Full page photo print - Harvard Law School Project on Disability

instead she or he draws others into the discussion.
• the housekeeper: While the facilitator takes initial leadership in coordinating the
sessions, she or he should not become the only person who takes responsibility.
As with any skill, the best way to learn to facilitate learning is to practice often and have a selfcritical
attitude, always seeking to improve.
interactive learning
The process of learning is more important than the content! The activities in Human Rights.
Yes! are designed to actively involve participants in their own learning and acknowledge the
differences in the ways that adults learn. Each session seeks to encourage participants in –
• concrete experience: to involve themselves fully and without bias in new experiences;
• reflective observation: to observe and to reflect on these experiences from many
perspectives;
• abstract conceptualization: to create concepts that integrate their observations into
coherent theories;
• active experimentation: to use these theories to make decisions, solve problems and
take action.
The effectiveness of interactive learning techniques has been interpreted quantitatively by
the National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine, USA in an analysis that measured and
contrasted average retention rates across a variety of teaching styles.
Method Average Retention Rate
Lecture 5%
Reading 10%
Audio Visual 20%
Demonstration 30%
Group Discussion 75%
Teaching Others 80%
leading discussion
Discussion is one of the most important ways for people to participate in their own learning.
Therefore every facilitator needs to learn to lead discussion skillfully.
1. Ask open or leading questions. Most of the questions for discussion in Human Rights.
YES! fall into these categories.
An open question encourages a wide range of answers from the personal (“This reminds
me of a time when I was a little girl …”) to the objective (“I have heard that in some
countries people with disabilities are not allowed to marry”). Open questions cannot be
answered by “yes” or “no.” For example, these are open questions:
• How do you define “reasonable accommodation”?
• Can a leader also be a follower?
Leading questions take participants step by step towards a learning goal. Each question
builds on the previous answer and leads to another question. Because the Greek
292 human rights. yes! action and advocacy on the rights of persons with disabilities