Developing your training skills: The art of classroom management (Part 1)

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Input from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept03/vol61/num01/The-Key-to-Classroom-Management
Whether in school or workplace, we all have to manage people and that’s all classroom management is all about. Maybe it is often associated with primary and secondary education but it is equally important in workplace trainings. I think the word "lead" will be better.How do we manage the training classroom environment with different personalities?

There are certain points for effective trainer-participant relationships; in the field of education we will say teacher-student relationship but since I’m referring to workplace learning, I will use the trainer-participant relationship throughout  this article.

Be professional in your interactions: It is absolutely perfect to be nice but you need to ensure that you don’t compromise the trainer-participant relationship by being unprofessional either in your behaviour, mannerisms and attitude. It will affect their perception of you as a trainer.

Establish clear expectations and consequences: We need to set boundaries so that there is orderliness. If clear expectations and consequences are not set, it leads to chaos and eventually you will be blamed for poor management of the training programme.

Establish clear learning goals: Be very clear and concise about what they will learn during the training. State it at the beginning and don’t attempt to deviate from it unless absolutely necessary. Always refer to the goals through the training. You can do the same for each topic during the training. Writing the goals on a flip chart and showing progress can be very helpful.

Exhibit assertive behaviour: Your body language is important. Trainers are more like actors and newscasters. You have to look your best even if you have had a bad night.
§  Be sure to maintain an erect posture
§  Maintain appropriate distance especially body contacts; however remain very approachable.
§  Use an appropriate tone of voice and avoid display of too much emotions. If you must show emotion, raise your pitch slightly but not greatly
§  Don’t ignore an inappropriate behaviour


Appropriate levels of cooperation through flexible learning goals, personal interest in the participant, 
equitable and positive classroom behaviours and awareness of high-needs  participants. Watch out 
for Part 2. 

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