b'ARTICLEWe can understand from research that the investment in CPD brings many rewards: Staff retention Client satisfaction Confidence within the individual Improved teamworkThe list goes on.How do we learn?Educational theorist Neil Fleming introduced the VARK model back in 1987 to describe preferred learning modes where he identified four ways in which people differ in how they learn: Visual Auditory Reading/Writing KinestheticFrom this we can deduce that noGroup facilitation is a process in which person has one learning mode but maya person whose selection is acceptable be dominant in one or two of these.to all members of the group, who is The challenge for training facilitatorssubstantively neutral, and who has no working with mixed groups of learnerssubstantive decision-making authority, is to help people explore, learn anddiagnoses and intervenes to help a challenge themselves whatever theirgroup improve how it identifies and preferred learning mode may be. solves problems and makes decisions to increase the groups effectiveness.CPD is an investment in theExperiential learningindividual and should primarilyOver the many years we have been involved in team-based learning, there be about raising confidence.has been a move in adult education Organisations that recognisefrom teaching to learning. Traditionally, teaching has been about imparting the positive impact of high- knowledge by experts to passive learners quality training on staff moralewho absorb information and then put that to the test in the real world.will thrive when times return toOver recent times, this has moved to growth and profitability. learning and specifically, experiential learning. However, the word experiential We have found training in clinicalhas taken on wider meanings and for communication skills is heightened whensome, encompass most of traditional a facilitator is a respected leader of ateaching. At In-Communication, we group of professionals, rather than anfavour the purist view of experiential expert having all the answers. Practicelearning and even refer to it, at times, as team members will come with theirencounter-based learning.own skills, experiences and styles thatKeeton and Tate (1978) offered this can add to the rich learning a gooddefinition of experiential learning.leader can facilitate. This skills sharingLearning in which the learner is directly approach helps in the cohesiveness ofin touch with the realities being studied. the group and provides greater learningIt is contrasted with the learner who only outcomes. reads about, hears about, talks about Roger Schwartz is a prominentor writes about these realities but never organisational psychologist and offerscomes into contact with them as part of this definition of what group facilitation is: the learning process.www.inspiredvet.co.uk15'