Another Great Lecture?

Uploaded by twibs415

Lecture is a preferred teaching method in schools and universities.  It’s the mainstay of academia.  For those who are still awake, they might get something out of it.  Here’s an interesting article about retention rates and learning styles.  It shows that lecture has about a 5% retention rate and reading is almost double at 10%.  Teaching others and immediate use is at 90%.  Beyond Bells and Whistles.

In a corporate setting, you seeing a big move away from lecture to other forms delivery.  One method that I find very effective is to have students read the material prior to class and then have them team teach it back to the others in the class.  Taking content and having to restate it in your own language is a powerful learning technique. 

Finally, I want to point out that when you do seminars you always see the same comment as number 1 on what people liked.  They say what was most important was the networking and discussion with other students.  It’s never I really like the 50 overhead presentations.

I’m interested in other research studies on this topic.  Let me know if you have any good ones.

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Free Money for Training

originally uploaded by wizhard.

I don’t know if this is true in every state but Minnesota as a program to provide matching funds for companies that want to provide training for their employees.  The program is a called Minnesota Job Skills Partnership.  It’s part of the Minnesota Department of Economic Opportunity.

The program focuses on different types of grants by the major ones are for training the stimulates employment (new hire training) and retraining potentially displaced workers.  The way the grant works is that a company works with a Minnesota college to submit a grant proposal.  The college administers the grant and provides services which can include subcontracting to consultants and other training providers.  The company must then match the grant either in cash or inkind services.  This includes paying the wages of employees who go through training.

I’ve worked on serveral of these grants with Century College and Dakota Technical College.  Both are great schools with a lot of good programs.  I’d be interested in know about similar programs elsewhere.

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