Too often we assume that our job as an educator ends when the content has been "delivered." However, there are many things that we can do to help the learner overcome his/her resistance to learning and to insure that learning does occur!
Involve the Learners in the Educational Planning. Sure, it takes a lot of time and certainly cuts down on our ability to respond to identified needs with quick turn around. However, sharing ownership in the educational program by involving the learners in the planning is probably the most obvious and direct way to help overcome learning resistance. If you can involve learners in the planning it will help by reducing potential fear of the unknown, demonstrate a desire to respect and value their participation, and establish a sense of reciprocity (if I show respect for the learners now they will show respect for me during the educational program).
Encourage Peer Learning/Peer Teaching. This idea suggests that we share some of the teaching time with the learners by creating meaningful opportunities for them, individually or in groups, to share their expertise. The key here is that such activity can contribute greatly to the enhancement of the community of learners. And the community of learners can be very beneficial when it comes to persistence as a learner.
Slow Down and Don't Push Too Fast. When we get up in front of a group of learners we often lose our ability to see how fast we're really going. If we had to err in any one direction it's much better to err on the side of going too slow in our presentation. There's nothing so frustrating for a learner as when he/she sees the content whizzing by at such a fast pace that once a key idea is missed there's no catching up! Slow down, provides lots of examples, create viable opportunities for asking questions, and try and increae the amount of listening that you do. It will help in reducing the learner's resistance to learning.
Work at Building Trust. This theme seems to run through so many of the other ideas about reducing resistance to learning. And why? Because it seems to be so central to what we do as an educator. Of course there's no simple recipe for how you build trust with leaners. However, without trust the learner is often unwilling to let his/her guard down far enough to allow new learning to occur. (Yes, you heard it right, as learners we usually have our guard up when it comes to learning. We're not always comfortable with change and learning implies change.) When trust is a component to an educational program the learner is much more willing to let down his/her guard so change can occur.
Don't Try too Hard to Persuade. It's easy to take on a learner's resistance to learning as a persoanl challenge or crusade. Be wary of this happening. Trying to convert someone to your way of thinking and thereby turning them into a willing learner may allow you to "win the battle but loose the war." As an educator, when we stand in front of a group of learners it becomes easy to get caught up in the "rightness" of whatever it is we're teaching. The turth is that our "rightness" may not be as universal as we think it is. Let it go! Don't loose sight of your role as an educator and get caught, instead, in trying too hard to persuade a resistant learner that they must learn your content.
Acknowledge the Right to Resist Learning. When all else fails it's probably a good idea to let your guard down and acknowledge to the learner that it's okay if he/she doesn't want to learn. There's nothing that says that everyone must learn - especially on your time schedule. The trick, of course, is in creating a viable way to tell this to the learner. You can't do it as if striking out at the learner, "Okay, so you don't want to learn. See if I care!" That's not going to earn you any points with the learner that's resisting or any of the other learners for that matter. It's essential that you maintain and strengthen the trust that exists between you and the learner as you acknowledge their right to resist learning. Try to be sensitive to the learner as you suggest that this may not be a topic of strong concern for them and it's okay not to learn about it. And, of course, leave the door wide open so that when the topic moves on to something that they are more concerned about they can once again return to the challenge of learning.
So there you have it. Some rather direct ideas about how to help learners overcome their resistance to learning. And, if I'm correct, you experience it in the same way that I do - it pops up when I least expect it and often when I'm least prepared to deal with it. It helps, though, to reflect on it. And that's what this paper is intened to do. Maybe I'll be better at helping learners overcome their resistance to learning the next time I sense it happening.
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