What Great Trainers Do

27

Three Trainer Qualities that Facilitate Learning

The facilitation of significant learning rests upon certain attitudinal qualities which exist in the personal relationship between the facilitator and the learner.

——Carl Rogers¹

Carl Rogers, a leading psychological clinician of the twentieth century, emphasized that respect, empathy, and genuineness are three “core conditions” in teachers that spur growth in learners. Educational researcher David Aspy and his colleagues conducted a major investigation into whether these qualities actually improve teaching effectiveness. Aspy’s team recorded and assessed more than 3,500 hours of instruction from 550 teachers in various grades of elementary and secondary school. This large and well-designed ...