace Corps

KEY

RESOURCES

REFERENCES:

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press, 1970.

Freire’s groundbreaking text suggests powerful possibilities for creating a liberating education.

Freire describes the “problem-posing” method to engage participants in a cycle of problem analysis,

reflection, and action, often through the use of “codes.”

Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books,

1993.

Since its original publication in 1983, Frames of Mind has served as the seminal text on multiple

intelligences. Gardner explores at least seven intelligences—musical, spatial, linguistic, logical/

mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal—and suggests ideas for creating

a “multiple intelligence atmosphere” in a learning environment.

Knowles, Malcolm. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Co., 1978.

Published originally in 1973, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species is Knowles’ seminal text on

the particular needs and learning styles of the adult learner. In it, Knowles popularizes the term

“andragogy” and suggests specific approaches for working effectively with adults.

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall TPR, 1983.

This text provides the theoretical and practical underpinnings of Kolb’s learning styles theory, and

introduces the experiential learning cycle. The book also includes Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory

(LSI).

McCarthy, Bernice. The 4MAT System: Teaching to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode Techniques. Barrington, IL: EXCEL, Inc., 1987. [ICE No. ED 187]

McCarthy combines Kolb’s theories with research on left- and right-mode processing preference to

create her 4MAT system. This text provides a concise and clear description to McCarthy’s four

learning styles and suggests specific approaches for using the 4MAT system to create powerful

session plans.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Annis Hammond, Sue. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Plano, TX: Thin Book Publishing Co.,

1998. [ICE No. TR110]

Gardner, Howard. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books, 1993.

Published ten years after the release of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, this text explores

the educational applications of MI theory. Using a number of case studies and examples from the

field, educators present practical guidance for operationalizing MI theory in various learning situations.
Nonformal Education 19

Knowles, Malcolm, et al. The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and

Human Resource Development. Houston, TX: Gulf Professional Publishing, 1998.

This text provides a basic background on Knowles’ adult learning theory, along with updated

material on the latest advances in the field. The book includes information on learning contracts

and a self-diagnostic tool to help assess your own skills as a trainer.

Kretzmann, John P. and John L. McKnight. Building Communities from the Inside Out A path Toward

Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Evanston, IL: The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, 1993. [ICE No. CD051]

This text offers practical advice, useful tools, and a powerful guide to an asset-based approach to

community development. The book suggests ways to map community assets and mobilize these

strengths towards building healthier communities.

Recording and Using Indigenous Knowledge: A Manual. New York: The International Institute of

Rural Reconstruction, 1996.

This comprehensive guide to working with local communities provides a basic look at assessing,

recording, and working with indigenous populations. The text includes case studies, question guides

and suggestions for working with groups. It is also available on the web at http://www.panasia.org.sg/

iirr/ikmanual/.

Roles of the Volunteer in Development: Toolkits for Building Capacity. Washington, DC: Peace Corps,

2002. [ICE No. T0005]

RVID provides a comprehensive look at the place of the Volunteer in the development process.

Detailing the Volunteer’s roles as learner, change agent, co-trainer, co-facilitator, project co-planner,

and mentor, RVID provides countless theories, case studies, activities, and approaches to help

Volunteers and their communities get the most out of their two years of service.

Vella, Jane. Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.

In this updated edition of her landmark book, Vella revisits her twelve principles of adult education.

Using a number of personal examples, Vella describes various approaches to using these principles

for respectful teaching of adults all over the world.

Werner, David. Where There is No Doctor. Palo Alto, CA: The Hesperian Foundation, 1977. [ICE No.

HE023]

Translated into 80 languages, this text may be the most widely used medical reference in the world.

And in addition to its merits as a health resource, Werner’s text offers a powerful introduction to

adult learning.

Werner, David and Bill Bower. Helping Health Workers Learn: A Book of Methods, Aids, and Ideas

for Instructors at the Village Level. Palo Alto, CA: The Hesperian Foundation, 1982. [ICE No. HE061]

Although the title suggests that this book is for health workers at the village level, the messages,

methods, teaching techniques, and approaches can be adapted to any learning situation. Werner and

Bower effectively describe Freirian participatory approaches to education and provide a wealth of

examples and strategies for using these theories in learning situations.
20 Peace Corps

ASSESSING THE SITUATION AND

DEFINING YOUR NFE APPROACH

IN THIS CHAPTER

PRE-READING STRATEGY ................................................................................................ 21

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes ................................................................... 21

READING ................................................................................................................................... 22

NFE in Action: Assessing the Situation.............................................................................. 22

Assess the Situation with your Community Partners ........................................................ 24

Tools for Facilitating Needs Assessments ........................................................................... 25

IDEAS AND APPLICATIONS ............................................................................................. 34

Visit a Local Development Organization or Community Group ...................................... 34

Conduct a Participatory Needs Assessment ........................................................................ 35

Case Study: Who Determines Needs in Development?..................................................... 36

Reflect .................................................................................................................................... 38

KEY RESOURCES ................................................................................................................. 39

CHAPTER 2
Nonformal Education 21

PRE-READING

STRATEGY

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ATTITUDES

Knowledge, Skills, • Importance of • Community entry skills • Respect for local

and Attitudes assessment before • Ability to conduct knowledge, beliefs and

needed to practice beginning learning several participatory priorities

NFE activities or projects analysis tools • Trust in group process

• Several tools for • Patience

assessment

Your strengths

Your plans to

learn more

In any situation where learning activities might be introduced, there are many factors to consider:

Who has identified the situation to be addressed? The participants? The officials of an organization?

Outside experts? You, the Volunteer?

Is the situation a desired change identified and voiced by the participants (e.g., villagers, health

workers, students, farmers, youth group, etc.), a need to be addressed or a problem to be solved?

Is it something the participants recognize as a need or a problem? Are participants interested in

working on it? Do they see it as a priority?

What has been done about the need or problem in the past – both successfully and unsuccessfully?

What resources are available?
22 Peace Corps

Exploring what participants want to change or need to change to make their lives better has often been

called “conducting a needs assessment.” However, the concept of “need” must be given perspective. At

times, people want things that are not technically needed; there may be some thing, idea, or information they have heard about that they want or desire. In other situations, people may not see as “needs”

or “problems” those things that outsiders identify as needs. That is, what the community views as a

need might not be an issue to an outsider. Likewise, an outsider might identify a “need” but the

community may be perfectly content with the status quo. So, as we explore needs and needs assessments, it is important to bear in mind that for learning activities to be effective, the learners must have

some motivation to embrace the change. (Recall the principles of adult learning from chapter 1.)

In this chapter we’ll explore some different ways of assessing the situations we find, both to educate

ourselves and to discover with our learners what they want—and are motivated—to learn.

READING

NFE IN ACTION: ASSESSING THE SITUATION

KARLENE AND CHRISTINE

“That does it, we’re going home,” said Karlene to her husband as she shut the door of their

house with as much of a bang as she could. Robert knew she didn’t mean it. Both of them

had said this off and on to each other over the four months they had been posted to the

village.

“What happened today?” asked Robert gently, although he already knew the answer.

“Nothing, that’s what happened,” said Karlene. “We’re getting nowhere.”

“Didn’t the women’s group show up?” asked Robert.

“Oh, they were at the community center,” said Karlene. “They just didn’t want to do anything. I don’t know how they want me to help them find ways to earn money, or if they want

me to help them at all. Every time I suggest an idea they sort of bat it around for awhile,

and then it falls flat.”

“So what did you do?” asked Robert.

“We talked. We sat around. We watched people walk by.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Oh, marriages, babies. It’s incredible how much women’s lives here revolve around babies.

I don’t know where they get the energy. I’m not saying I don’t like spending time with the

group. You know me, I like babies and marriages. And I know they care about us, too.

Remember when they brought us all that food when our garden dried up?”

“I remember,” said Robert.

“Nice people,” sighed Karlene. “But I wish I knew what I was doing here...I keep wondering

if I’m doing something wrong. I mean, look at Christine, she’s busy at the clinic. She’s
Nonformal Education 23

already teaching,” said Karlene. “She set up a class in the waiting room to explain what

foods women ought to be giving their kids. You know, she was telling me the number one

problem here is really malnutrition because of the taboos on fish in the coastal villages. The

people think that malaria is their biggest health hazard, but actually, it’s protein deficiency.”

“Does she feel she’s making headway?” asked Robert.

“Well, it’s slow,” said Karlene. “She told me she uses the broken record technique. She

explains the food pyramid over and over, very slowly, sometimes in story fashion, the way

people do here. She’s got this great flannel board with cutouts of all the good local foods.

At least she’ll be busy for her two years here,” said Karlene. “What will I have to show for

our Peace Corps service?”

There is often a temptation among Volunteers and other development workers to “get to work” right

away when coming into a new community or job. It seems easier to figure out what needs to be done

and start doing it yourself, rather than spend days, weeks, even months getting to know people,

learning about the community and using participatory techniques to discover desires and needs

and plan a community-led project. But those projects in which community members have actively

identified their own goals and proposed their own solutions are far more likely to lead to

sustainable improvements in their lives. This ownership of the project and the process is crucial

to the success of any development program, and engaging in participatory analysis is at the crux

of what it means to be a practitioner of NFE.

Consider the two quite different experiences of Karlene and Christine:

Even though Karlene is frustrated, what is she learning about the lives of

the women that she is there to help?

How might Karlene adapt her conversations with the group to help her

clarify the possibilities for her work? What else might she do?

How did Christine determine the content of her training?

What health concerns do the villagers have?

How might Christine reconcile her own perceptions with those of the

people in her community to create a positive NFE experience?

Think back to the asset-based and problem-based approaches in Chapter 1:

How might Karlene have used an asset-based approach in her discussions with the women in her

community group to develop a better understanding of their situation?

How might Christine use the asset-based approach to help women see what resources they have that

may to lead to healthier children?

How might Christine have used problem-posing education to help the women in her community see

the link between their children’s health problems and the taboo on eating fish?

How might Karlene have engaged the women at the community center in problem-posing education?
24 Peace Corps

ASSESS THE SITUATION WITH

YOUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

There are a several key moments during your

work when a focused assessment is very important:

On your own for community entry: When you

first enter a community, using techniques such as

participant observation, informal discussions, and

interviewing will help you build rapport and gain

knowledge that will help you work with your

community. This process can take two to six

months. Although she didn’t recognize it, Karlene

was engaging in assessment to some extent, and

just needed some guidance for ways to better

structure her approach. She also needed to realize

that she was not wasting her time; she was building

a foundation to prepare herself to meet the needs of

her women’s group.

(See Peace Corps’ publications Roles of the Volunteer in Development: Toolkits for Building Capacity, “Toolkit 1:

Role of the Volunteer as Learner,” [ICE No. T0005], and Learning Local Environmental Knowledge: A Volunteer’s

Guide to Community Entry, [ICE No. T0126] for more information and approaches to community entry.)

With a community group to raise awareness: Some participatory tools such as daily activity schedules and seasonal calendars are particularly effective in raising awareness about the

interrelatedness of social, health, labor, economic, and environmental aspects of life. These types of activities not only provide

important information but also may offer new perspectives on

daily life and often inspire action. For example, Christine might

use a seasonal calendar activity to raise the women’s awareness

of the relationship among illness, nutrition, climate, and other

factors.

With a community group for project planning: Careful

initial assessment of the situation is crucial when working

with a community group to decide what issues will be

addressed by a new project. Each member of the group

should feel like a stakeholder, with the Volunteer acting as

facilitator to be sure that all voices can be heard. A daily

activity schedule might be helpful to determine the most

convenient time for a representative group of people to meet.

Before a planned learning activity or training workshop: It

is important to assess the current knowledge, skills, and

attitudes of participants before planning and conducting a

learning activity or training workshop. Possible techniques

include interviewing, group discussion, and even pre-testing.

The data gathered are analyzed to inform the design of

the educational event.

A NOTE ON

“COMMUNITY”

“Community” in this

manual refers to more

than those people living

in a geographic

location. It can refer to

any group of people

gathered together,

whether in schools,

institutions,

neighborhood groups or

affinity groups.

“Community” might refer

to heterogeneous

groups (women from all

classes) as well as

homogeneous groups

(all teen mothers).
Nonformal Education 25

TOOLS FOR FACILITATING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS

There is a rich body of experience in conducting participatory needs assessments upon which

Volunteers may draw in beginning their work. Some effective approaches to assessment can be

found in the Key Resources section at the end of this chapter.

