This document offers guidelines to Reflect practitioners interested in strengthening their knowledge and skills towards becoming more effective participatory trainers equipped to empower communities to effect social change. It is aimed to help practitioners return to their communities to run their own Training of Facilitator (TOF) workshops. This guide is intended to be used as a resource and reference text, rather than a blueprint for training.

This guide has been written for several reasons:

• There is a need to increase the number of participatory trainers who can mentor facilitators and offer support to practitioners in the field. These guidelines provide structured suggestions to consider, as well as ways to think through processes and practices as practitioners learn to construct their own Reflect TOF workshops.
• Trainers and facilitators have consistently requested that more resource materials be made available. These guidelines are offered as a resource document for Reflect trainers and practitioners to use in the various contexts in which they are implementing Reflect.

The guide is structured into 10 modules, each of which covers topics and issues relevant to Reflect trainers. Each module will guide us through a process of learning skills as well as content related to being a Reflect trainer.

MODULE ONE: Preparing for a Training of Facilitators (TOF) Workshop

This module introduces participants to the TOT course and the general objectives of the training. We reflect on how we can best prepare for TOF workshops, create a learning programme for a TOF workshop and get going with that programme. This knowledge will be useful when participants return to the field to plan their own TOF workshops and implement Reflect in their contexts.

MODULE TWO: Participatory Training

This module explores the concept of participatory training. What is participatory training about? What do we mean by the term ‘trainer’? Who is a trainer and what are the responsibilities of this person? What are the personal and professional characteristics and skills of such a trainer? How do facilitators differ from trainers? What are ethics and how do they apply to trainers?

MODULE THREE: Adult Learning and Facilitation Skills

This module helps participants to think more deeply about how adults learn, and how we can best facilitate adult learning. We reflect on different factors influencing adult learning; we look at what is meant by a Freirean problem- based approach to learning and how we can facilitate this; and we also think about how we can deal with different behaviours in a group situation.

MODULE FOUR: Reflect Principles and Values

There are certain principles and values which Reflect practitioners at all levels draw on as an essential part of undertaking a critical analysis of their environment. These principles help us to develop political perspectives needed to gain insight into social and cultural issues as well as important concepts in development. This module will facilitate a more complex understanding of Reflect principles and how they can be applied in our various situations in order to sharpen our critical analytical skills.

MODULE FIVE: Baseline Studies

We now have a good understanding of what our responsibilities are as trainers, of how adults learn and the core principles of Reflect. The aim of this module is to draw these understandings together as we think about how we can improve our practice in the field. We will reflect on how to collect baseline data that will provide us with the insight we need to build a relevant and significant learning programme for the facilitators and participants with whom we work.

MODULE SIX AND SEVEN: Presenting and Analysing Baseline Data

Having gathered baseline data from our respective communities, we will now present these data and analyse them. This will help us build a foundation for a relevant and significant learning programme, as well as a monitoring and evaluation programme. In these modules we will not only think and talk about the kinds of information collected, but also the process we followed when collecting our baseline information. We will also think about presentation skills – important skills for trainers to master. And of course we will improve our analytical skills as we engage in a critical analysis of the data collected by ourselves and our colleagues.

MODULE EIGHT: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

Some time in the future, you will need to revisit the data you collected as part of your baseline study in order to evaluate whether things have changed and if so, how. In the meantime, you will need to conduct monitoring exercises to help you assess the changes on a more regular basis. In this module we will focus on helping you to develop the skills needed to monitor and evaluateReflect programmes. We will examine what we mean by monitoring, (particularly Participatory Impact Monitoring or PIM) and evaluation and think about how we can improve our practice in the field.

MODULE NINE: Designing and Developing a Learning Curriculum

In this module we will review the key development issues identified during our community baseline studies and explore how we can develop these issues into a needs-based curriculum for a structured learning process. We will look at what information we need to develop a facilitator’s guideline with learning units for a Reflect programme. We will also have the opportunity to practise writing our own materials as we think about how to implement actions to address the development issues we have discussed.

MODULE TEN: Implementing Reflect

In this final module of the course we will focus on issues related to the implementation of Reflect. We will discuss the key issues and steps that need to be considered when developing and implementing a Reflect programme. We will then focus on those areas which are pertinent to the role of trainers but which have not yet been addressed in this course – namely what facilitators’ and trainers’ responsibilities are; what managing a Reflect circle entails; and how best to support facilitators. By the end of this module, you should have a good overview of implementation and management issues.