PACES™ Overview, Continued S19

PACES™ – Preview 

  • Preview
    • Description: an introduction to the topic, a brief ‘picture’ of the content, ‘setting the stage’ for what is to come.
    • Purpose: to grab participant’s attention, peak their interest and predict the course of events.
  • Preview Strategies…
    • Introduce the Training Outcomes – the knowledge and skills participants should have acquired by the end of the training session.
    • Preview is found in the Opening component of your training plan.
    • Provide an overview of the content – outline the roadmap, the processes by which participants will gain the new information & skills.
    • Establish the relevance of the topic by:
      • Connecting results of Needs Assessment to content
      • Identifying the “What’s in it for me/kids?” (WIIFM/WIIFK)
      • Motivating participants using research-based statements/statistics

Each item is brief, but must be thought out, concise and sequenced. The only way the trainer can establish relevance is by knowing his/her topic well and providing an effective “hook” through a powerful piece of research and/or WIIFM (What’s in it for Me)  or WIIFK (What’s in it for the kids).

PACES™ – Activate Prior Knowledge

  • Activate Prior Knowledge
    • Description: to stimulate participant’s awareness regarding their current knowledge and/or experience with the training topic.
    • Purpose, is three-fold:
      • Assists the brain in making connections to new material, thus increasing comprehension and meaning.
      • Affirms participant’s current knowledge and experiences with the topic.
      • Provides Trainer with insights as to where the group is, as a whole, regarding the topic.

This part of PACES™, which is also part of the Opening component, is an opportunity for the trainer to exercise his/her creativity, provide an active experience for participants and acknowledge participant’s current experience and/or knowledge in the topic at hand. Participants do not come to training as a blank slate and activating prior knowledge is a way to affirm this. You do not come to FET as a blank slate either! At a minimum, you have experience by the mere fact that you have been a participant in past trainings.

PACES™ – Content

  • Content
    • Description: the units of information and skills that are introduced and presented to participants in a training session.
    • Purpose: to provide new information and skills or broaden current knowledge and skills regarding the training topic.
  • Content Strategies…
    • The knowledge and skills introduced and learned about during a training can be delivered and/or constructed:
      • Trainer/Peer Delivered – lecture, demonstration, reporting, etc.
      • Learner Constructed – brainstorming, focused reading activities, jigsaw, fishbowl, buzz session, etc.
    • Trainers support the acquisition of Content by using active training methods that engage participants and by providing processing time:
      • Group discussions, action maze, learning stations, simulations, debate, problem-solving
    • Trainers also support the acquisition of Content by knowing how the brain learns and incorporating brain-based design elements and strategies that facilitate processing, storage and recall of newly acquired knowledge and skills:
      • Beginning the training topic/section with a Preview (the big picture); allows the brain to see each part of the content and how they fit together as a whole, supporting the brain’s  organization and storage of new content.
      • Activating Prior Knowledge; “turning on” one’s neural  networks, enabling the brain to better connect existing knowledge to new information.
      • Moving information from short-term to long-term memory: processing information through rehearsal, practice, work with the content, and  summarizing what was experienced.

Content is the “C” in PACES™ and happens in the ‘content delivery’ component of the training plan. This is where the specific pieces of information are presented and discussed and the skills that go with this information are introduced and explained. It is the knowledge part of the topic, the specific information participants need to be made aware of, learn about, and have an understanding of before they leave the training.

There are many ways to actively work with the content so that participants leave the training with a concrete understanding of the topic. You may be familiar with some of these strategies and some you may have never experienced. Refer to the Training Methods section in your FET ?handout for ideas and descriptions of many different methods to explore and use in your training sessions.

The many strategies and methods discussed throughout FET are research-based and fall into best-practice. Here you will read the “why” behind these strategies based on current brain-research.

PACES™ – Exercise

  • Exercise
    • Description: practice opportunities designed for participants to experience during the training session.
    • Purpose: to provide opportunities and time for participants to work with/practice the new skills and then discuss the results of their practice under the guidance and feedback from the trainer.

The other large part of the ‘Content Delivery’ component of the training plan is ‘Exercise.’ Once some knowledge has been delivered along with information about the skills related to that knowledge, the trainer needs to provide planned time and opportunities for participants to practice the skills they have learned about. The ‘Exercise’ is that practice. Practice opportunities lead to a better understanding of what is expected when participants return to their workplace. This exercise time allows participants to move beyond the abstract concepts into a concrete experience that provides a deeper understanding.

PACES™ – Summary

  • Summary
    • Description: recapping/stressing/using key points from the section content and/or training content in a concise and condensed manner on the part of the trainer and/or participant.
    • Purpose: to provide a processing opportunity by reviewing the content through an activity/experience, high-lighting the main points covered in a section and/or the whole training and addressing questions.

Variety is important to keep your presentations interesting for participants. Therefore, we have provided you with a few strategies to choose from as you create the “Summary” for your training.

  • Summary – Examples of strategies:
    • Verbal, written or visual review of information and skills that have been presented and/or learned about.
    • Info-to-Go: Bullet key points to remember and/or skills to implement on the job.
    • Update a Latecomer: In pairs, have one participant pretend to be late and the other identifies ‘key’ points of the training for them.
    • Graphic organizers/Concept Maps: a place to review content and determine cause and effect, compare and contrast, organize solutions and relate information to main points.
    • Pyramid of Knowledge: key points on strips of paper, build a pyramid, foundation information…on up.

Summary is pretty self-explanatory and logically, it is in the “Closing” component of the training plan. Sometimes, when covering certain material that may have lots of parts to it, you will want to do a mini-summary in that section of the training plan to help participants organize what they are receiving.  In a situation like this, you will have a small “s”. This means you have a brief summary woven into your content delivery.  You will still provide the capital “S” Summary, summarizing the entire training in the Closing component of the training.