Young people's guidance for session leaders.
Rather than providing a set of dos and don’ts, this section starts with young people’s advice for Learning teams and session leaders.
Photographs reproduced by kind permission of Great Place Lakes and Dales.
Young people are excited to:
Our advice to session leaders
Working with young people of all ages means pitching your delivery to the appropriate level. You don’t have to talk down to students or, necessarily, avoid jargon (but do explain it). Introduce new ideas clearly. Young people will remember things that challenge what they think they know. They enjoy having insider knowledge. This will allow them to become experts.
Remember what seems normal to you may be very alien to others not working in your field. This applies to adults but particularly to young people. If students have a clear context, they can then ask relevant questions and guide their own learning.
With very young children, consider engaging them through their experiences and immediate environment (what can they see, touch, smell, hear etc). Expand from this point. Children enjoy active learning: setting their own goals, planning, exploring, reviewing what they have learned. They will do this if they are confident and secure in their environment and clear about expectations.