Peace Corps has brought together a number of tools in the development of participatory analysis for

community action (PACA). PACA is a methodology designed to communicate information, identify

needs, and lay the groundwork for community action to solve problems. The PACA Idea Book [ICE No.

M0086] is a valuable resource for conducting needs assessments, as it describes a number of tools and

provides advice regarding their use. These tools can be useful and applicable to nonformal education

activities as well, and they are summarized for your use.

OBSERVATION

Observation is perhaps the one assessment tool that

everyone uses. It is only natural when you come into a

new situation to begin observing, comparing, analyzing,

and trying to make sense of what you see. Observation

is an important part of your entry into the community,

and as Volunteers you will usually be engaging in

participant observation, or sharing in the lives and

activities of the community, so that you can learn from

experience and observation.

Because it is so important to understand the complexities of your new situation before helping people

to take any kind of action, it is a good idea to begin to train yourself to observe and reflect with more

precision. Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of your observations:

Keep a journal: Write down your observations and impressions to capture, analyze, and compare

them over time.

Sequential reporting: Write down exactly what happens as it is happening. Try to be as objective

as possible. Avoid interpreting events or making judgments. By forcing yourself to focus on details

that you would normally ignore, questions might emerge that you can later follow up on through

interviews and other types of observations.

Reporting of selective themes: After doing a number of detailed sequential observations, try following a theme that interests you. Choose a theme or question and write short notes about it

whenever you learn something about it. If you are looking at how much agricultural work women

do, you might list every farm activity you see them engaged in and describe those activities. Try

to be objective and describe what you see, rather than just capturing your impressions of what you

see.

Detailed description of an event: You may witness an interesting incident when it would be

insensitive to pull out a pencil and paper. Train yourself to remember as many details as possible

to write down later. For example, if you see a woman harnessing cattle in a culture where women

do not ordinarily handle animals, mentally note everything about the scene: the time of day, the

clothes she was wearing, her ease or discomfort working with the animals and so on. These details

will help you question your counterpart more intelligently later about how to interpret what you saw.

“When you come into a

village, your eyes and

ears should be open,

and your mouth should

be closed.”

 –West African proverb
26 Peace Corps

Subjective observation: Here you can dispense with the timing, counting, and recording of

details and try to capture feelings, relationships, beauty, sadness, the setting, and atmosphere.

The color of new rice seedlings at sunrise, the grief of a buffalo driver when his animal

collapses and dies on the roadside—these moments cannot be broken down into details and

statistics. Use care in your interpretations, though, and draw on the knowledge and skills you

have gained in doing the previous observations so as not to jump to conclusions.

SHADOW DAYS

One of the most powerful ways to engage in participant observation is to “shadow” a host

country national colleague or friend. “Shadowing” involves following the person around throughout the day and engaging (to the extent possible) in the same activities that he or she does. This

is a particularly effective technique when attempting to get “on-the-job” training for your technical area. For example, you can learn a great deal about local agricultural techniques by shadowing a local farmer, and you can gain a wealth of information about women’s health by

shadowing a maternal and child health coordinator at a hospital. By using a combination of

observation and shadowing, Christine might be able to assist women in determining their health

needs in a non-threatening way, while also integrating into the community.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION

Talking with a great variety of people and asking friendly, culturally appropriate questions can yield

useful information. Below are some things to consider when devising and asking questions:

Factual Questions: People may feel intimidated or embarrassed by questions that require specific

answers, especially if they do not know the answers. Examples include: “What is the population of

this area?” or “How many children are malnourished in this community?” It may be best to leave

such questions for interviews with officials in a position to know that information.

It is important to remember that our perceptions of any event,

situation, or person are conditioned by a number of filters. Our

own gender, age, personal background, cultural origin, class

background, prejudices, beliefs, etc., will affect what we pay

attention to, how we perceive what we have seen, and the

decision we make about the situation. For example, because

she was so determined to focus on nutrition, Christine did not

see other community needs, interests, or assets. Karlene’s

desire to do something made it difficult for her to accept “watching and waiting” as valuable approaches.

Your time with Peace Corps has probably helped you to become more aware of the

lenses through which we tend to view things, and it is especially important to revisit

these issues when conducting observations. See Culture Matters: The Peace Corps

Cross-Cultural Workbook [ICE No. T0087] for more insight about these “filters.”
Nonformal Education 27

General Questions: Try to keep your questions relevant to

people’s own experience. Instead of asking questions like: “What

foods are usually given to children?” try asking: “What do you

feed your child every day?”

Opinion Questions: Some questions calling for an opinion may

be politically sensitive. For example: “What do you think of the

government’s new plan for free primary school education?” Save

these questions until you feel you know your audience well, and

do not press people for answers if you find them being politely

evasive. This may be their way of telling you that your questions

are inappropriate.

Personal Questions: Even if your work is in sexually transmitted

infection (STI) prevention, be careful when asking personal

questions. It is crucial to understand the appropriate time, context, and approach to asking personal questions, and it is probably best to rely on your counterpart for guidance in this area.

Key Informants

Finding key informants who will give you specific information may be important both to show respect

to local authorities and to get a more complete view of the situation. For example, local health officials

may have access to useful documentation that might take you months to collect on your own. Even

children may be useful key informants about school-related matters, or as candid translators for their

parents who may speak a local language you have not yet mastered.

BECOME A COMMUNITY MEMBER

Your experience may be more effective and enjoyable if you focus on making friends within

the community, rather than merely approaching people for “informal discussion” as a needs

assessment technique. By engaging in participant observation at football matches, churches

and mosques, at community centers, by the water, and so on, you will make friends in the

community and will be able to casually learn the answers to your questions from them.

Sometimes the best “key informants” are close host country national friends who agree to

share knowledge with you that is usually not provided to “outsiders.”

Remember, though, that each person’s view is likely to be very different from that of the

next. When discussing the problem of children’s malnutrition, for example, one Volunteer

found that while everyone she talked to agreed it was a problem, there was much disagreement about its cause.

A doctor claimed it was caused by the ignorance of the people due to cultural biases

against modern medicine.

The traditional healer said it was the invasion of foreign culture that damaged children’s

health.

(continued on page 28)
28 Peace Corps

Teachers felt that the high illiteracy rate prevented parents from reading about nutrition,

gardening, and better health practices.

The agricultural extension agent said it was the lack of inexpensive appropriate technology that could help people produce food year-round instead of just in the rainy season.

An official from a local aid agency insisted that the children’s malnutrition was caused

by endemic intestinal parasites because there was no clean water supply in the village.

Although each of the people the Volunteer talked to understood that many factors contributed to the problem, each person’s perspective was different depending on their professional interest and personal bias.

INTERVIEWS

Sometimes a formal interview is more appropriate than a casual discussion. The village chief, the

leaders of women’s groups, the local ministry officials and other professionals may be more amenable

to an interview than to informal questioning. Interviews are sometimes useful with community members as well because they are more structured than ordinary conversation and therefore yield more

comparable data. Be sure to ask permission of informants to quote them and inform them clearly of

your purpose in interviewing them.

Before you conduct an interview, try to find out the culturally sensitive way to go about it. For

example, in the culture in which you work:

Should you avoid eye contact, or is it more polite to look directly at a person?

How formally or informally should you dress when doing an interview?

How much time should you spend on greetings and initial chit-chat before beginning the interview?

Is it appropriate to approach an elder or chief directly, or should you go through intermediaries?

What subjects or ways of asking questions are considered inappropriate?

(continued from page 27)
Nonformal Education 29

Types of Interviews

You can set up your interview in a number of different ways.

Type of Interview Advantages Disadvantages Sample Question

Informal Interviews • Unstructured • Can be inconsistent What do you think

• Questions emerge • Little preparation • Difficult to organize community members

naturally from the needed the data really want?

context of the • Informants feel

conversation comfortable

• No predetermined

wording

Interview Guide • A bit more structured • May limit the topics What health problems

Approach and consistent covered, as your do many of your

• A few general • Still allows for questions will lead the schoolchildren have?

questions are decided gathering unexpected conversation to some

in advance information and extent What do you think is

• Sequence and opinions the cause of these

wording are problems?

determined during

interview

Standardized Open- • Well-structured and • Requires more What vegetables does

Ended Interview thus allows for preparation your family eat in the

• Questions prepared consistent data • May feel more formal rainy season?

in advance collection and analysis

• Questions read to • Still allows for a

informant in natural variety of responses

tone of voice • Can be distributed as

• Answers recorded a written tool for

literate audiences

Closed Quantitative • Highly structured • Requires more In the rainy season, my

Interview • Easy to compile and preparation family eats:

• Questions and a list analyze data • Does not allow much __beans

of potential answers afterwards opportunity for __dried vegetables

created in advance • Useful if you need to additional, unexpected __fish

• Interviewer reads the gather specific information and __meat

questions and offers information in a short opinions

a few answers for period of time

respondent to choose • Can be distributed as

from a written tool for

literate audiences

Appreciative Inquiry • Seeks to uncover the • Requires more Think about a high

Interview roots of success preparation point or peak experi-

• Asset-based approach • Taps into high points • Some claim it can ence you’ve had in

to interviewing and peak experiences mask community working with your

• Appreciative Interview in the lives of the problems community group. Tell

Protocol recommended respondents me a story about that

(See Appendix A) • Generates hope and time. What happened?

motivates respondents How were you involved?

What were the key

factors of success?

How can we ensure

more of these high

points more of the

time?
30 Peace Corps

What type of interview is best?

This depends both on the situation and on you. Below are some issues

to consider when deciding which interview type is best:

Language ability: If you are interviewing in a language you feel unsure

of, you might want to use a closed quantitative interview, so that you

may write down your questions in advance, check your grammar with an

informant and gather information from a pre-written list. Alternatively,

you may wish to work with an HCN counterpart in conducting all of the

interviews, in which case you might be able to use a standard openended interview or appreciative interview. If your language ability is

good, you might want to engage in an informal interview or interview

guide approach.

Importance of compiling information for analysis: You might want to use a more structured

approach in order to compile your information more efficiently. For example, if you need to find

out what fifty families eat in the rainy season, it would be relatively easy to look at, say, the answers

to question six of your interview form and tabulate the results.

Desire for holistic picture: If you want to find out what people feel about a situation, it may be

more appropriate to let the interview questions arise naturally in the course of the conversation.

Afterwards, when compiling the information, you will need to read the whole batch of interviews

over and over again to let a global picture emerge. This can be time-consuming of course, but it

will yield a rich, full picture of the range of opinions, perceptions, and styles of expression of your

informants. When sharing this kind of information with others it is wise to explain that your own

analysis of it will naturally be somewhat colored by your own perceptions and point of view. Or

better yet, be sure to read, compile, and analyze the data with HCN counterparts or members of the

community.

Now that you have the information,

what do you do with it?

Use it for your own education: Interview information, like detailed observations, can help you understand your host country more fully. If you have used informal interviews or an interview guide

approach, typing them up or recording the most interesting bits in a journal will help you focus on

what people were trying to communicate to you. You can tabulate and record information from more

structured types of interviews in the form of charts or graphs, or just as trends to remember for future

conversations. For example: “I find it interesting that according to teachers in this town, the main

health problem of their students is respiratory infection.”
Nonformal Education 31

Share it with your co-workers: Ideally, you and

your counterparts will gather information together,

but if you conduct interviews on your own, you may

find it useful to share this new information with

others—that is, if it is new to everyone, rather than

just to you. Try not to annoy HCNs by acting as an

expert on their own society—even if you have found

out information that is not common knowledge.

People may be put off if you take on the role of

expert without being asked.

However, if you are asked to give a presentation, or

if you are questioned at a meeting about the information you have been gathering, present it as concisely and accurately as possible, using notes you

have taken about the data you have compiled as well

as graphs or charts when they seem appropriate.

Share it with the people you have interviewed: The relatively new field of participatory research

stresses dialogue, empathetic sharing of experience, and involvement of the people in all phases of

information gathering and utilization. Such an approach is consistent with NFE values, for it involves

working with people rather than treating them as research “subjects.” Try to share the results of your

interviews with people at community meetings or other local forums in the oral style that the local

people use themselves. You will need to observe awhile to understand the complexities of this style

according to the custom in your area. Some cultures are much more indirect about making a point than

Americans are, so try to avoid giving “the facts and nothing but the facts” as you may have been

trained to do by your own society. It may be that your host country co-workers will be more effective

than you in this role and should present the results of your information-gathering to the community.

