Individual who is responsible for helping trainees to learn, not by presenting information, but by listening, asking questions, providing ideas, suggesting alternatives, and identifying possible resources. Facilitators are found in face-to-face and self-instructional delivery as well, but their responsibilities are very different for these delivery systems. The facilitator role is:
- Leadership
- To focus on providing a direction to the group when the leader fails to fulfill their role
- To stimulate and encourage constructive debate between group members
- To support members of the group, helping them to bring information, and to build new ideas
- To participate when the group is interacting poorly or in the wrong direction, by promoting new discussion
- To promote team building in a cohesive, interactive, and productive way
- Referee
- To regulate and maintain order of the group discussion, discouraging participants from talking at the same time
- To protect members, and ensure that all contributions to the discussion are treated equally
- To deal with problems, and to control people within the group, allowing everyone to participate freely
- To manage the time, and adhere to the meeting timetable ensuring completion of the agenda
- Neutral
- The facilitator is neutral, and pragmatic, because he takes a detached look at the discussion
- He encourages feedback, to promote discussion of each point
[1] |
FACILITATOR