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ENERGIA News Issue 3, July 1997

Resources: Focus on Training

The Electricity Exercise

Over the past few years, TOOLConsult has developed a four-day training programme, called “Introducing Technology to Women's Enterprises”, about effective methods of technology transfer for women's needs. Participants were Ghanaian field workers and project staff in rural areas. One part of this training programme was dedicated to an electricity exercise, to illustrate how self-discovery in learning can help bridge the “psychological gap” that some women experience when thinking about technology. The exercise went as follows.

Participants were asked to “make a light burn by connecting the electricity to it”. It was stressed that probably almost no one in the group knew how to do this. Yet in less than twenty minutes from the start, every one of them would know. And that they would achieve this with almost no explanation from others. The real lesson would be to reflect on what happened during those twenty minutes in their heads, their minds and their hearts. Some time was spent explaining this “rare human quality of reflection”.

The participants divided into small groups, and a set of batteries, wires, lamps, switches and tools (some of them not useful for this task!) were put on a table. A very basic drawing was presented, showing only the elementary idea that electricity has to flow through a circuit.

One of the most interesting things that the participants realised from this exercise was the enormous sense of achievement they had when they had solved the problem through self-discovery. In one instance for example there was a very illustrative difference between two groups: in the first group, one man knew beforehand how to do the exercise, while in the second group no one knew this. In the first group, the experienced man quickly took possession of the tools and connected the wire as it should be done. The light burned and that was that. Shortly afterwards, a great cheer sounded from the other side of the room. The group in which no-one knew beforehand had, after a lot of stumbling, laughing, despairing, and reasoning, discovered how to make the light burn. They felt a great pride and sense of achievement. They experienced a sense of ownership towards this knowledge. They loved the little light and its power source. The members of this all-women's group will surely never lose the feeling of having been able to deal with this technical problem. They had, in a sense, bridged a gap between themselves and the little electric light. On the other hand, those from the first group may have learnt something by looking on while an experienced man was doing the work, but they had missed the psychological experience of self-discovery. Their new knowledge was shallow and boring and a feeling of distance towards the technology remained.

The electricity exercise gave the participants important insights into learning and into teaching technology - as well as the gender aspects of this. Was it a coincidence that the joyful and egalitarian self-discovery took place in an all women's group, while the women in the group where an experienced man was present, had quite a different learning experience?

For more information, please contact:
Saskia Everts, TOOLConsult, Sarphatistraat 650, 1018 AV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Tel. +31.20.6264409, Fax +31.20.4211202, Email saskia.everts@tool.nl

INSTRAW Training Package

In the forthcoming issue, the INSTRAW training package will be reviewed. If you have any experience with the training package, please send your comments and suggestions to:
ENERGIA News Secretariat, c/o TOOLConsult, Sarphatistraat 650, 1018 AV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Tel. +31.20.6264409, Fax +31.20.4211202, Email saskia.everts@tool.nl, linda.smallegange@tool.nl