Being a trainer or teacher doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to learn. Perhaps it’s precisely when you’re sharing your knowledge with pupils or students that it’s most important to be up to date. With this in mind, the Nonvignon training center in Benin organized an international exchange symposium on May 8, 9 and 10, 2024, on the theme of pedagogical innovation in adult learning and training, which brought together some thirty university professors, facilitators and teachers from Benin, Togo, Mali and Senegal.
A multitude of subjects covered
Among the many themes addressed over the three days: how to develop training practices, how to implement experiential learning, the art and art of creating a pedagogical discourse likely to stimulate listeners, and group facilitation strategies. And the least we can say is that this event, led by Belgian Cédric Danse, co-author of “Comment favoriser l’apprentissage et la formation des adultes? and Marine Winand, doctoral assistant at the Faculty of Psychology, Logopedics and Education Sciences at the University of Liège, lived up to participants’ expectations.
From theory to practice
“I learned a lot, it was an educational and professional sharing. Today, thanks to this symposium, I know how to present myself in front of learners, how to establish a good relationship with them and how to deal with people who are older than me. And it works,” sums up Roland Gamon, who works at a hotel training school in Cotonou.
The same is true of Maëlle Acakpo, a pastry chef who teaches both children and adults. “When you’re training people who are sometimes older than you are, there’s always a little stress. You hope they’ll be able to assimilate what you’re going to teach them, and that you’ll get the respect you deserve. I wanted to get over that psychological barrier,” she explains. I’ve also learned that it’s essential to lay the foundations right from the first contact, admitting that you can’t know everything and that the course is an exchange between the students and myself”, she adds.
Enriching group work
What Maëlle and Roland will remember most of all is the method used by Cédric Danse and Marine Winand, a far cry from an ex-cathedra course. The two trainers favored exchanges between participants by introducing each workshop with group work, enabling everyone to share their experience in the field, but also to raise any difficulties encountered. “We tried to find solutions together, so that everyone could give their opinion”, reports Maëlle. And the chef concludes: “For me, it’s important to set up symposiums like this. There’s always something new to learn. In life, you have to constantly seek to evolve and question yourself.”
