WOMENS TRAINING PROGRAM IN AFGHANISTAN

INTRODUCTION

This outline is designed to help and guide women to achieve a sense of empowerment. It will prepare trainers to offer evidence-based data to educate the women to recognize the basis of their feelings, thinking and acting. To achieve this objective the following schema of training systematically has been identified and documented offering trainers a “map”. This training will have to be adapted to the cultural, ethnic, religious and traditional modes and rules of the students’ society.

MODULE

Module 1:

Orientation to the course:

• Structure and process of teaching
• Learning Objectives
• Introduction to principles of teaching

WHY HAVE THIS MODULE

Purpose:

• To introduce training of trainers in a program to empower women
• To clarify the expected outcome of a learning experience for both the teacher and the learner
• To plan a learning experience to meet the expected learning objectives

CONTENT

· Training skills to train part-time workers

· A "trainer" must combine being a manager and a teacher

· Purpose of lectures

· Effective training methods

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Objectives for Trainers

At the end of this course trainers should be able to:

• Describe in outline the objectives and content of a training course
• Discuss the main features of the training approaches used in the course
• Identify the training materials available for the course and describe the uses of those materials

Specific

At the end of the course, the participant trainers should be able to:

• Recognize the training needs of the women for psychosocial intervention
• Plan and conduct courses in psychosocial program

The course consists of the three subject areas distributed throughout six modules. The subject areas are:

• Educational technology
• Psychosocial basic and applied content
• Planning and managing training programs

Each subject has a content presentation and a discussion. When appropriate, group work and individual exercises, will be assigned.

CONTENT

GUIDELINES TO TRAIN TRAINERS

Guidelines for Educator (Expert that trains the trainers)

• Organizes the content description of the lesson formats for the trainers
• Organizes the necessary materials for the course
• Identifies the methods to teach trainers
• Uses pedagogical adult methods
• Identifies educational problems
• Presents the method to assemble and sequence the content of every lesson in the course
• Identifies the components to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes (practice, exercises, readings, lectures, audio-visuals) needed by the trainers

Reception by Trainers From the Educator — Their questions and thinking

• What content should I receive? Is the content relevant?
• How do I receive and process the content and convert them into guidelines for training?
• How do I capture the method of teaching?
• Can I conceptualize the methodological operations of teaching?
• Do I comfortably accept the methods of teaching?
• Can I integrate the educational method to the course content that I am expected to deliver?

WOMEN BEING TAUGHT—Recipients of the course-content

• Receives the teaching and practical guidance interacting with the trainers
• Learns and incorporates new content into practice and their daily life
• Translates the new material into action, skills behavior, attitude to deal better with their daily life, family relations and her own self-esteem.

EDUCATOR GUIDELINES TO ASSIST TRAINERS TO DEVELOP CONTENT

It is helpful to make explicit descriptions of how one goes about the business of organizing a lecture, a course, or a seminar.

Describe and document how a trainer teaches and explains actions-planning and delivery of lectures for women. Also guide trainers to choose activities, answer questions, write vignettes,

How do you organize the course?

How do you select the objectives? Ask student's needs before you select content.

How do you select content or focus on knowledge necessary to improve knowledge, skills, change behavior and beliefs?

How do you start? What should be the introduction?

How do you proceed?

How do you process interaction with student?

How do you finish the session?

In this course you need to attend to two levels.

• Content of psychosocial content.
• Teaching methodology--adult techniques of imparting knowledge to the women

When preparing a lesson, a number of issues should be considered including:

• Length of presentation/time allotted
• Teaching method best suited to the objectives (e.g. lecture, lecture, discussion, demonstration, case presentation, small group discussions)
• Learning activities to be used (e.g. individual or group exercises, role playing)
• Questions to be asked

When preparing the lesson consider the following guidelines:

Introduction

• Develop an interesting introduction to the topic that will stimulate interest and establish the mood and climate of the lesson.
• Introduce the content by establishing a common knowledge base among the participants.
• State objectives clearly.

Main points of the lesson

• Write down key information to be presented. Limit the number of issues and concepts to be covered in one lesson.
• Sequence the information in a way to facilitate learning (e.g. from simple to complex, abstract to concrete).
• Indicate the teaching method most appropriate to achieve the objects (e.g., lecture, discussion, individual assignment).
• Determine learning activities-consider participant involvement in the activities.
• Determine how the lesson will be assessed.

Conclusion

• Summarize the key points covered.
• Indicate what preparation is needed for the class.
• Distribute the evaluation forms (if desired and ask students to complete them before they leave.

Materials

• Consider what materials are required for the lesson:
• Audio visual aids/equipment
• Crayons, paper, pencil
• Handouts-articles, scripts, newspaper accounts

METHODS THAT PROMOTE SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDE CHANGE

Experiential Exercises—chosen to practice what they learned

A planned activity meant to provide an opportunity for participants to discover learned based on their own experiences.