COMMUNITY MAPPING

The community mapping

technique is a highly participatory needs assessment tool

in which participants draw or

construct maps of their community on paper or on the

ground. Subgroups are usually

asked to draw separate community maps. For example,

the men in the group may

work on one map, the women

another, the girls another, the

boys another. Or adults might

work on one map, and youth

on another. This tool can

visually show significant differences in how these subgroups view their community, how they locate

different activities spatially, and how they attribute importance to different activity centers such as

schools, markets, clinics and so forth. It can also identify how frequently people are at various locations, places they like and dislike and what they feel is needed or missing in the community. Once this

activity is finished, it is often difficult to overlook the differences among the perceptions of men,

women, girls, and boys in a community.
32 Peace Corps

Now, think back to Tana’s experience teaching prenatal care in Thailand from the first chapter.

How might she have used community mapping to discover the perspectives of women and men

around the topic of prenatal care?

How might she have used this technique to raise awareness about prenatal care services available?

DAILY ACTIVITY SCHEDULES

In this activity, participants (usually men, women, girls, and boys) create a timeline of their daily

activities. This information provides valuable insights into both the labor constraints of each group as

well as the areas where labor-saving might occur. At another level, this technique demonstrates the

gender-based perceptions of the work load of each group. In this sense, this technique helps to raise

awareness with regard to the contribution that different groups make to overall household welfare.

Finally, the information developed can serve as baseline data to return to as a way to monitor the

impact of project activities on people’s time allocations.

How might Karlene have used daily activity schedules with the women at the community center?

What information might she and the women have discovered together during this process?

How might you incorporate daily activity schedules in your own work?

SEASONAL CALENDARS

This technique traces seasonal variations in household labor supply and demand, income flow

and expenditure patterns. Many households experience a “hungry season” or periods of economic stress, and these variations may have differential impacts on different gender groups. Some

times of the year are busier for one group or the other. This technique is designed to identify

these seasonal variations in household well-being from the perspective of both men and women.

An understanding of these seasonal variations is important to the development and implementation of a community action plan.
Nonformal Education 33

Might seasonal calendars have been helpful to Christine in raising awareness about protein deficiency?

ON-THE-SPOT ASSESSMENTS IN TRAINING SITUATIONS

You may find that you do not always have the luxury of conducting a thorough needs assessment. You may be asked to conduct a training or class on short notice, or you may find that the

participants who get involved in a project or training are different from the people you originally

interviewed. Whatever the reason, it is always wise to conduct an on-the-spot assessment. Such

an assessment can help you to:

Engage the participants in the task at hand.

Clarify expectations and objectives of the project or training.

Check that your assumptions and conclusions about local needs are still accurate.

Adjust the agenda or objectives as needed.

See Appendix B for examples of on-the-spot assessments you can use in your own work.

For complete instructions on how to use all of the techniques mentioned above, refer to the PACA Idea

Book, Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 1996. [ICE No. M0086]
34 Peace Corps

IDEAS AND

APPLICATIONS

Now that you have read about assessing learners’ needs, it may be helpful for you to apply what you

have learned. In this section, you will find several ideas and activities to assist you in practicing what

you have learned. Feel free to try one, several or all of these activities. You could also create your own!

VISIT A LOCAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION OR

COMMUNITY GROUP

With so many needs assessment approaches and techniques to choose from, it can be difficult

to decide which one might be the most effective or the most culturally appropriate for your own

situation. A visit to a local development organization or community group may provide some

answers and ideas. Find a local group that uses a participatory approach, and ask what techniques

they use in their own assessments. Such groups can often provide guidance when designing your

own approach, and may even provide you with some material for use in your work.

Some questions you might ask while on your visit include:

What cultural norms and taboos should I be aware of when conducting needs assessments?

What is the protocol for interviewing local leaders? Government representatives? Women? Youth?

What approaches to conducting needs assessments have you found most useful?

What methods are used for people with limited literacy?

Have you recently conducted a needs assessment in this community? Is it possible for me to read

some of the results?
Nonformal Education 35

CONDUCT A PARTICIPATORY

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Whether you are at your pre-service training or already at your site, consider conducting a participatory

needs assessment, such as community mapping, daily activity schedules or seasonal calendars. Gather

a group of language trainers and guide them through a needs assessment to determine what skills they

have and what skills they would like to develop. Or, if you work with a youth group, facilitate a

participatory needs assessment to determine what skills they would like to learn.
36 Peace Corps

CASE STUDY: WHO DETERMINES

NEEDS IN DEVELOPMENT?

As you read this case study, consider the following questions:

What needs assessment approaches were used?

Do you think the results and conclusions are valid? Why? Why not?

Would you consider either of these approaches to needs assessment effective? Why or why not?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A university professor in Washington, D.C. broke her small class of students into two small teams of four

for a teambuilding activity. She gave each team 30 minutes to prepare a mock grant proposal to present

to a major grant-making foundation to secure funding to realize that group’s vision to provide support to

AIDS orphans. After a few minutes of scratching heads at the huge task ahead and the small amount of

time, the groups got to work.

Proposal One:

Group One’s spokesperson outlined a very specific proposal in which the group would form a nonprofit

organization based in Washington, D.C. The organization would establish a skeleton staff in Washington,

D.C., consisting of an executive director, a program manager, a proposal writer, and a communications

manager. This group would manage and oversee the construction of a home for youth in the target country

of South Africa. The home would serve youth who had lost both parents due to HIV/AIDS and had no

extended family to care for them. The home’s capacity would be 50 youth.

The proposal described a vibrant, safe community for youth where they would receive the counseling and

attention necessary to enable them to enter the workforce as healthy and adjusted members of the community. Therefore, the services the home would provide would include:

education (academic instruction, vocational services and leadership development);

health (preventative health, medical and mental health services); and

room and board.

This group also proposed that the home establish a scholarship fund, so that youth who “graduate” from

the home could pursue a university degree. The residents of the home would be involved in every aspect

of the fundraising and management of the scholarship fund to impart important leadership skills and to help

the youth form links within the community.
Nonformal Education 37

Proposal Two:

The spokesperson from the second group requested a different type of funding. The group

proposed that before they requested a grant for a specific project, they would request a research

grant so that they could go into the specified community and assess the needs within the

community. Once in the community, a small research team would assess and interview various

community members to gather information. Some preliminary questions they proposed asking:

What organizations (e.g., nongovernmental organizations, faith-based groups, etc.) are currently providing services to AIDS orphans? What kinds of services are they providing? If they

could provide other services, what would they be?

Are there any schools, clinics, or hospitals that currently provide services for this target group?

What does the AIDS orphan population “look” like? How many are there? Who are they?

What is the age range of the children? Where do they currently live? Are they in school or

out of school?

What are the most pressing needs that the orphans have that an outside group should consider

funding or providing through services?

What are the attitudes of various members of the community toward the orphans?

What knowledge, skill, and belief systems currently exist about HIV/AIDS?

The group also suggested interviewing people who are currently serving as caretakers/guardians for orphans

(grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). Once some baseline qualitative and quantitative information was captured,

the group felt that they would be better positioned to create goals and objectives for a proposal, and to

support their request for funds with realistic numbers. Additionally, the group explained that it could use

the initial baseline information to more accurately measure progress.

Questions:

Which of these proposals do you think would be most likely to get funded, and why?

If you were going to provide feedback to each of the groups about their approach to needs

analysis, what would you say? What are the positive points of each proposal?
38 Peace Corps

REFLECT

Why is it important to conduct needs assessments before planning an educational activity?

How might you incorporate needs assessment tools into your work?

Some communities have been assessed and analyzed by development organizations for years. There

is already a great deal of data about these communities, and community members have often

participated in a number of the tools and techniques mentioned in this chapter. Do you think

it is still important to conduct a needs assessment in such a community? How would you go

about it?

Think back on the discussion of asset-based and problem-based approaches. What are the implications

of designing and conducting needs assessments?
Nonformal Education 39

KEY

RESOURCES

REFERENCES:

Culture Matters: The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 1997.

[ICE No. T0087]

A powerful introduction to cross-cultural understanding, Culture Matters explores communication, locus of control, personal versus societal obligations, the concept of time, work

culture, and many other issues to consider when living and working in a new cultural

environment. A number of activities are provided to help the Volunteer to adjust to the new

culture and workplace.

Learning Local Environmental Knowledge: A Volunteer’s Guide to Community Entry. Washington,

DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [Manual: ICE No. T0126; Workbook: ICE No. M0071]

Learning Local Environmental Knowledge is a guide to the first few months of service for

Volunteers in all sectors. The text suggests strategies and opportunities for integrating into the

community, focusing on the biophysical, economic, and social environments of the area. Combining

assessment strategies with personal reflection, this useful guide is a must-read for the new Volunteer.

PACA: Participatory Analysis for Community Action. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 1996. [ICE No.

M0086]

Peace Corps’ seminal text in assessment, the PACA Idea Book details a number of participatory

approaches to assessment, including examples, diagrams, and suggestions for implementation.

Roles of the Volunteer in Development: Toolkits for Building Capacity. Washington, DC: Peace Corps,

2002. [ICE No. T0005]

This text provides a comprehensive look at the place of the Volunteer in the development process.

Detailing the Volunteer’s roles as learner, change agent, co-trainer, co-facilitator, project co-planner,

and mentor, RVID provides countless theories, case studies, activities, and approaches to help

Volunteers and their communities get the most of out their two years of service. The text includes

a number of ideas for conducting assessments.

ADDITIONAL PRINT RESOURCES:

Archer, David, and Sara Cottingham. REFLECT Mother Manual: Regenerated Freirean Literacy

through Empowering Community Techniques. Somerset, United Kingdom: ACTIONAID, 1996.

Grounded in the approaches of Paulo Freire and merged with participatory rural appraisal, ths

manual details culturally appropriate participatory approaches to assessment. The text also

contains a number of activities to help explore power relations with groups.
40 Peace Corps

Chambers, Robert. Rural Development: Putting the First Last. University of Sussex, Brighton, United

Kingdom: Institute of Development Studies, 1997.

Chambers provides an analysis of biases in development practices, including assessments such as

surveys and questionnaires. The text suggests a new framework for working with communities,

based on an understanding of rural people’s knowledge and reversals in ways of learning, managing,

and working with local populations.

De Negri, Berengere, et al. Empowering Communities: Participatory Techniques for CommunityBased Programme Development. Volume 1(2): Trainer’s Manual (Participant’s Handbook). Washington, DC: Centre for African Family Studies/USAID, 1998.

This two-volume set details an 18-session training design for teaching PLA (the participatory

learning and action approach), facilitation skills, and assessment. Various assessment strategies are

detailed, including transect walks, mapping, time lines, card sorting, ranking and diagramming.

Community Content-Based Instruction Manual. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. T0112]

In addition to detailing an approach for working with students in the formal education system, the

CCBI Manual suggests a number of participatory assessment techniques to use with student groups.

Idea Book Series: HIV/AIDS: Integrating Prevention and Care into your Sector. Washington, DC:

Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. M0081]

This Idea Book offers some practical strategies for assessing and responding to the effects of HIV/

AIDS on each of Peace Corps’ project areas. The text offers specific questions to consider when

assessing the impact of HIV/AIDS on each sector.

Kretzmann, John P. and John L. McKnight. Building Communities from the Inside Out: A path

Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Evanston, IL: The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, 1993. [ICE No. CD051]

This text offers practical advice, useful tools, and a powerful guide to an asset-based approach to community development. The book suggests ways to map community assets and

mobilize these strengths towards building healthier communities.

Srinivasan, Lyra. Tools for Community Participation: A Manual for Training Trainers in Participatory

Techniques. Washington, DC: PROWWESS/UNDP, 1990.

In this classic text, Srinivasan describes her SARAR approach to practicing NFE: using the characteristics of self-esteem, associative strengths, resourcefulness, action planning, and responsibility.

Srinivasan advocates a learner-centered approach and specific techniques that she used effectively

in working with women around water and environmental sanitation.

Working with Youth: Approaches for Volunteers. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. M0067]

This informative guide to working with youth includes a comprehensive section on participatory

assessment. Techniques include Venn diagrams, informal interviews, group interviews, community

mapping and tips for compiling information. The text also includes a session on participatory

planning.
Nonformal Education 41

WEB RESOURCES:

Common Ground Community Mapping Project

http://www3.telus.net/cground/index.html

A website devoted to community mapping projects. Explains the rationale behind doing

community maps and shows several examples of mapping in action. There are also mapping

resources – some are free and some are fairly inexpensive.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Multimedia in Manufacturing Education Lab)

http://mime1.marc.gatech.edu/MM_Tools/

This site offers easy-to-use project management tools. Exercises can help you and your

counterpart assess a project and determine needs and goals (see the Needs Assessment Matrix)

as well as project management and evaluation tools (try the anecdotal record form). Most of

the tools have clear descriptions that could be easily adapted to field activities.

