Instructional Techniques

Course Aim

• Do you train new colleagues or show others how to carry out tasks at work?
• Would you like a clear, structured approach to explaining and demonstrating practical skills?
• Do you need to adapt your instructions for people with different experience, confidence or first languages?
• Would you like better ways to check whether trainees have understood?

This practical course develops the skills and confidence to deliver effective workplace instruction using the Tell–Show–Do–Review model. Through group activities and teaching practice, delegates explore how clear communication, demonstration and constructive feedback help colleagues learn to carry out tasks safely and consistently.

Target Audience

Current and aspiring workplace trainers, team leaders, supervisors and experienced employees who teach others practical tasks. Suitable for those involved in induction, training on the job or supporting colleagues to develop their skills.

Course Objectives

• Explain how the quality of instruction affects safety, product quality, time and team morale.
• Recognise how a new recruit’s knowledge, confidence and learning needs affect training.
• Apply the four stages of the Tell–Show–Do–Review model to a practical task.
• Break tasks into clear stages, explain their purpose and demonstrate critical steps.
• Adapt communication to reduce barriers such as jargon, pace, language differences and distractions.
• Use gestures, demonstrations and practical activities to support learning.
• Check understanding through open questions, observation and asking trainees to teach a task back.
• Give specific, constructive feedback and identify improvements to their own instructional approach.

Course Overview

• How to provide effective on the job instructions to their staff
• How to develop work instructions
• How to overcome barriers to learning amongst their team members
• The difference between training, coaching and giving instructions
• The principles of how to give an effective instruction
• The different learning styles and how that affects the way that instructions should be delivered
• The differences between the training cycle and the learning cycle
• Different styles of instructions e.g. demonstrations and on the job training
• How to make a reliable and fair judgement
• How to evaluate the effectiveness of delivered instructions
• Basic presentation techniques

Format of Delivery

Face to face