The short answer:
Map what people already know and what they are excited about.
Let individuals coach each other.
Make individuals teach to the whole class.
Let’s get into more details now:
Map what people already know.
When I teach Prototyping or Service Design methods, I like to start with a mapping exercise. First, each learner puts on sticky notes every method he already knows well and every method he is excited about or curious about.
Then, in group mode, I ask the learners to make sense of all that data. Often, it ends up in a matrix with two axes:
Meh -> Curious: where we differentiate what people aren’t excited about and what people think will be helpful for them in the future
No experience -> Experienced: where people differentiate what they already know how to do and what they still have to learn
From there, it’s pretty simple to see what people are curious about and have no experience with yet. That’s going to be the core of what they’ll have to learn.
Let individuals coach each other
This was something that was suggested to me by the learners themselves. They said something like this:
« Hey Daniele, as a group, these are things we are excited about, but there is stuff that some of us are excited about and others are not. But the good thing is that there are people within the group who could coach those who are curious! »
So instead of using the « class » time to share knowledge about something that is of interest just to a few, these topics are covered in 1:1 sessions where a curious learner learns from another one who already has experience on that topic.
Make individuals teach to the whole class.
I’m a big believer in the idea that teaching is the best way of learning. In fact, that’s exactly how I learn, and that’s why I’m investing so much time and energy in writing and sharing educational content.
From the mapping, we have a bunch of things that the group is curious about and hasn’t experienced yet. Now, you just have to split those elements between the learners. Each learner will have one or several topics that he will have to learn, practice and teach back to the whole group.
Once that learning session is done, the whole group practices that new skill based on the teaching of the learner who presented.
We enhance the teaching done by the learners by conducting a Q&A session with the group members and sharing pro tips.