Orton Family Foundation

http://www.communitymap.org/

This website details several community mapping projects undertaken in U.S. schools. There are

good resources for more information, and it offers a ‘GIS and Education’ section that may inspire

ideas and be helpful to those with access to technology.

UNESCO

http://www.unesco.org/bangkok/education/ict/indicators/tools.htm

This site can be useful to those who are working to integrate ICT into curriculum or projects. There

are assessment tools that can be used to help determine a workshop’s content, or to determine

levels of proficiency before and after workshops.
42 Peace Corps

LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

FROM ASSESSMENT TO EVALUATION

IN THIS CHAPTER

PRE-READING STRATEGY ................................................................................................ 43

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes ................................................................... 43

READING ................................................................................................................................... 44

NFE in Action: Recognizing Individual Learning Styles .................................................. 44

Learning Styles ...................................................................................................................... 45

Activity Planning Strategies ................................................................................................. 51

Monitoring and Evaluation ................................................................................................... 53

IDEAS AND APPLICATIONS ............................................................................................. 57

Observe Learning Styles in your Community or Workplace ............................................ 57

Facilitate a “Learning Styles Awareness” Activity ............................................................. 58

Practice using Processing Questions .................................................................................... 59

Use Tools to Help Identify Learning Styles....................................................................... 60

Reflect .................................................................................................................................... 61

KEY RESOURCES ................................................................................................................. 62

CHAPTER 3
Nonformal Education 43

PRE-READING

STRATEGY

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ATTITUDES

Knowledge, Skills, • Understanding of • Ability to assess • Trust in people and

and Attitudes learning styles participant learning their capacities to

needed to practice • Knowledge of styles learn from experience

NFE learning theories • Ability to select, • Self-awareness of your

• Understanding of develop and implement own learning

group dynamics an appropriate preference

• Knowledge of evaluation (when and • Respect for other

principles of and how) learning preferences

options for learning • Ability to design • Flexibility

activity design and learning activities to • Belief that facilitators

evaluation address different are also learners

• Basic knowledge of learning styles • Belief in the

learning topic • Ability to plan and importance and value

pace activities of planning

appropriately • Willingness to learn

• Ability to write from mistakes

behavioral objectives

Your strengths

Your plans to

learn more

There will come a time when your assessment will indicate the need to engage in some type of

teaching—whether it is a one-hour discussion or a weeklong training. Or, perhaps you are a teacher

who holds classes every day or a health worker who is called upon to facilitate a few activities a week.

In these situations, nonformal education provides a valuable approach to learning by offering models,

philosophies, and techniques that:

involve participants actively in identifying needs and finding solutions;

promote learning that is practical, flexible, and based on real needs;

focus on improving the life of the individual and/or community; and

encourage participants to assess, practice, and reflect on their learning.
44 Peace Corps

Fundamental to the NFE approach is the facilitator’s belief that he or she is also a learner in the

process, and that the participants or students have as much to offer as they have to gain. Keeping this

belief central in the creation of a learning activity can result in truly transformational learning experiences—participatory exercises, engaging approaches, and empowering interpersonal interactions. It is

also helpful to have an understanding of learning styles, some knowledge about lesson design, and a

“toolbox” of warm-ups, exercises, and methods to keep learning activities interactive and engaging.

This chapter offers an introduction to all of these topics and suggests further reading in Key Resources

at the end of the chapter.

READING

NFE IN ACTION:

RECOGNIZING INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES

TRACY

Tracy had always liked fiddling with mechanical things, so when the new refrigeration unit

in the health clinic broke down, she volunteered to take it apart and see what was wrong.

If the men working around the clinic in her village in Micronesia were amused, they kept

it to themselves. They didn’t know how to fix the unit, but they knew that the perishable

medicines that were flown in so infrequently would spoil if it wasn’t fixed somehow. The

men glanced at Tracy and shook their heads as she slowly made sense of all the small,

greasy refrigerator pieces by studying the diagrams in the refrigerator repair manual.

When the unit was working again, Tracy had its inner mechanisms completely figured out

in her head. She could see each piece in relation to the others, like a three-dimensional

jigsaw puzzle. It was beautiful, she thought, the way it all went together.

Tracy’s supervisor was pleased. In fact, he said Tracy’s skills could undoubtedly be put to

use on some of the other islands where technical know-how was lacking. He arranged to

send Tracy on a trip to teach refrigeration repair to clinic workers in every village where the

new units had been installed.

At her first stop, Tracy asked the clinic administrator if she could borrow the refrigerator. If

Paul, the maintenance person, could take the unit apart, she reasoned, he would understand how it all went together as clearly as she had.

Permission was granted, and Tracy sat down on the floor with Paul. She suggested that he

take the unit apart, and put it back together again. Paul followed her instructions without

saying much, but finally he said: “I’m never going to figure this out. Can you just show me

what you did?”

For a moment, Tracy was confused. She thought she understood adult learning. Her plan

seemed to be such an easy, hands-on way to solve a practical problem. Adults were

interested in hands-on experience to solve practical problems, right?
Nonformal Education 45

LEARNING STYLES

Tracy’s approach to teaching is quite common—it is not unusual

to assume that everyone learns the same way that you do. But

in reality, there are a number of different ways of learning, and

different people learn in different ways. In the 1970s, educator

David Kolb popularized this fact and created a model that

suggests four different categories of learners. See if you can

recognize your own style of learning in the following

descriptions.

KOLB’S LEARNING STYLES

People who learn best by concrete experience, according to Kolb, make judgments based on

feelings or intuition, rather than on theory, which they often dismiss as being “unrelated to real life”

or “too abstract.” They are people-oriented and often relate more easily to peers than to authority

figures. They benefit most from feedback and discussion with other participants who prefer this same

mode of learning.

How might Tracy have adapted her teaching style to meet the needs of people who learn best

by concrete experience?

Learners who are most comfortable with reflective observation are more tentative and prefer to

listen, think, and stand back before making judgments or consolidating their learning. According to

Kolb, they seem introverted in learning situations compared to their more active peers because they

enjoy listening to lectures or to others’ opinions while they take on the role of impartial, objective

observers.

How might Tracy have met the needs of a reflective observer? What specific learning

activities might she have used?

Those who are comfortable with abstract conceptualization tend to be thought of as “logical”

and “objective” by their friends and may seem dispassionate or withdrawn in a learning situation. Kolb

suggests that they tend to be oriented more towards things and symbols and less toward their peers.

They learn best from authority figures in an impersonal environment.

What specific learning activities might appeal to those who learn through abstract conceptualization?

How might the refrigeration repair lesson be adapted for these learners?

Active experimenters learn best when they tackle a project with their hands, often working in

groups. Like those who learn best from concrete experience, they are extroverts, but instead of approaching each problem as a special case, they formulate hypotheses and actively test them out. Kolb

suggests that they dislike lectures and other passive learning situations.

What learning style do you think Tracy preferred? Paul?

Can you identify your own learning style from Kolb’s categories?

Kolb points out that individual learners are unlikely to find themselves accurately characterized by just one

of these four learning modes. This is because everyone learns by a combination of methods, drawing
46 Peace Corps

from all four of these categories. However, people can be characterized as dominantly one type

of learner or another. Therefore, in any group, there are likely to be people who are comfortable

with quite diverse methods of learning.

Although Tracy’s dominant mode of learning may be active experimentation, she may not fit easily into

any single category described by Kolb. Other theorists have grouped learners differently: right-brained

(artistic) and left-brained (analytic), for example, or auditory or visual. You may remember from

Chapter 1 that Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory postulates seven different learning styles:

linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. It

is clear from the work of Kolb and Gardner that the most effective learning experience incorporates

activities that engage several learning styles.

How might Tracy have designed the refrigerator repair training to accommodate more learning styles?

One way would be to incorporate several teaching techniques into a single activity. Tracy might have:

prepared a demonstration lesson

presented a mini-lecture

created a step-by-step hand-out or trouble-shooting guide

Based on your understanding of Kolb’s learning styles, which of the above techniques would be best

for which types of learners?

Another way Tracy could structure her teaching would be to explore learning styles in the

Micronesian culture. Think about the learning styles you have observed at your site so far.

Can you draw any conclusions about learning styles in this culture? Ask yourself these

questions as you continue to observe learning styles in your community:

How do children learn their daily chores?

Do people traditionally observe and imitate when learning new skills?

How do farmers exchange information?

Do people take apprenticeships?

How is local history shared?

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CYCLE

Kolb created a methodology for incorporating all four categories of learning styles into every learning

experience. His “experiential learning cycle” models a technique for helping learners to analyze each

experience in order to understand it and apply it in their own lives.
Nonformal Education 47

Whether we are aware of it or not, each of us moves through these steps in our own daily

learning.

First, you have an experience. For example, in pre-service training you might observe your host

family serving considerably more food to the father of the family than to the mother and children.

Next, you reflect upon the experience. You may ask yourself why the father in the family gets

more food than the mother or the children.

Then, you begin to analyze what is happening. You may attempt to generalize from what you have

seen by asking yourself: “Why is this happening?” In the case of your host family, you may decide

that fathers are given more food for cultural reasons, or because it is believed that a healthy father

leads to more work in the fields which leads to healthier crops which leads to more food for the

whole family.

Lastly, you may begin to apply what you have learned to new experiences. Perhaps you may

begin to offer more food to the father of the family yourself, or perhaps you may use this experience

to develop programs on nutrition for women and children.

In keeping with his learning styles theory, Kolb believed that people are more adept at learning from

some stages of the cycle than they are from others. Some of us have experience after experience and

hardly reflect on them at all. Some of us reflect a great deal, but shy away from experiencing anything

too unusual. Others reflect and generalize, but stop there, without applying the learning to new situations. Kolb suggests that educators can facilitate learning by consciously taking participants through

the entire cycle of experience, reflection, generalization, and application.

You can remember the experiential learning cycle easily if you think of it this way:

E

N

(P

S

(A

CONCRETE

EXPERIENCE

ACTIVE

EXPERIMENTATION

REFLECTION AND

OBSERVATION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPTUALIZATION

EXPERIENCE

PLANNING

Now What?

REFLECTION

What?

ANALYSIS

So What?
48 Peace Corps

THE 4MAT SYSTEM

In the 1980s, educator Bernice McCarthy drew upon Kolb’s work, the work of those theorists

who describe left and right brain processes, and other research into learning styles to create her

4MAT System. McCarthy’s theory consolidates a number of research findings into four learning

styles:

Type One: The Imaginative Learners

Perceive information concretely and process it reflectively

Integrate experience with the self; believe in their own experiences

Learn by listening and sharing ideas

Excel in viewing direct experience from many perspectives

Favorite question is: “Why?”

Type Two: The Analytic Learners

Perceive information abstractly and process it reflectively

Devise theories

Often need to know that the experts think

Value sequential thinking and need details

Enjoy traditional classrooms

Favorite question is: “What?”

Type Three: The Common Sense Learners

Perceive information abstractly and process it actively

Integrate theory and practice

Learn by testing theories and applying common sense

Are problem-solvers, resent being given answers

Have a limited tolerance for fuzzy ideas; prefer to get right to the point

Favorite question is: “How does this work?”

Type Four: The Dynamic Learners

Perceive information concretely and process it actively

Learn by trial and error

Excel when flexibility is needed; are adaptable and relish change

Are risk-takers

Enrich reality by taking what is and adding something of themselves to it

Favorite question is: “What if?”
Nonformal Education 49

Left and Right Brain Processes

Learners with a Learners with a

left-mode processing preference right-mode processing preference

 Are systematic and analytical Are more intuitive

 Tend to solve problems by Solve problems by looking

looking at the parts at the whole picture

 Those that are whole-brained have both gifts—they move freely between the two modes towards

a fusion of analysis and intuition. Both left-mode and right-mode learners would benefit from

developing the flexible use of their whole brains. McCarthy designed her 4MAT system with this

in mind.

