VIPP_Unicef

discussing questions from their own experience and bringing their
visualized deliberations to the plenary where they are synthesized into
an overall framework of knowledge.
Training sessions usually last between five days and five weeks,
depending on the purpose, content, and time available. Participants
should number between 10 and 25, while the number of facilitators or
trainers should be determined by the number of participants. In training
situations there should always be a team of two to five facilitators, as
participants require more than one person to relate to during a
workshop and facilitators require time for rest and reflection and
preparation for new sessions of the workshop. Facilitation teams will
establish their own group dynamics alongside that of the trainees and
can also establish an evaluation method for each member and the team
as a whole.
Training workshops may allow the use of all VIPP techniques and can
bring out the creativity of every participant. In many cases participants
do not know one another so the aim of the facilitators will be to build
up a constructive, creative group in a short time. From the beginning
the participants become involved in getting to know each other and in
expressing their expectations so that the team can design the program
in accordance with those expectations. The design of the workshop
will follow a sequence of "action-reflection-action", leading to a
collective process of experiential learning.
Parallel to this, the facilitators include evaluation techniques which
permit constant feedback between participants and facilitators. In some
situations trainees decide upon some of the content and processes of
training workshops.
The main difficulty with using VIPP in training seems to be the rejection
of the usual, experienced resource persons who comes to transmit
wisdom to the trainees. In VIPP, training is based on the assumption
that everybody is a resource person who can contribute to the learning
process. However, subject matter specialists can be included. Instead
of delivering a lecture or presentation in which the instructor explains
and the pupils listen, in VIPP sessions the trainees may formulate their
questions, requirements and interests for the expert, who then responds
on the spot. The answers are captured on cards for further classification
and use in training. In this way the involvement of experts does not
contradiction the interactive approach of VIPP.
The specific knowledge and experience of every participant is a central
contribution to the VIPP learning process. The emphasis in VIPP is on
learning, not on training. That means the trainee is in the centre, not
the trainer.
On the following page there are a number of photo illustrations on the
use of VIPP in training.
THE USES OF VIPP
Group
events
and
VIPP
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