In the 10 years or so that I have been a trainer, I have delivered well over 100 training courses.

Content delivery is the area which is most easy to mess up. Old habits return. Slipping into lecture feels "natural". Like a treasured belonging, lecture is hard to let go.

Learners struggle to focus on long lectures.

After 10 minutes or so, learners become distracted. They struggle to concentrate. As we deliver more knowledge, their brains become overloaded.

Here are 3 Brain-friendly Content Delivery tips I use to keep learners engaged:

Brain-friendly Content Delivery Tip #1: Time Yourself When Talking.

How it works:

Have a timer running when you deliver content. From time to time, check the clock. If you have been talking at learners for 10 minutes+, use an activity which reviews the content.

When you follow this simple idea, learners will stay alert and focussed.

Brain-friendly Content Delivery Tip #2: Give Learners Space for Note-taking.

Research suggests that we learn better when we listen and then take notes. Taking notes as we listen is less effective for learning.

How it works:

After a short content piece, pause. Ask powerful questions about the content you have just delivered. Give learners time to write down their answers.

Brain-friendly Content Delivery Tip #3: Hand Content Delivery over to the Learners.

To get learners to learning, get them working.

2 ways to get learners working (from Training from the BACK of the Room!):

1. Myth or Fact Game

   • Create true or false statements. Print on sets of cards. 1 statement per card.

   • Create answer sheets which say if a statement is a Myth or a Fact. The sheets also explain why each statement is a myth or fact.

   • Hand out a set of cards to each group.- Invite each group to sort into Myths or Facts.

   • When they are done, give them an answer sheet each.

   • Debrief.

2. Data Hunt and Gallery Walk

   • Create a poster for each topic area you are covering and fix each to the wall.

   • Provide textbooks or URLs where learners can find information about the topics.

   • Invite learners to walk around each poster. Ask them to add information they have found about that topic area. NOTE: they mustn't duplicate any information. (this makes them read what's on the poster!)

I'm sure you can think of more.