McCarthy represents her 4MAT system in the following manner:

The best lesson designs move participants through all phases of the four types of learning—

allowing each kind of learner to feel comfortable part of the time, and allowing each type to

strengthen skills in all the other areas.
50 Peace Corps

This framework for approaching lesson design has become a staple in Peace Corps’ teaching and

informs the Community Content-Based Instruction (CCBI) approach in particular. In the Peace

Corps’ version of the 4MAT System, the four quadrants are represented slightly differently than

in McCarthy’s original text:

As you can see, this model looks a great deal like the Experiential Learning Cycle, and indeed,

there are many similarities. Here are a few examples to help you to imagine 4MAT in action:

Imagine you are a health Volunteer assigned to a prenatal clinic in Kazakhstan. You are working

with your counterpart to teach new mothers how to treat diarrhea in their newborns. For the

motivation stage, you could begin with a role play of a visit to the clinic with a sick newborn. You

might then give a short lecture with flipchart visuals of the components of oral rehydration solution

(ORS) for the information phase. The group could then practice making ORS after you have

demonstrated it once. Finally, the new mothers could work in groups to apply new knowledge and

“treat” a doll with ORS.

You are a business development Volunteer. You are training local NGO representatives in fundraising

skills. You could begin by having the group create a list of fundraising techniques that have been

successful for them over the years (motivation). After that, you could give a short lecture on the

advantages and disadvantages of fundraising approaches (information). The group could then read

and discuss short case studies (practice). Finally, participants could create action plans for fundraising

for their NGOs (application).

One Final Note on Learning Styles—Modalities

McCarthy also reminds us that there are three learning modalities:

A visual learner learns by seeing and imagining.

An auditory learner learns by listening and verbalizing.

A kinesthetic learner learns by doing and manipulating.

All learners profit by the use of multiple learning modalities in educational programs.

Adapted with permission from the publisher. From The 4MAT System: Teaching to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode

Techniques, 1987 by Bernice McCarthy. EXCEL, Inc., Barrington, IL. All rights reserved. [ICE No. ED 187]

APPLICATION MOTIVATION

PRACTICE INFORMATION
Nonformal Education 51

ACTIVITY PLANNING STRATEGIES

Now that you have a basic

understanding of learning styles, the

experiential learning cycle, and the

4MAT approach to lesson design, you

might be thinking: “But where do I

begin?” Like any successful event, the

key is good and thorough planning.

Begin by considering your audience,

your purpose, and the resources you

have on hand.

SEVEN STEPS OF PLANNING

Educator Jane Vella offers a useful

approach when preparing for a lesson or

workshop. Her seven steps of planning

provides a simple, efficient template to

keep in mind when beginning to design

lessons.

Who? Who are the participants? How much do they already know about the topic? What are

the age ranges, gender breakdown, cultural mix and hierarchies at work?

Why? What is the overall goal of the learning? What do the participants want to learn? Are

they attending the training voluntarily?

When? How much time is available for the training? Are there any work or season-related time

constraints? Is one time of day better than another for your participants?

Where? Where will the training be held? Indoors or outside? What equipment is available?

Chairs? Tables? Flipcharts? Local materials?

What for? What are the behavioral objectives of the training? What will the participants be able

to do differently after the training?

What? What specifically will participants learn? What new knowledge, skills and attitudes do

you want to develop?

How? What learning activities will participants engage in to learn the content? What are all

the steps of the training? How will you evaluate the training?

By using Vella’s Seven Steps as a checklist, you can be sure that you have taken all aspects of the

training into consideration as you work through your design. As you become more comfortable as a

facilitator, you will undoubtedly develop your own framework for planning your lessons.

Adapted with permission from the publisher. From Learning to Teach: Training of Trainers for Community and Institutional

Development, Jane Vella. © 1989, Save the Children. All rights reserved. [ICE No. ED189]
52 Peace Corps

PARTS OF A LEARNING ACTIVITY

Once you’ve gone through the seven steps, you are ready to design the lesson/activity. Although

there are as many different templates with which to plan a lesson as there are groups conducting

training, the parts of a lesson are basically the same.

Warm-up A short (5-10 minute) activity used to “break the ice” or to energize a group.

Warm-ups can be used at the beginning of an activity, after breaks, after lunch and

at times of low energy. (See Appendix C for warm-up/icebreaker activity suggestions.)

Introduction An activity used at the beginning of a lesson that allows participants to be introduced

to each other and to the facilitator(s).

Ground Rules Also called “group norms” or “guiding principles.” Ground rules help to establish

a set of factors that participants agree to use while working together. They usually

address the language to be used, punctuality and so on. Depending on the formality

of your lesson, you may or may not negotiate the ground rules with your group.

Expectations In this part of the lesson, participants are typically guided through an activity to

express what they expect from the training. The group then reviews the agenda and

the goals of the lesson to make sure everyone is in agreement.

Activities This is the body of the lesson. What learning methods, techniques and tools will

you use to communicate and explore the content of the lesson? For more information on choosing appropriate activities for your lesson, see Chapter 5: Matching

Learning Methods to Learning Objectives and Audience.

Evaluation Also known as “proof of learning.” An evaluation at the end of a lesson or workshop provides facilitators, participants, donors and others with feedback regarding

the effectiveness of the activity or workshop design. Some approaches to activity

and workshop evaluations are described on the next page.

Affirmation Similar to an evaluation, a workshop affirmation (or reflection) is a short activity

at the end of an activity to allow participants to reflect on their learning experience

and provide feedback.

Be sure to design NFE experiences in partnership with

your counterpart so that you learn from each other.

Involving your counterpart or other HCN colleague will

also help to build capacity and ensure sustainability of

the program. Your colleague will also provide valuable

culturally relevant information and approaches.

For some guidance on creating and sustaining positive

training experiences with co-facilitators, see Why CoTraining is Harder and Better than (Just) Training in the

Roles of the Volunteer in Development: Toolkits for

Building Capacity [ICE No. M0053].
Nonformal Education 53

WRITING OBJECTIVES

One useful guide for ensuring that the lesson’s objectives involve as many kinds of learning as

possible is to follow the “ABCs” when setting objectives.

Affective—what we feel; this objective involves new attitudes or feelings that have changed

as a result of the activity.

Behavioral—what we do; this objective refers to new skills learned and practiced during

the activity.

Cognitive—what we think; this objective involves new knowledge gained during the

activity.

For example, your objectives might read:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

describe the nutritional benefits of adding soybeans to traditional bread (cognitive);

prepare traditional bread made with soybeans (behavioral); or

demonstrate an understanding of the importance of eating soybean-enriched bread to their family’s health

(affective).

Note that each sample objective above begins with an action verb: describe, prepare and demonstrate.

Additionally, to ensure that a learning experience is effective and to be able to evaluate whether people have

learned, write objectives that are SMART:

pecific,

easurable,

chievable,

ealistic, and

ime-bound.

The KSAs (Knowledge—Skills—Attitudes) at the beginning of each chapter in this manual are

another description of different kinds of learning objectives, and they correspond directly to the

affective, behavioral, and cognitive categories described above.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

As we indicated in the Parts of a Learning Activity earlier, it is important to conduct some type of

evaluation of your activity’s success. Among other benefits, evaluations help you to continually improve

the program, to get a sense of satisfaction for the work you are doing, and potentially, to provide

evidence that could be used to justify funding or other support by the project’s supporters.

C

A

B

S

M

A

R

T
54 Peace Corps

Although evaluations are usually completed at

the end of an activity or training, you will

also want to consider some monitoring activities so you can measure your progress as you

conduct the activity. You may choose to use a

monitoring activity at the end of a training

day, twice a day (before lunch and at the end

of the day), or possibly at the end of every

activity (as in the Mood Meter in Appendix

D). In a highly participatory workshop, monitoring activities provide participants with an

opportunity to modify the training design to

better suit their needs.

It is smart to build in monitoring and evaluation

while you design your activity. If you need to

quantify your work, for example, you should determine the methods you will use to collect information

at the beginning rather than scramble to fill information gaps at the end. In short, monitoring and

evaluation activities help you measure the progress of your activity, allow you to make subtle changes

if necessary, and help you to maintain timelines and group interest. See Appendices D and E for

monitoring and evaluation ideas.

WHO WANTS TO KNOW AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

Useful questions to consider when designing an evaluation for your learning activity or workshop are:

“Who wants to know and for what purpose?” Considering these two questions may help you to decide the

most appropriate approach to evaluation. Potential answers to “who wants to know?” may include the

facilitators, any donors or sponsors or perhaps the participants themselves. Possible answers to “for what

purpose?” may include improving subsequent activities, ascertaining follow-up training for participants,

determining whether or not to fund such learning activities in the future, etc. There may be multiple answers

to each of the questions, as well. For example, an evaluation of an NFE project funded by a development

agency may need to serve the pragmatic purpose of renewing the funding and, at the same time, help the

facilitators discover ways to improve the workshop. Therefore, it is important to ask: “who wants to know

and for what purpose?” when deciding what approach to use in the evaluation of an activity or workshop.

LEVELS OF EVALUATION

In 1959, Donald Kirkpatrick developed a four-level model of evaluation. Since that time, his

model has become the most widely used approach to evaluating training programs.

Level 1 Evaluation—Reactions: Just as the name implies, this simple evaluation measures participants’ satisfaction with the training. Did they like it? Which activities did they like

the most? Which activities would they improve? At bare minimum, educators should evaluate

at this level so that they can improve their training program. Examples of this type of evaluation might include the Mood Meter (see Appendix D) to monitor progress or a post-workshop

satisfaction questionnaire.

Level 2 Evaluation—Learning: This evaluation attempts to assess to what extent the

objectives have been achieved. Ideally, trainers will conduct a pre-test and a post-test to

evaluate learning gains.
Nonformal Education 55

Level 3 Evaluation—Behavior: This level of evaluation is perhaps the best measure of an activity’s

effectiveness, as it seeks to discover to what extent the new knowledge, skills, or attitudes have changed

the behavior of the participants. It is also, in many ways, the most difficult type of evaluation to do,

as it is important to separate out any potential other reasons for this behavior change. An example of

this type of evaluation might be a six-month post-training questionnaire.

Level 4 Evaluation—Results: This type of evaluation seeks to document the results that

have been achieved as a result of the activity. For example, if the HIV prevalence rate in a

community declines after repeated HIV/AIDS prevention training, one might conclude that the

training was responsible for the decline. Again, this may be difficult to prove, as it will be

necessary to ensure that nothing else was responsible for the results.

For the most part, Volunteers will probably engage in level 1 and level 2 evaluations.

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION

The two overarching types of data that one might collect from an evaluation (or a needs assessment, for that matter) are qualitative and quantitative. The basic distinction between them is that

qualitative data refer to non-numerical information, while quantitative data refer to information

that can be gathered numerically. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of

evaluation, and it is generally recommended to attempt to gather both—some numbers to allow

for accurate comparison of information, and some stories or open-ended answers to capture a

deeper understanding of participants’ attitudes and opinions.

Think about Tracy’s training program. How might she gather quantitative information to evaluate her lessons? Qualitative information?

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative information? Qualitative?

Which type of evaluation are you most comfortable with? Do you see any link between this and

your preferred learning style?

WORKSHOP EVALUATIONS

When most people think of a workshop evaluation, they imagine

a written document of one or more pages that solicits specific

feedback about the activities or the overall training design.

While such a written evaluation may be an important or

essential part of your training, there are also a number of

participatory approaches to evaluating a workshop. See

Appendix D for some suggestions.

WORKSHOP AFFIRMATIONS/WORKSHOP CLOSING ACTIVITIES

Even if you engage in one of the workshop evaluations listed in Appendix E, you may still wish to

conclude your workshop or activity with an affirmation. As we mentioned earlier, an affirmation offers

participants the chance to affirm the importance of the group’s time together and to look ahead to the

future. An affirmation or closing exercise is a short 5-15 minute activity used at the end of a

learning activity or workshop. A good closing exercise fosters a sense of accomplishment by

giving participants the opportunity to share their impressions of the workshop, relay appreciative

messages to the group and/or reflect on what they have learned.
56 Peace Corps

Create a “Spider Web” of Support

Try a “spider web” activity

as a closing exercise. The

“spider web” results in a

visual image of the new

network that has been

created among the

participants in the group.

Direct participants to stand

in a tight circle. Start off

the web by making a

short statement about the

workshop or about the

group’s time together. The

statement can be

something positive you

have noticed or learned, a

new understanding or

appreciation for the group

or for the time that the

group has spent together.

After speaking and asking

other participants to make

a similar statement, toss a

ball of string or twine to a

participant across the circle, while holding on to one end of the ball of string. The

participant should catch the ball of string, make a statement about the workshop and

hold on to a piece of the string before tossing the ball to someone across the circle.

