Page 18 - SafeCert Approved First Aid for Mental Health at Work (Level 3) | Trainers Manual

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Teaching

CHAPTER 2
Teaching
Learning outcome 2: to prepare learning objectives, session plans and learning support
materials to meet learner requirements.

Teaching and Leaning approaches

To ensure that effective learning is taking place you will need to utilise a variety of teaching strategies.
Your group, subject content and level will help determine your choice of teaching method. In this
chapter we outline a variety of teaching approaches you can consider.

Promoting Participation

During the delivery of your lesson some consideration should be given to way that you intend to
organise and teach your lesson. Active learning strategies keep candidates on the go and involved.
It is this hand on approach that has been the preferred method of teaching in recent years.
Administration
Some in-class active learning techniques:

Think-Pair-Share - after a concept, or set amount of class time, stop class and allow candidates to
collect their thoughts (think) on an issue, then have them discuss their idea for 3-5 minutes with the
person next to them (pair). Finally, ask/choose pairs to share with whole class or report to you for
questions with material, etc. (share).

Thought showering - is a good technique for generating ideas quickly.
Make sure everyone understands the ground rules: no response is
wrong; every response is accepted without discussion or argument.
Once brainstorming has elicited a sufficient number of responses, guide
candidates to use their analytical and synthesizing skills to determine
best ideas.
Lesson Plans
Small group work - allows every participant the chance to speak, share
personal views, and develop the skill of working with others. The group work activity should promote
reflective thinking, problem-solving, or creative thinking. To be effective, it is important that every
person in the group has a role to play. Roles may include the reporter, the recorder, the taskmaster
or time keeper, the researcher, the idea producers, or even the spy! The spy will hover around other
small groups to see what ideas their classmates are generating!

Role-playing - is a method of acting out an imaginary, but real-life situation. Helping candidates get
a better understanding of what it means to ''walk in someone else's shoes'" or to get a handle on how
they themselves may respond in certain situations, can be greatly enhanced through role playing.
This strategy can be extremely effective, but it is important to be sensitive to the fact that some
candidates are very uncomfortable acting out. Be ready to provide alternative activities to anyone
needing one. One alternative is to have candidates write about their assigned role rather than act the
Handouts
role.

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