It is strongly believed that soft skills trainers must have agreed upon methods of conducting training sessions as well as presentation skills that add another precious significance to the training effectiveness, and of course they must monitor the learners’/trainees’ performance, especially when they return back to their work stations.
This is called the “Training/Teaching Pedagogy” or “Training/ Teaching Methodology”.
Pedagogy is defined as: “The art of enhancing learners’ knowledge, skills and performance”. It also proposes and identifies methods and techniques to intellectually handle the everyday training predicaments (problems/puzzles) that occur.
Interestingly enough however, The Lecturing Method has become the most favorable and admirable methodology amongst soft skills trainers. Despite the fact that it has proved its true effect in many cases, more lecturing techniques still need to be developed by lecturers and training departments. The Lecturing Methodology has the following variable merits:
- It is a good method for presenting instructions, orientations and directives.
- It works very well in setting out stages and processes.
- It is remarkably effective in the case of providing new knowledge and easing complex details, especially for a large number of learners.
- It is an inspiring tool, and some learners become fascinated by the instructor’s performance, the thing that stimulates their understanding mechanism.
Nevertheless, it is not all good news for the Lecturing Method. Soft skills trainers should always scrutinize its shortcoming and fragilities:
- It is exhausting for lecturers as it requires a lot of physical strength and communication skills.
- Learners are supposed to be listening rather than participating in the learning and thinking process. The method is a one way communication.
- Learning is always difficult to measure due to lack of interaction.
Taking everything into consideration, as soft skills trainers shoulder the responsibility of creating a lively and productive learning arena, they should always seek a variety of methods and techniques through learning, searching, consultation and of course seeking training for themselves; especially in the areas of teaching methodology and time/class management.
But are training companies well prepared to tolerate such requirements? Are we going to witness an era of “Invest in Your Soft Skills Trainer?” Are the soft skills trainers’ requirements going to alter into becoming more teaching certification orientated? Is the teaching certification process itself going to add up other methodology contents rather than just the subject matter?
