The following designs can be used to present content without lecturing. For more specific examples of the following training designs as well as ideas on presenting cognitive material in an active way, see 101 Ways To Make Training Active (Mel Silberman & Karen Lawson, 1995, Pfeiffer).

Group Inquiry. Put participants in pairs to study information directly related to the course content. Ask them to study a handout containing broad information, then discuss the piece with a partner, trying to understand as much as they can, placing question marks and making notes on those things they do not understand. After a period of time, reconvene the entire group and begin answering questions the participants have generated. The purpose of this design is to arouse interest and stimulate questions. Learners raise questions as a result of their innate curiosity.

Information Search. Rather than giving information to participants, have them find it for themselves. For example, create a worksheet listing a number of questions related to the information you want them to learn. Provide resource materials such as brochures, manuals, job aids, journals, or books. Put people into pairs or small groups, give them the study sheets and resource materials, and put them to work searching for information. At the end of a designated time period, reconvene the entire group, ask the small groups to report, and discuss what they have found.

Guided Discussion. Guided discussion or guided teaching is also known as the Socratic Method. Socrates guided his students in the learning process by asking them a series of questions. With this approach, the trainer poses questions that draw on the participants' knowledge and experience and require them to think about concepts and ideas. Following cooperative-learning guidelines, pose a somewhat-broad question and ask participants to work in pairs or small groups to come up with answers.

Jigsaw Design. Choose learning material that can be broken into several parts, such as an article with several sections. Divide the participants into small groups according to the number of segments and ask each group to master one section of the text. Have each group study its material, with group members reading, discussing, and deciding how to teach the information to others. After an adequate study and preparation period, form cooperative or "jigsaw" learning groups by taking one representative from each study group to become part of a new group. Each new group then has one person who has studied each segment. Have each member of the new group teach his or her particular assigned segment to the other group members. Reconvene the large group for review and to answer questions, thus ensuring accuracy and uniform understanding. An example of synergetic learning, the jigsaw design creates interdependence among group members, who are responsible for combining separate pieces of information to create a single, coherent body of knowledge.

Learning Tournament. Divide the group into teams of five to seven people each. Give the teams time to study discuss, and coach one another using material they have been given during the session. At the end of the study period, reconvene the entire group and distribute a handout with quiz items to each participant. Have participants complete and score the quiz individually, then have each team compute a team average. Post team scores and repeat the process. Decide how many rounds to conduct; three rounds works well. At the end of the designated number of rounds, total each teams score and award prizes to the winning team. With this design, there is individual accountability (individual quiz scores), cooperative learning (team coaching sessions), and interdependence (average team score).

Card Sort. This method is very effective for helping people learn information that has multiple sections or parts and can be easily "chunked." For example, in a session on team building, introduce participants to the four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Create a deck of cards consisting of four "header" cards (for the four stages) and four or five descriptors for each stage, on separate cards. Create groups of four to six people and give each group a set of shuffled cards. Instruct them to sort the cards, putting the descriptors under the appropriate headings. This is a great way for people to interact while learning information.