Once you know what to teach, how do you actually decide how to teach it?
Introduction
Topic 17 walked through job, task, and skill-gap analysis to arrive at a curriculum-ready list of specific, trainable content. This topic answers the next question: once you know what to teach, how do you decide how to teach it? Selecting an appropriate training method is one of the most consequential decisions in the entire training process — the same content delivered through the wrong method can fail to produce learning at all.
๐ฏ Learning Outcomes
- List Wentling's (1992) four factors in selecting a training method.
- Explain Bass and Vaughan's (1966) seven criteria for evaluating a training method's suitability.
- Describe eight commonly used training methods and match them against the seven criteria.
- Explain why no single training method satisfies every criterion, and why this argues for a mix of methods.
- Cross-connect this topic to Topic 17 and forward to Practical 10.
๐ Why This Matters
The Halim & Ali/FAO (1997) chapter states plainly that Bass and Vaughan's criteria show a single training method will not satisfy the objectives of a training programme on its own — meaning method selection is not a one-time choice but an ongoing design decision made fresh for each piece of content.
1. Four Factors in Selecting a Training Method (Wentling, 1992)
Terry Wentling's (1992) Planning for Effective Training identifies four factors a trainer should weigh when choosing a method for any given piece of content:
The Learning Objective
What kind of learning is intended — factual recall, a physical skill, a change in attitude, or a decision-making ability each favour different methods.
The Content
Some content is naturally suited to demonstration (a physical technique), others to discussion (a judgement call with no single right answer).
The Trainees
Prior experience, literacy level, and group size all affect which methods will actually work with a given audience.
Practical Requirements
Time, budget, venue, and equipment available genuinely constrain which methods are feasible — echoing Topic 10's organising elements.
2. Bass and Vaughan's (1966) Seven Selection Criteria
Bernard Bass and James Vaughan's Training in Industry: The Management of Learning (1966) proposes seven criteria for judging how well a given training method will actually work, regardless of subject matter. A good method should, to varying degrees:
- Allow trainees to participate actively rather than sit passively.
- Help trainees transfer what they learn in training back to the actual job situation.
- Give trainees clear feedback on how well their attempts to improve are going.
- Provide some form of reinforcement for correct, desired behaviour.
- Give trainees the chance to practise and repeat a skill as needed.
- Motivate trainees to want to improve their own performance.
- Increase trainees' willingness to change existing habits or practices.
⚠️ The Chapter's Own Conclusion
The Halim & Ali/FAO (1997) chapter draws a direct conclusion from these seven criteria: no single training method scores well on all seven at once, which is precisely why a well-designed training programme combines multiple methods rather than relying on one throughout.
3. Eight Commonly Used Training Methods
The same chapter lists eight training methods in common use, each suited to different combinations of Bass and Vaughan's criteria:
| Method | How It Works | Strongest Bass & Vaughan Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor Presentation | Trainer orally presents new information — lecture, seminar, or workshop format. | Efficient for large groups, but weak on active participation and practice. |
| Group Discussion | Trainer leads trainees in discussing a topic together. | Strong on active participation and motivation to change. |
| Demonstration | Trainer shows the correct steps for completing a task, or a correctly completed example. | Strong on transfer to the job and knowledge of results. |
| Assigned Reading | Trainees receive reading assignments delivering new information independently. | Weak on participation and reinforcement; useful for foundational knowledge. |
| Exercise | Trainees solve assigned problems, on paper or in real situations, related to the topic. | Strong on practice/repetition and feedback. |
| Case Study | Trainees are given a situation and asked to decide or solve a problem about it. | Strong on active participation and willingness to change. |
| Role Play | Trainees act out a real-life situation within the training setting. | Strong on transfer to the job and practice. |
| Field Visit / Study Tour | Trainees directly observe and interact with the problem or skill in a real setting. | Strongest overall transfer to the actual job situation. |
Cross-reference: Practical 10 (Training Methods Practice) is where you apply this exact method-selection logic hands-on, matching specific content to an appropriate method rather than discussing it in the abstract as this theory page does.
๐พ Extension Angle
The demonstration method has a long, specific history in agricultural extension: the T&V system's contact-farmer model (Topic 19) relies heavily on demonstration precisely because it scores strongly on Bass and Vaughan's "transfer to the job" and "knowledge of results" criteria — a farmer who sees a technique demonstrated on an actual field, using actual local conditions, can judge its results directly rather than taking a lecture's claims on faith.
๐ฎ๐ณ Indian Institutional Context
Krishi Vigyan Kendras' standard programme portfolio — on-farm trials, front-line demonstrations, and farmer training courses — reflects a deliberate mix of these methods: demonstrations and field visits for technology transfer, group discussions and exercises during classroom training sessions, and instructor presentations for foundational technical content, consistent with the "no single method suffices" principle from Section 2.
๐ Beyond Agriculture
Corporate training uses the identical set of methods under similar or identical names — case studies are a defining feature of business school pedagogy, role play is standard in sales and customer-service training, and "job shadowing" is a direct corporate analogue to the field visit method — all judged by essentially the same participation/transfer/feedback/reinforcement logic Bass and Vaughan proposed for industrial training in 1966.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Halim, A., & Ali, M. M. (1997). Training and professional development. In B. E. Swanson, R. P. Bentz, & A. J. Sofranko (Eds.), Improving Agricultural Extension: A Reference Manual (Ch. 15). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- Bass, B. M., & Vaughan, J. A. (1966). Training in Industry: The Management of Learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
- Wentling, T. L. (1992). Planning for Effective Training: A Guide to Curriculum Development. Rome: FAO.