This continues until all participants have made a statement about the training, are

holding on to the string, and have tossed the ball of string to another participant.

When all participants have spoken, the final person tosses the ball of string back to you

(the facilitator). If you would like, you can make some closing comments about the training.

Specifically, describe the web of understanding that now connects the participants and

represents the support each participant can provide for the group’s well-being in the future.

Visually represent this support by asking one participant to relax his or her hold on the

string briefly. The web will weaken and sag, thereby visibly indicating that the web is weaker

without each and every participant keeping it strong.

Note: A variation on this training has participants give a statement about the contributions

of the person to whom they will pass the ball of string. This is an effective way to provide

positive feedback to all members of the group.
Nonformal Education 57

IDEAS AND

APPLICATIONS

Now that you have read and learned about learning styles, lesson design and evaluation, it may be

helpful for you to apply what you have learned. Feel free to try one, several or all of these activities.

OBSERVE LEARNING STYLES IN

YOUR COMMUNITY OR WORKPLACE

Spend a day or a week observing your host family, your community members and/or the people you

work with. Ask yourself the following questions:

How do people learn?

Do people take notes at meetings?

Do people ask questions when they are learning? What kinds of questions do they ask?

How do children learn new games and skills?

Can you identify a preferred learning style in the community?

Do school lessons incorporate different learning styles?

Which stage of the 4MAT do you think would be most unfamiliar to community members?

How might your observations of learning styles affect your approach to teaching and training?
58 Peace Corps

FACILITATE A “LEARNING STYLES

AWARENESS” ACTIVITY

Use the “Learning to Sail” activity (Appendix I) with a group of trainees, trainers, counterparts, or

friends to help build awareness of each person’s different learning style.

Determine Attitudes and Assumptions about Learning and Education

Interview community members (parents, local leaders, teachers, principals, business people, children).

Some questions you might ask include:

Did you enjoy school? What was your favorite subject? What was your favorite type of lesson?

Do you think people learn differently?

Why is learning important?

What is the value of learning and education?

How much education is enough?

What do you think are the characteristics of a good student? A good teacher?

Should students ask questions of their teachers? Why? Why not?
Nonformal Education 59

PRACTICE USING PROCESSING QUESTIONS

One way of helping learners move through the four learning stages is by asking them questions. Think

back on what you read about the work of Kolb and McCarthy on learning styles. Then look at the list

of questions below. Which questions would be most appropriate for the reflection stage? Which ones

are good for the generalization stage? The application stage?

What are the consequences of doing/not doing this?

Can someone describe what we just did?

In what ways does this change your understanding of the situation?

What happened next?

Does this remind you of anything? What can it help explain?

What surprised you? Puzzled you?

How might you improve this situation?

What were the steps involved?

What are some of the major themes at work here?

What struck you as particularly important or significant?

What did you learn from this experience?

How did you feel about what happened?

How might you apply this to your own situation?

How can you account for what happened?

What lessons can be learned from this?

How might it have been different?

How does this experience relate to other experiences?

What does this suggest to you about yourself or your group?
60 Peace Corps

USE TOOLS TO IDENTIFY LEARNING STYLES

With your new understanding of learning styles, can you devise a method to help learners discover

their own learning styles? Whether it is a written questionnaire, a participatory activity or something

else, what method would you suggest for guiding participants to an understanding of their own learning

styles?

If you have access to the Internet, type “learning styles inventory” into any major search engine

and choose from a variety of free online resources that offer online questionnaires to determine

your own learning style. Do this for yourself, or, if you have access to a computer lab, lead a

group through a learning styles discovery activity.

See the “Web Resources” at the end of the chapter for some suggested learning styles inventories

offered online free of charge.
Nonformal Education 61

REFLECT

Why is an understanding of learning styles important when designing a learning activity?

What makes the experiential learning cycle particularly powerful as an NFE approach?

Why is evaluation a crucial component in NFE lesson design?
62 Peace Corps

KEY

RESOURCES

REFERENCES:

Kirkpatrick, Donald L. Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. San Francisco: BerrettKoehler Publications, 1998.

In this newest edition of his groundbreaking 1959 text, Kirkpatrick describes his four-level approach

to evaluating learning programs—evaluating reaction, learning, behavior, and results. “The Kirkpatrick

Model” is probably the most-used approach for evaluating training programs.

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall TPR, 1983.

This text provides the theoretical and practical underpinnings of Kolb’s learning styles theory, and

introduces the experiential learning cycle. The book also includes Kolb’s Learning Styles

Inventory.

McCarthy, Bernice. The 4MAT System: Teaching to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode Techniques. Barrington, IL: EXCEL, Inc., 1987. [ICE No. ED187]

McCarthy combines Kolb’s theories with research on left- and right-mode processing preference to

create her 4MAT system. This text provides a concise and clear description of McCarthy’s

four learning styles and suggests specific approaches for using the 4MAT system to create

powerful lesson plans.

Roles of the Volunteer in Development: Toolkits for Building Capacity. Washington, DC: Peace Corps,

2002. [ICE No. M0053]

This text provides a comprehensive look at the place of the Volunteer in the development process.

Detailing the Volunteer’s roles as learner, change agent, co-trainer, co-facilitator, project co-planner, and

mentor, RVID provides countless theories, case studies, activities and approaches to help Volunteers and

their communities get the most of out their two years of service.

Vella, Jane. Learning to Teach: Training of Trainers for Community and Institutional Development.

Westport, CT: Save the Children, 1989. [ICE No. ED189]

Vella’s useful text provides 25 sample lesson plans for training trainers in adult learning, Freirian

approaches, and facilitation skills. The manual also includes suggested warm-up activities and Vella’s

“seven steps of planning.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Community Content-Based Instruction Manual. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No.

T0112]

The CCBI Manual describes possibilities for incorporating culturally appropriate, real-life examples into an existing curriculum so that learning activities are more relevant to students’ lives.

The text draws on McCarthy’s 4MAT system to suggest a powerful approach for working with

students in the formal education system. A number of sample lesson plans are also provided.
Nonformal Education 63

Eitington, Julius E. The Winning Trainer: Winning Ways to Involve People in Learning. Boston:

Butterworth Heinemann, 2002.

Eitington’s text offers a comprehensive guide for the new trainer. The book describes hundreds of training methods and suggestions, and includes various handouts for use in learning

situations. Additional topics include preparation of the learning environment and evaluation

strategies.

Hope, Anne, and Sally Timmel. Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers,

Books I-IV. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999.

Written for practitioners in community development and transformative education, the Training for

Transformation series suggests a powerful, wholly participatory approach to working with local

people. The first book details the theories of Paulo Freire and suggests methods for developing critical awareness. The second text focuses on the skills necessary for participatory

education and suggests methods for actively involving the group. Book three deals with

social analysis and provides tools for long-term planning and building solidarity. The final

text in the series applies the approach to current topics of racism, environmental degradation,

and women’s issues.

McCarthy, Bernice. About Teaching: 4Mat in the Classroom. Wauconda, IL: About Learning, Inc.,

2000.

For more information about McCarthy’s 4MAT System of learning and teaching, refer to this

updated and revised version. As in the earlier edition, McCarthy combines Kolb’s theories with

research on left- and right-mode processing preference to create her 4MAT system. This updated

text provides a description of McCarthy’s four learning styles and suggests specific approaches for

using the 4MAT system to create powerful lesson plans.

Technology of Participation: Group Facilitation Methods: Effective Methods for Participation. Phoenix, AZ: Institute for Cultural Affairs, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2000.

This manual details participatory approaches to action planning and consensus building. The text

also suggests a “focused conversation” method of processing learning activities, including a number

of powerful questions to use with the experiential learning cycle.

VIPP: Visualisation in Participatory Programmes. Bangladesh: UNICEF, 1993. [ICE No. TR124]

This classic text details a people-centered approach to planning, training, and group consensus

building. At the core of the VIPP methodology is the use of multi-colored cards, highly visual

learning aids, and strong facilitation based on a commitment to the principles of adult learning. The

text offers specific exercises for participatory group work, including games, exercises, debates, card

sorting, and evaluation ideas.

Vella, Jane. How Do They Know They Know? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

In this fascinating text, Vella applies the principles of nonformal education to evaluation. Through

theory and practical examples, Vella suggests an approach for using participation, dialogue, and

adult learning theory to evaluate learning programs.

Working with Youth: Approaches for Volunteers. Washington, DC: Peace Corps, 2002. [ICE No. M0067]

This informative guide to working with youth includes a comprehensive section on participatory assessment. Techniques include Venn diagrams, informal interviews, group interviews,

community mapping, and tips for compiling information. The text also includes a lesson on

participatory planning.
64 Peace Corps

WEB RESOURCES:

Center for Advancement of Learning

http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/inventory.html

A example of a personal learning style inventory by the Center for Advancement of Learning.

“The Personal Styles Inventory provides a means of characterizing one’s preferred learning

style with respect to four dimensions.” Take the free inventory to learn more about your own

preferred style of learning. The Learning Strategies Database homepage:

http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/assessment.html

Education Planet

www.educationplanet.com

This useful Web resource offers more than 3,000 free lesson plans on dozens of K-12 topics,

including art, computers, environment, literature, math, science, poetry and much more. The

site also includes teacher Web tools, and special resources for students and parents.

Index of Learning Styles — North Carolina State University

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

A free “Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire” offered by North Carolina State University. Answer

44 easy-to-answer questions to determine your learning style and receive a detailed explanation of

your style and how to succeed in a variety of learning environments.

The World Bank Group — Social Analysis

http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/sdvext.nsf/61ByDocName/ToolsandMethods

A detailed listing of some social analysis tools to use when conducting participatory analysis

assessments and evaluations. Site maintained by the World Bank Group.
Nonformal Education 65

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

IN THIS CHAPTER

PRE-READING STRATEGY ................................................................................................ 66

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes ................................................................... 66

READING ................................................................................................................................... 67

NFE in Action: Considering the Learning Environment ................................................... 67

Physical Environment ............................................................................................................ 68

Climate Setting ...................................................................................................................... 69

Creating Community in a Learning Environment .............................................................. 71

Considering Gender and Culture in the Learning Environment ....................................... 72

The Art of Facilitation .......................................................................................................... 73

Cross-Cultural Group Facilitation ......................................................................................... 75

Encouraging Healthy Group Dynamics ............................................................................... 76

IDEAS AND APPLICATIONS ............................................................................................. 78

Brainstorm Components of a Powerful Learning Experience ........................................... 79

Assess a Learning Environment........................................................................................... 79

Take a Survey of Visual Techniques ................................................................................... 80

Create a Facilitation Checklist ............................................................................................. 81

Reflect .................................................................................................................................... 82

Key Resources ...................................................................................................................... 83

CHAPTER 4
66 Peace Corps

PRE-READING

STRATEGY

Assess your Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ATTITUDES

Knowledge, Skills, • Characteristics of an • Arrangement of space • Confidence

and Attitudes effective learning and materials • Self-awareness

needed to create an environment • Writing and drawing • Genuine interest in

effective learning • Important physical skills participants and the

environment aspects conducive to • Ability to set a climate topic

learning and facilitate learning • Commitment to

• Climate-setting • Language skills and participatory learning

techniques cross-cultural • Flexibility

• Gender and cross- communication skills

cultural issues that • Ability to assess group

impact learning dynamics

• Aspects of group • Ability to balance

management individual learner and

group needs

Your strengths

Your plans to

learn more
Nonformal Education 67

READING

NFE IN ACTION:

CONSIDERING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

RUTH

Ruth finishes sweeping, grabs her schoolbooks and runs towards the school. She is late

again, and she knows the teacher will be angry with her and remind her that if she doesn’t

pass her exams, she’ll never make it to secondary school. Even though she wakes up early

every morning, she just has so much to do—getting the water, helping her mother get

bathwater and breakfast ready—there just isn’t enough time for it all. When she reaches

the schoolyard, classes have already begun. She slips into her classroom, conscious of the

scowl on her teacher’s face. She has arrived there too late to get one of the desks, so she

crowds into the back of the room with some other latecomers, sitting on the floor and

arranging her books around her. The room is hot and cramped, and it is so difficult to hear

the teacher from the back! Ruth strains to see the chalkboard and begins to work on the

lesson...

Think about Ruth’s situation for a moment. Even if her teacher designs lessons for every

learning style, even if the sessions are participatory and the content is relevant, would you

describe Ruth’s learning experience as effective? What are some of the issues at work in

Ruth’s story?

