Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips, 4th Edition

This fourth edition is built on the same solid foundation of active training originated by Mel Silberman. It's been an honor to be asked to revive the active learning work that Mel started. My goal is to continue to acknowledge his work throughout the book by respecting his voice, celebrating and expanding his ideas, and engaging others to pay tribute to Mel.

One of Mel's personal guidelines was, “It's not what you give them; it's what they take away that counts.” Mel believed that it didn't matter how much information you disseminated. If the learner was unable to retain it, learning had not occurred. I followed Mel's advice as I edited this book. I tried to revise and add things that would make the content something you can take away.

Mel and I started in this field at about the same time, and although Mel coined the term “Active Training,” both of us believed, practiced, and expounded identical philosophies throughout our careers. For a few years before I was solidly grounded in the history of learning and development, and before I'd heard of Malcolm Knowles, I thought I'd invented Adult Learning Theory. Mel and I had a good laugh about that when I first met him.

It's been twenty-five years since Mel's first edition of Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips made its way onto our bookshelves. So it is fitting that 2015 has been selected for ...