Trainer Handbook

STEP 8: Evaluation and closing

STEP 8: Evaluation and closing

Note for the trainer: This step closes both the session and Chapter 5. Receiving participants’ oral feedback provides valuable information for you and is also a powerful learning experience for them, because explaining what they have learnt to someone else is one of the strongest ways of internalising it.

Method: Oral feedback and closing circle.

Materials: None (circle seating only).

Implementation steps:

Closing circle: Participants form a circle. The trainer begins the round and asks each participant to answer the following two questions in turn: ‘Which concept stayed with me most today?’ and ‘When I return to the institution tomorrow, what is one thing I will do differently with a child in relation to social skills?’

Closing remarks: The trainer concludes the session as follows:

“Dear colleagues, today we discovered something very important together: teaching social skills is even more valuable than teaching a child to fish. A child who learns to fish can feed themselves; a child who learns social skills grows up without being alone and with a sense of belonging. We know that the deepest wound of children in institutional care is precisely the feeling ‘I do not belong’. When you take these tools into practice, you place a layer of healing over that feeling. In next week’s session, we will work on the strongest component of these skills: assertiveness — that is, helping the child find their own voice. Thank you all very much for today.”