Type—choose what is appropiate to their customs and tradition

• Ice breakers
• Awareness expansion
• Communication
• Problem solving
• Personal feedback

Procedure

• Clearly explain purpose and goals
• Complete the exercise
• Process the experience by noticing the way the women behaved, talked, reacted
• sharing
• exploring
• universalizing
• practicing

Feedback and Assessment Instruments

Measurement devices that provide feedback on behavior and attitudes

Examples:

• Assertiveness inventories
• Life-planning program
• Motivation
• Values clarification questionnaire
• Interpersonal relationship

METHODS USED TO TRANSMIT KNOWLEDGE, CHANGE ATTITUDES, AND PROMOTE SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Methods Used to Transmit Knowledge, Insight, Understanding

Readings

Mini-Lecture

• Straight lecture
• Introduction to a group activity
• Experiential presentations
• Series of short stories
• Spontaneous brief interjections of recent events
• Warm-up or summary of material reviewed in small group interaction

Audiovisual Techniques (if available)

• Film or videotape
• Filmstrip
• Overhead projectors
• Audio tape, records

Methods Used to Change Attitudes and Values as Well as to Transmit Knowledge

Discussion

• Open discussion
• Case study
• Guided discussion

Variations

• Buzz sections
• Dyads
• Brainstorming
• Panel

Trainers will be using material in which learning objectives and content have already been formulated by the curriculum. To understand fully and effectively how to implement these objectives on their own level, course participants should be able to construct learning objectives of their choice.

LEARNING AND COURSE OBJECTIVES chosen by the trainers based on guidelines of the curriculum (lecture/discussion with the EDUCATOR)

What is meant by learning objective?

Objectives describe in the clearest terms possible what a student should think, act or feel at the end of a learning experience.¹ Mager describes an objective as "an INTENT communicated by a statement describing a proposed change in a learner -- a statement of what the learner is to be when he has successfully completed a learning experience.²

Objectives are always written according to what students are able to do, not what the teacher intends to teach. For example, for the unit on the instruction on interactive technique, the learning objective should be "by the end of session the participant should be able to conduct a face-to-face assertive conversation."

The learning objective should not be "to teach participants how to interact".

If the objective focuses on teaching "participants" how to interact, the trainer may meet the objective without necessarily giving the participants the competence they need. On the other hand, if the objective is to enable the participants to conduct an interaction, the teacher will have to focus on the participants I behavior rather than simply on his or her own actions.

Why write objectives?

Learning objectives are written to:

• Inform participants concerning what they will learn during the sessions; and the level of performance expected of them at the end of the learning experience.
• Guide trainers about what the participants are expected to learn.

Clearly, learning objectives help the trainer as much as they help the students. By constructing them and placing them in a sequence, trainers plan the learning experience and become familiar with the choreography of the learning process. Having objectives guide the presentations, trainers can assess whether participants have acquired the desired level of competence during the learning process. If deficiencies or missteps occur, trainers can modify or break objectives into smaller measures, which allow trainers to adapt the learning experience to the situation or the individual learner. Therefore, objectives reinforce learning, and increase flexibility while they avoid unnecessary duplication. It is the responsibility of the trainer to create a motivating environment and to assist the participants in achieving the learning objectives.

HOW TO WRITE OBJECTIVES

Who is to perform the desired behavior? Answer - the women/students

Objectives are written to participants. The participants attending a course in psychosocial behavior can be single or married women, or a mixed group. Whatever the composition, one must always consider the participants' prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes as a basis for writing appropriate objectives.

What are the components of an objective?

Mager (1962) proposed that an objective should contain at least three components: behavior, condition, standard: Behavior is a specific, observable act (e.g., to write, to explain).

The behavior should be clear, specific, and non-ambiguous so that it can be analyzed.

Behavior should be described using action verbs that are clear, specific, and unambiguous. Standards will be covered during actual operations-observing the women’s behavior-speech

I Davies LK. 1976. Objectives in curriculum design. McGra.wHilI, New York, NY

2 Mager R.F. 1962. Preparing instructional objectives. Fearon Publishers, Palo Alto, CA

3 Mager R.F. 1962. Preparing instructional objectives. Fearon Publishers, Palo Alto, CA

TEACHING RESOURCES

PREPARING THE COURSE: RELATIONSHIP OF VARIOUS STEPS.

*SELECTION, ORGANIZATION OF COURSE

*OBJECTIVES OF EACH Component

* METHODOLOGY

• PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTIC VARIABLES
• TRAINING COURSE DESIGN
• TEACHING TECHNIQUES
• PLAN FOR OPERATION OF EACH

PRESENTATION

*WORK PLAN TO IMPLEMENT COURSE

*PLAN FOR PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION AND UTILIZATION OF RESULTS