A successful educator must be able to focus on the lesson design elements that we

discussed in Chapter 3, while simultaneously considering all of the factors necessary to

create an effective learning environment. Good teachers have always been conscious of the

effect of arrangement, spatial issues, temperature, and other external factors on learning.

In the 1980s, Malcolm Knowles elaborated on the importance of environment in his adult

learning theory and since that time, a rich field of research has explored the relationship

of the environment to effective learning. Too often, the focus on learning environment is

limited to room arrangement, but effective educators must take into consideration all of the

factors that the physical and emotional surroundings bring to the day’s learning.

Consider Ruth’s learning environment from earlier in the chapter.

What physical surroundings may have had an impact on her learning?

Were any psychological or emotional conditions at work in her story?

What social or cultural influences may have had an impact on her learning?

How much of these factors are under your control as a teacher or facilitator?
68 Peace Corps

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

How can you create a physical environment that supports and

enhances learning? There are several factors to consider when

choosing or utilizing a space for effective learning.

Size: How many participants or students are you expecting? Will

the area be large enough? Is there another area that might better

fit the group? If you have no other room choices, how might

you best maximize the space in the area? Can you move outside?

Are there pieces of furniture that you might remove or adjust to

make the room more comfortable? Remember to consider crosscultural issues of space when answering these questions, as

different cultures have different comfort zones in terms of personal space.

Arrangement: Consider the activities you have planned. What is the best arrangement for those

activities? A circle of chairs? A semi-circle? Should part of the room be free of furniture to allow

space to move, or is a space available for interactive activities outside? Does the arrangement you

have chosen convey any implicit messages about hierarchy or authority? (For example, if you see

a teacher standing behind a podium, with students in linear rows, what messages of authority and

hierarchy might be implied? How about a circle of chairs, with the facilitator sitting in the circle?)

Temperature: Is the room too hot? Too cold? Is this something that you can control?

Access: Are signs clearly visible to direct participants to the appropriate room? Does the building

allow access for people of differing physical abilities? Are restrooms available nearby? Are they

comfortable?

Cleanliness: Is the room clean? Is the furniture in good condition?

Visuals: Can participants clearly see you? Can they clearly see each other? Are any views blocked

by columns, furniture, glare, other participants? Is there adequate lighting? If you are using a flipchart,

chalkboard, or audiovisual equipment, be sure to preview these before the sessions. Write something on

the flipchart or chalkboard, or turn on the television, overhead projector, or computer, then look at these

visuals from different angles and distances. Is your handwriting legible? Can everyone see clearly? Are

the markers you’re using hard to see?

Hearing and Sounds: Are you projecting your voice loudly enough so that participants hear

you? Are there any noises that might distract the participants?

Decoration: Are there ways to decorate the training space to make it more appealing and more

informative? Are there any posters, maps or other wall hangings that would add to the learning

experience? Do you have texts, handouts or other resources that might be left in the back of the

room on a resource table? Be sure to consider the literacy levels and the language of your participants when deciding on posters and written resources. Also, be aware of any taboos around what

images might be depicted on such posters and texts. As the workshop or classroom experience

progresses, you may find that the most inspiring “decorations” will be the output from the sessions—flipcharts from small group work, lists of ground rules, expectations, objectives, and so forth.

But in the beginning, feel free to make the space feel comfortable, attractive, and representative of

the topic you will be addressing in the learning experience.
Nonformal Education 69

Using “Toys” in the Adult Learning Environment

One way to use the physical environment to tap in to the energy of the “right brain

processes” that we discussed in Chapter 3 is to scatter “toys” on participants’ tables or

workspaces. These “toys” can be almost anything—squishy balls, clay, magnets, tiny plastic

gadgets, something funny from the market—anything that participants can quietly and thoughtlessly play with while they are working on a project or listening to a lecture. By tapping into

the participants’ desire for “play” and creativity, you engage their right brain/kinesthetic

mode of learning. Although it seems like a distraction, you are actually achieving broader

levels of concentration. This tactic is especially useful when participants will be working

together in groups on a difficult topic, or when energy seems to be low.

Although you and your co-facilitators will probably have to attend to all of the issues around

physical environment in the beginning of the workshop, session, or semester, be sure to

involve participants in these decisions as your work together progresses. You might do this

by:

Conducting a quick space needs assessment: Ask participants how comfortable they

are with the room, temperature, arrangement and so forth at the beginning and at various

points throughout the sessions. You might wish to do this verbally and on a quick written

form, the latter to capture the needs of quieter participants.

Inviting participants to get comfortable: Give permission for participants to make

changes to the learning environment or to their own positions so that they remain

comfortable, satisfied, and engaged in the learning process.

Create participant committees: Empower a participant group to take charge of some

of these issues—decorations, for example, or a resource table.

CLIMATE SETTING

Once you have worked out the session design and created a comfortable physical space, you’ll want to give

some thought to the type of climate or atmosphere you will create in the learning environment. The first

day of the group’s work together is probably the most important opportunity to set the tone for the entire

learning experience. Every learner—whether adult or youth—brings certain anxieties and expectations to a

new learning situation. It is up to you and the rest of the facilitation team to make participants comfortable

and to project an atmosphere that will be conducive to learning. The answers to the following three key

questions should be clear by the end of the first day.

Who are we? Through introductions, a discussion of expectations and icebreakers, participants

should be given an opportunity to bring their own personalities, interests and backgrounds into the

group. Depending on the situation, this may also be the time to clarify how the group will work

together, perhaps through the creation of group norms or ground rules.

Who is the facilitator? Participants want to learn a bit about you in this first session, so

that they may begin to feel comfortable and secure in their relationship with you. Often,

training manuals refer to the importance of establishing credibility, however, it is probably
70 Peace Corps

equally (or more) important for the NFE practitioner to make explicit his or her role as a

learner in the process. This is especially true when working with adults, as you will want to

make it clear that your time together will represent a sharing of everyone’s experiences.

What is the purpose? Finally, the first day should clarify the purpose of your time together.

Discuss and post the objectives and agenda so the day’s schedule is clear to all. You may want to

describe any needs assessments that may have helped to shape the agenda, and briefly outline the

proposed content of the learning experience.

Deciding what tone to set will depend on several factors, including your own personality, the

audience, the cultural norms, and the topic of the learning experience. For example, if the topic

of your learning experience is caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, a tone of serious hopefulness is probably more appropriate than the cheerful excitement you might project if the session

were about building a community center.

INCLUSION: When a group forms, people must interact and

get attention so that they feel included. This takes time. People

feel included when they hear their names mentioned, when

they respond to open questions, and when they perform a task

with a small group. If a person does not experience inclusion,

he or she may not fully participate in later learning activities.

When a new person joins the group late, that person has the

same need for inclusion. In fact, there is a new group when

a newcomer arrives. So the process of inclusion must take

place all over again.

– From Jane Vella, Learning to Teach: Training of Trainers for

Community and Institutional Development, p. 12. © 1989,

Save the Children. All rights reserved.
Nonformal Education 71

CREATING COMMUNITY IN

A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

A crucial aspect of climate setting is creating a feeling of community among participants in a learning

environment. Take a look at the following examples and try to identify the potentially uncomfortable

issues involved.

A woman is encouraged to join a small, all-male group to discuss issues of gender.

Three junior teachers are asked to perform a role play with their district’s education supervisor.

During the opening speech, a group of government officials is told that its performance on the posttest at the end of the workshop will be a big factor when determining promotions.

A Volunteer rapidly asks a difficult question in English to a villager.

At a community meeting, the facilitator from an international NGO uses jokes and irony to lighten

the mood after an intense discussion of the community’s needs.

Participants are in a better position to learn and share their experiences when they feel comfortable and

confident in their learning environment. To create a safe space, it is important to truly understand the

participant group with which you are working. Remember to assess your community carefully, taking

your time to observe, cultivate relationships with members of the community, and include community

members in your activity-planning processes. Discuss the issues of gender, culture, hierarchy,

language, and typical ways of learning in the host community or culture. Keep in mind that while

humor can be useful in creating a positive atmosphere; take care to respect cultural norms. You

may want to begin on safer ground, and then challenge the group little by little as the group

becomes closer and more comfortable with each other, with you, and with the content.
72 Peace Corps

CONSIDERING GENDER AND CULTURE

IN THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Think back to the story about Ruth earlier in this chapter. Can you identify any factors that inhibited

Ruth’s learning experience as a direct result of her gender?

Suppose the many tasks Ruth needs to complete each morning before she can leave for school are

tasks usually assigned to the girls in the family. What implications does this have for Ruth’s

schooling?

If the girls in the classroom are late each day because of these chores and there aren’t enough seats

for all of the students, who do you think is always sitting on the floor in the back of the room?

Who, then, is sitting at the desks in the front? What implications does this have for the learning

experiences of the girls? Of the boys?

How do you think the teacher’s gender might affect the learning environment? How might it affect

the teacher’s interaction with boys? With girls?

What can you do as an educator to promote a positive learning experience for both the girls and

the boys in a situation like this one?

In every area, there are gender issues, cultural issues, and issues of race, religion, and class that may

impact the learning experience. Although there are no definitive answers for every such situation, it is

important for you to:

Educate yourself about the issues of gender, culture,

class, religion, and race that may have an impact on

the learning experience.

Consult with HCN counterparts and friends regarding culturally appropriate solutions to some of these

situations.

Devise creative approaches to lessen the impact of

these issues on the learning experience. For example,

in Ruth’s situation, you might have a seating chart

that changes weekly, so that each student gets a turn

at a desk in the front of the classroom. Or you might

try to rearrange the room, perhaps using only small

chairs, so that all students can see clearly.

Discuss these situations and make them a part of the

learning process. Subtly and respectfully examining

issues of hierarchy is a fundamental component of

NFE since power and status are often less obvious in

nonformal settings than in formal settings where these

roles are usually more clear. Conducting sessions or

having discussions around the impact of gender,

multiculturalism, religion, and class may offer opportunities to enhance the learning environment and

may even lead to lasting change.

It is important not to assume

that the impact of gender on

education applies only to girls.

In Lesotho, for example, some

boys have more difficulty gaining

access to education. Boys work

as shepherds when they are very

young and may only be sent to

school years later, at which time

they are placed into classrooms

with girls half their age. In

Mongolia, because of the

shepherding duties, boys are

often pulled out of school. In

Jamaica, girls are given preference—if only some children can

go to school, then the girls go.

What impact might these cultural

differences have on the boys?

On the young girls they share a

classroom with? On the learning

experience?
Nonformal Education 73

THE ART OF FACILITATION

Facilitation is an art and a craft. It is a craft in that the

facilitator must know and follow the rules, learn how to

pose the right question at the right moment and write clearly.

It is also an art that requires experience and intuition since

the facilitator must create a drama that allows the group to

give all of its potential to the process. The facilitator must

be able to creatively get the group out of situations of

conflict and to respond to the requirements of the group at

any moment by adopting a new technique or by accepting

an idea coming from the group.

– Visualisation in Participatory Programmes, p. 36. © 1989,

UNICEF/Bangladesh. All rights reserved.

Once the design is finished, the physical environment established, and your plan for climate setting and

activities is in place, it is show time! Most of the “art” of facilitation comes from experience—the

more you work with groups, the more likely you will be comfortable responding to the myriad situations that will come up in any meeting, gathering, workshop, or classroom. Here are a few basic

facilitation guidelines to make your first few experiences most effective:

PLANNING

Incorporate and use a variety of activities. As we learned in Chapter 3, participants have different

learning styles. Varying the pace and type of activities will help to stimulate learning. You may wish

to use the experiential learning cycle, 4MAT, or another of the theories discussed in Chapter 3 to

guide you in choosing the appropriate activities for all learning styles. In the next chapter, we will

look at specific techniques and methods you can use to keep participants involved and motivated.

Pay attention to pace and timing. Will you be presenting completely new information to the group?

If so, you may wish to allow more time for discussion and reflection so that the learners can digest

the new material. Are you working with children or adults? Children tend to need more variety and

frequent changes of pace, whereas adults can focus for greater lengths of time.

Come prepared with necessary supplies.

Check your handouts, flipcharts and other visual aids for accuracy and legibility. If your handwriting

is not good, consider enlisting someone to help you to create visuals.

Use a pencil to make notes to yourself on prepared flipcharts – the participants won’t be able to

see them.

Plan how you will write on flipcharts or the blackboard in advance when you can, so you won’t

run out of space and the flow is logical.
74 Peace Corps

Practice the techniques you will use beforehand so you don’t get too nervous or lose your

train of thought. Visualize the entire session or meeting the night before—imagining how you

will arrange the room, what you will say, how you will make transitions between activities, etc.

