Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

Manual 1:AN EDUCATOR’S GUIDE Techniques for educatorsThe following are some explanations and guidelines for using a variety ofeducation techniques. All of these techniques have been demonstrated tobe effective tools in workers’ education.AskingquestionsUsing achecklistInstant ideasActionplanningQuestions can be used to stimulate discussion, but should not be used in athreatening way. There are a variety of ways to ask questions and someways are better than others. It is best to ask questions that requireparticipants to analyse a problem, rather than asking questions that can beanswered with a simple “yes”, “no”, or with just a few words. Questionsshould be addressed to the group, allowing the participants severalseconds to think about their answers.Often, there are no straightforward “right” and “wrong” answers. However,if a participant clearly provides a wrong answer to a question, ask if anyoneelse has a different answer rather than immediately saying that theprevious answer was wrong. It is important when dealing with technicalinformation to make sure participants get the “correct” answer to aquestion.A checklist is a useful prompt for participants to evaluate general orspecific health, safety and environmental conditions in their ownworkplaces. You can provide checklists or help participants to developtheir own, preferably in groups. Participants can then take the checklistsback to their respective workplaces and apply them.This is a technique used to encourage participants to generate a widevariety of ideas. With this technique, there are no “wrong” ideas and noidea should be criticised. To start the activity, state the problem or thetopic in question. Then ask the participants to offer the first ideas thatcome into their head about the topic. Participants can call out their ideasrandomly or write their ideas down on paper. Someone (you or one of theparticipants) writes down the ideas on a flipchart (or large sheet of paper)or on a chalkboard so that everyone can see. When no more ideas areoffered, ask if anyone has anything else to add. If no one says anythingmore, summarise and discuss all the ideas that have been generated, andtry to reach conclusions for action with the group.As a course progresses, there will be a number of matters that arise whereparticipants will need to take some action. Action plans can be developedindividually or as a group activity. Participants will need to think about anddevelop a strategy for taking positive action to improve working conditions,union organisation and so on. Action planning worksheets are provided inthe Manuals for participants to help them to structure their work.Participants should be given the opportunity to report back to the rest ofthe course on progress, potential problems and next steps.16 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers