Although the sessions are fully resourced, it would be unwise to arrive at a training session not having at least read through the material.

At the start of a session or series of sessions, everyone, including the tutor, should be given the opportunity to introduce themselves and, where possible, briefly outline their background and experience. The ‘comfort zone’ that this creates is essential if the group is going to work well together. The tutor is now in a better position to make sure that everyone is allowed to talk, answer questions, express their views and share their experiences without feeling patronised or ridiculed. The group atmosphere needs to be one where everyone’s views are valued and listened to.

Within any group, there are bound to be colleagues who, for many reasons, don’t get on. Each tutor should be aware of the various irritations that can arise and be prepared to use as many interpersonal skills as possible to make group interaction effective. When chairing group discussions or leading the activities within the sessions, tutors should be aware of the following personality types:

• Friendly and responsive colleagues – They will smile, nod, use open-handed gestures and have a relaxed posture with lots of eye contact and a relaxed tone of voice.
• Colleagues who control and dominate – They might point at others, lean forward when speaking or listening; they may interrupt, ignore responses, use loud rapid speech and try to establish a controlling tone of voice.
• Unresponsive and aggressive colleagues – They may greet any exchange of views with a set mouth and face; they will stare, have abrupt movement or speech, keep an inappropriate distance and look beyond you while speaking in a harsh tone of voice.
• Timid and submissive colleagues – They will be nervous and avoid eye contact. They will allow colleagues to interrupt them and when they do speak, will use a hesitant and soft tone of voice.

If you do not listen carefully, you are more likely to mishear or not hear at all and, consequently, make mistakes. Skilful listening is a major part of the tutor’s role as a facilitating chairperson. This means understanding and appreciating what each speaker is saying before beginning to interpret and analyse the information that is being shared. Some of the rules for being an effective listener and, by definition, a better chairperson or group leader are as follows:

• Allow the speaker to finish talking; avoid completing their sentences or making it obvious that you are burning to say something.
• Try not to think about the next point you wish to make or you will miss what is being said.
• Use your memory to recognise key points and important pieces of relevant information. It is often useful if you begin your reply by restating the key points that have been made.
• Be objective rather than subjective and try not to let your interpretation of what is being said be distorted by any adverse feelings you have about the speaker’s clothes, appearance or manner.

Many of the activities within the sessions that use presentations and handouts rely on the teaching assistants in the group sharing their experiences together with new ideas, discussing the material and expressing their opinions. Two techniques that tutors can use over and over again to help this process are ‘brainstorms’ and ‘buzz groups’. These are described below in more detail.

This lasts for a few minutes. It is important that the tutor has a whiteboard or flip chart and the appropriate writing materials. The whole group needs to be able to see and read what is on the flip chart/whiteboard:

• Write the title of the topic on the flip chart/whiteboard. This is better done in the form of a question, eg ‘How many ways of getting pupils’ attention do you use?‘.
• Ask for the group’s responses. Remind them to give them to you quickly. The tutor should stand with their back to the group writing down their suggestions.
• Don’t allow anyone to comment on any of the suggestions.
• Include all suggestions and don’t censor or reject any ideas at this stage.
• Write as fast and as legibly as possible, encouraging more responses.
• Stop when you feel you have enough material or when it is obvious that contributions are slowing down and becoming hesitant.

This summarises the ideas expressed in the brainstorm and lasts slightly longer:

• Give yourself and the group time to read through the contributions – or read them aloud yourself.
• Try to link them together by asking open-ended questions such as ‘Is it possible to group any of these points together?’ or ‘Is it possible to prioritise any of these points?’, etc. It is also useful to ask for a specific contribution to be explained.

It is important to use the brainstorm to make inferences and draw conclusions. It is no good just leaving it as a list of contributions. Try to lead a discussion that identifies priorities and suggests ‘best’ practice.

• The task should be made clear through a carefully-worded question, statement or specific task.
• One person in each group may need to be the ‘scribe’ or spokesperson.
• Point out the task and tell the groups to start.
• Walk around so that you can pick up any useful information from the groups and be available for questions and clarification.
• Stop the ‘buzz’ at the end of a specific time span or when it is obvious that they have exhausted the topic and are no longer discussing it.

• Bring the trainees all together and ask members of each group to state their conclusions briefly. The first groups may have a lot to say and later groups very little because earlier groups will have already said most of what is useful. This makes it important to rotate the groups that start the discussions.
• There will be lots of common ideas and ideas which logically form into groups and patterns. It is important that the tutor uses the whiteboard or flip chart to identify these patterns and summarise them clearly.
• Invite opinions from everyone and use open-ended questions with ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to tease out further details.

It is important that key points are identified, highlighted and discussed further. The tutor should expand on the issues raised by using a presentation/handout that contains further or more specific information.