INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY 3(2+1)

Lesson 10 : Group Methods

Conference

Pooling of experiences and opinions among a group of people who have special qualifications in an area.

All the members in conference are expected to have more or less equal knowledge. It varies between two to three days, maximum of five days.

It is a methodology suited to executives and senior officers in dealing with complex problem which requires the contributions from senior officers to solve the same. The issues and subject matters of the conference have advance and they prepare the papers and related materials for the conference. The delegates present and explain the various aspects of the problem. The participants are requested to put forth their views during the discussions hours. Recommendations are made based on the deliberations and discussions.

The main advantage of this method is that it suits bigger groups and participants are benefited by listening to various senior speakers. They are included to think over the problems, issues and solutions.

The disadvantage of this method is that it is not participation oriented and the trainees are inactive during the programmes. It is difficult to find out whether the trainees learn anything or not.