Brain-Friendly Content Delivery 101

Content delivery is the area which is the easiest for a trainer to mess up. Old habits return. Slipping into lecture feels “natural.” Like a treasured belonging, lecture is hard to let go of. Here is why and how to change that.

The bottom line is: learners struggle to focus on long lectures. After 10 minutes or so, learners become distracted. It takes more effort to concentrate. As we trainers deliver more content via lecture, learners’ brains become cognitively overloaded.

In the 10 years or so that I have been a trainer, I have delivered well over 100 training courses. I have discovered three brain-friendly content delivery tips that I use now every time I deliver a class, workshop, or training program.

Tip #1: Time yourself when talking

Have a timer running when you deliver content via a lecture-format. From time to time, check the clock. If you have been talking at learners for 10 minutes or more, stop lecturing and insert an activity which reviews the content and engages learners at the same time. A simple “Pair-Share” will do the trick. Tell learners to turn to the person nearest them and state what they learned from the lecture segment. When you follow this simple idea, learners will stay alert and focused.

Tip #2: Give learners time for note-taking

Research suggests that our learners learn better when they listen and then pause their listening to take notes. Taking notes while listening at the same time is less effective for learning. So, after a short content piece, pause your lecture. Ask a powerful question about the content you have just delivered. Then give learners time to write down their responses to the question. Or just give them a few minutes to summarize in written-format what you’ve said.

Tip #3: Hand content delivery over to the learners

To get learners learning, get them working. Two ways to get learners working are (from Training from the BACK of the Room!):

  1. Play the Myth or Fact Game.
    • Create topic-related true and false statements. Print the statements sets of cards, one 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 of learners.
    • Invite each group to work together to sort the cards into myths or facts.
    • When they are done, give each group an answer sheet.
    • Debrief the game with the whole class.
  2. Do a Data Hunt and Gallery Walk.
    • Create a poster for each topic area you are covering and fix each poster to the wall.
    • Provide textbooks or URLs where learners can find information about the topics.
    • Invite learners to walk around and read each poster. Ask them to add information they have found about that topic area by printing their new information on each chart. NOTE: they mustn’t duplicate any information! (This makes them read what’s on the poster!)