Jot short notes on a card to briefly refer to during the session.

IMPLEMENTING

Be positive and confident. Smile.

Communicate enthusiasm for the meeting, the topic and the people involved.

Express genuine interest in each individual’s contribution to the discussion.

Speak loudly and clearly enough for everyone to hear easily, and enunciate words—especially if

you, or the participants, are struggling with a second language.

Use open questions, rather than closed questions. Open questions invite discussion and critical

thinking, while closed questions evoke short answers. For example, the open-ended question: “How

might we encourage Ruth to participate in class better?” invites a thoughtful response. The closed

question: “Do you think Ruth is able to participate in the class?” may limit the learner to a oneword answer.

Encourage discussion among group members instead of between participants and yourself. You can

do this by redirecting questions to the entire group, perhaps by saying: “What do you think

of Mr. Gomez’s suggestion?”

Use small group discussions to foster greater communication and participation. You can form small

groups in many different ways.

Ask participants to count off around the room. If you

want four groups, they should count to four as you go

around the room. Then, all the “ones” form a group,

all the “twos” and so forth.

Ask people to self-select into groups with people they

don’t know.

Write the name of different animals, colors or foods on

cards around the room, and tell participants to go to the

one they like the most. If you are working on specific

topics, you might write down the different topic choices

instead, so that participants can self-select groups according

to the topic that resonates for them.

Try to keep the meeting or session from drifting too far off topic. It takes some practice to balance

facilitator control with group participation. Use your tone of voice, your energy or “presence” and

your interested silence to keep the group focused.

Let participants know when you have learned something new from them.

Write legibly in dark colors. It helps to alternate between two colors when writing on a flipchart

or chalkboard.
Nonformal Education 75

FOLLOW-UP

Set aside some reflection time immediately after a session or workshop to reflect on your and

your learners’ experiences. Consider what worked well and what could be improved in the

future. What parts of the session went really well? Were there times or situations where you

really had to stretch as a facilitator? What did you learn about yourself? About the group?

How can you build on that learning in the future?

Immediately after the session, add your reflections on, and reactions to, the session to the bottom of your

notes so they are there for you the next time you do that session.

Compile any notes, feedback, evaluation results or action plans and distribute them to the participants as appropriate.

If you plan to facilitate a similar session in the future, take stock of your supplies and resources.

Do you need to revise any materials? Create new ones? Order or create more supplies?

CROSS-CULTURAL GROUP FACILITATION

Facilitating a group in a culture different from your own is tricky, since

how people behave may have entirely different meanings than you

expect. In the U.S., if group members are silent, it could be assumed

they are shy, that they don’t have any ideas on the subject, or that they

are intimidated by other group members (including the facilitator). But

in some cultures, the highest-status individuals may be the quietest,

showing their wisdom and respect for others by their ability to reflect

and hold back the first ideas that come to mind.

Setting an agenda, giving feedback, dealing with disruptions, keeping

the group on task and gaining consensus are all culturally based

behaviors. Expecting groups in your host country to act like Americans can be frustrating and counterproductive. Use your crosscultural skills and your ability to observe and ask discreet questions

to understand group behavior in your host country before trying to

facilitate groups in your work as a Volunteer. Look for some of the

following:

What formalities are observed? Who opens and closes the meeting,

and how is this typically accomplished?

Where do people of different status sit?

How are topics introduced? By going straight to the point? Indirectly?

Which topics are introduced first? (In some cultures, the most important topics are saved until last.)

What irrelevant topics are introduced? Are they really irrelevant?

How do people get permission—or find an opening—to speak?
76 Peace Corps

How long does it typically take the group to decide on something? What is the process for

coming to a decision? (Look for differences here between the “All in favor say ‘aye’” approach and a lengthy discussion process in which everyone has a chance to air his or her

views but complete consensus is expected in the end.)

How do members of the group express their dissatisfaction with one another?

What kinds of decisions are made outside the meeting? Where and how are they made? By whom?

ENCOURAGING HEALTHY GROUP DYNAMICS

As we noted earlier, one of the most challenging yet rewarding

aspects of facilitating is empowering participants to take charge of

their own learning. Effective facilitators capitalize on teachable

moments and create opportunities for learners to participate. Encouraging, recognizing and then allowing those moments to happen is

largely a function of understanding and managing group dynamics.

Below are some tips for fostering healthy group dynamics.

Encourage open discussion: Let the participants know

they don’t have to agree—either with each other or with you.

Be clear that they are free to come to their own conclusions,

learn what they want to learn, and reject what they don’t

agree with. At the same time, try to keep the group on track

by letting them know when it is time to move on.

Break off lengthy discussions kindly: Interesting discussions must sometimes be cut short in order to respect time

constraints or cover other important topics. If several people have

indicated that they still have something to say, you might say something like: “Okay, first Georgi,

then Lydia, then Elena, and then we’ll have to move on because we’re running out of time.” This

is both more respectful and more effective than just trying to end the discussion abruptly.

Integrate the big talkers, encourage the silent types: Often a group will have one

or two highly vocal participants who tend to dominate the discussion as well as a few who seem

interested but keep their ideas to themselves. You can balance the group a bit better by trying some

of the following:

Don’t force the quiet ones to talk by calling on them. People have different learning styles.

Some prefer to quietly reflect rather than speak publicly what first comes to mind. Try to

balance the desire for full participation with the learning styles of various participants.

Frequently change the makeup of small groups. This way, quieter people will eventually

meet up with other quiet types and be able to speak up, while the talkers will meet and

be challenged by talkers like themselves.

In a large group discussion, after asking for ideas on some topic, ask participants to jot

down one or two ideas before anyone speaks, then go around the room and ask each

person to read one idea.
Nonformal Education 77

Look for body language. People who are ready with ideas often sit forward, or meet your

eyes, or shift in their seats while another person is speaking.

If a participant really begins to dominate the discussion, talk to that person after the session

and enlist their help in encouraging others to speak up.

Remember that there may be a cultural reason for lack of participation, or it may be the

result of gender roles. If a situation seems particularly unclear to you, talk with an HCN

co-facilitator about it, or you might want to raise the question in the group during a

reflection or evaluation period.

When the whole group is silent: When people feel hesitant about speaking up, or when

it is hot or people are tired, you may have difficulty getting discussion started. If you ask a question

and no one answers it, wait—count to five very slowly to yourself without betraying any anxiety

or irritation. Be comfortable with the silence. If no one answers, smile, rephrase the question and

wait again. If discussion continues to be slow, consider using “buzz groups,” in which participants discuss the question with a partner for a few minutes. Then go around the room,

asking several pairs what they came up with—the whole group may be surprised at the

number of good ideas that emerge. Or, have people individually write down points and then

ask if anyone wants to share. If no one volunteers, move on.

When you feel frustrated because part of the session is

not going well, admit that frustration in a question like:

“What can I do to make this easier and clearer?”

Invite participants as peers to appreciate how you are

feeling. They will be grateful and recognize their own

power as you work out a solution together.

Share the agony as well as the joy of

participatory learning!

— Jane Vella, Learning to Teach: Training of

Trainers for Community and Institutional

Development, p. 43. © 1989,

Save the Children.

All rights reserved.
78 Peace Corps

IDEAS AND

APPLICATIONS

Now that you have read about learning environments, it may be helpful for you to apply what you have

learned. Feel free to try one, several or all of these activities.

BRAINSTORM COMPONENTS OF

A POWERFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCE

With a member of your training group or a friend at your site, exchange stories about powerful learning

experiences from your past—a workshop, classroom session, or meeting that you consider to have had the

most effective learning environment. Tell a story about this learning experience, and include answers to

some of the following questions.

What was the session like? What made it such a positive experience?

Describe the physical space. What was the room arrangement like?

How did the facilitator/teacher set the climate?

How did the facilitator ensure that the different learning styles of participants were met?

How did participants interact?

What were the factors of success for these sessions?

How might you incorporate these factors into the learning experiences you facilitate?
Nonformal Education 79

ASSESS A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Whether at pre-service training, in-service training, or at your site, consider conducting an assessment of the learning environment at the next workshop you attend. Use the questions listed

earlier in this chapter under “Physical Environment” and “Climate Setting” to assess the physical

space, arrangement, visuals, decorations, and so on.
80 Peace Corps

TAKE A SURVEY OF VISUAL TECHNIQUES

Conduct a survey of the visual techniques used in your community. Remember that communities

will vary in their levels of “visual literacy.” If you are working with a community that relies on

verbal instructions, pictures and images used as visual aids could be confusing or misleading.

The following example used in Helping Health Workers Learn illustrates the importance of considering visual literacy:

In a workshop designed to help prevent the spread of malaria, a rural health worker uses a largerthan-life photo of a mosquito known to carry malaria. The participants in the workshop look at

the large beast and are relieved—they certainly have no large flying creatures like that to worry

about in their community! If the health worker had also shown a life-sized photo or (even better)

a real-live specimen, the appropriate message may have been relayed.

As you conduct your visual survey, consider the following questions to help you assess how and when

your community uses visuals to convey information.

Are there posters or billboards? If so, what do the posters and billboards look like?

Are there visible educational materials?

Are there prominent colors and/or styles?

How much writing is used? Are materials available for less literate audiences?

How might you incorporate these features in your own visuals?

Are there any cultural taboos concerning what can be pictured in public?
Nonformal Education 81

CREATE A FACILITATION CHECKLIST

Using your new knowledge about learning styles theory, creating an effective learning environment and

facilitating techniques, consider creating a checklist for your own use in designing training sessions. As you

continue to work through this book and as you facilitate learning experiences, you can add to and modify

the checklist to make it a useful tool in your continued work in NFE. Below is a sample checklist to get

you started.

Participants meet each other

All learners have a way to participate

Visual aids (blackboards, posters, flipcharts, handouts) are legible

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
82 Peace Corps

REFLECT

Why are physical environment and climate so important to the creation of an effective learning

environment?

Just as there are different learning styles, there are different facilitation styles. Consider your own

learning style. How do you think it might impact your approach as a facilitator?

Sometimes, methods of learning in the host culture might directly contradict some of the tenets of

nonformal education. For example, a strict hierarchy among participants may contradict with the

desire for a non-hierarchical, participatory environment. How can you as a Volunteer help participants deal with this contradiction in their work and daily life? How can you simultaneously show

your respect for the culture while also “pushing the envelope” using NFE approaches?

Often, Volunteers have little choice in the physical size of their learning environments. Education

Volunteers may be given a particular classroom, and Volunteers in other sectors may only have a

small room in their office, health center or community center for meetings or sessions. How might

you use your facilitation skills to overcome difficulties in the physical environment like overcrowding, too few desks and so on?
Nonformal Education 83

KEY

RESOURCES

REFERENCES:

Vella, Jane. Learning to Teach: Training of Trainers for Community and Institutional Development.

Westport, CT: Save the Children, 1989. [ICE No. ED189]

Vella’s useful text provides 25 sample session plans for training trainers in adult learning, Freirian

approaches, and facilitation skills. The manual also includes suggested warm-up activities and

Vella’s “seven steps of planning.”

VIPP: Visualisation in Participatory Programmes. Bangladesh: UNICEF, 1993. [ICE No. TR124]

This classic text details a people-centered approach to planning, training, and group consensus

building. At the core of the VIPP methodology is the use of multi-colored cards, highly visual

learning aids, and strong facilitation based on a commitment to the principles of adult learning. The

text offers specific exercises for participatory group work, including games, exercises, debates, card

sorting, and evaluation ideas. The book also suggests ways to structure the learning environment.

Werner, David and Bill Bower. Helping Health Workers Learn: A Book of Methods, Aids, and Ideas

for Instructors at the Village Level. Palo Alto, CA: The Hesperian Foundation, 1982. [ICE No. HE061]

Although the title suggests that this book is for health workers at the village level, the messages,

methods, teaching techniques, and approaches can be adapted to any learning situation. Werner and

Bower effectively describe Freirian participatory approaches to education and provide a wealth of

examples and strategies for using these theories in learning situations.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE:

Eitington, Julius E. The Winning Trainer: Winning Ways to Involve People in Learning. Boston:

Butterworth Heinemann, MA, 2002.

Eitington’s text offers a comprehensive guide for the new trainer. The book describes hundreds of

training methods and suggestions, and includes various handouts for use in learning situations.

Additional topics include preparation of the learning environment and evaluation strategies.