Overview of Teaching Oral History

Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2017-6-12

Interview session with Haj Rajab Binaian, Qamar Bani Hashem Battalion Commander, Damghan (on the left) during Iraq-Iran war; interview conducted on 2010. In this session, brother in arms Mohammad Taghi Omidvar was requested to audit the interview session. The outcome was a book titled “Snow Trenches”

Considering that oral history is in its infancy in our country and the frequent studies conducted in this field around the world and in order to provide the oral history stakeholder with top technical knowledge, human resource training is the most feasible choice.

On job training of active agents of oral history results in their empowerment, awareness and knowledge, change of attitude and eventually positively affects their behavior and performance. Mr. Abolfazl Hassan Abadi says: emerge of oral history in Iran has been based on need which has advocated trial and error method. Endeavors for oral history training and provision of training material for users in the form of long term training courses and credits, short-term training courses (training workshops), have not only provided a network of oral history centers and independent scholars but also created new capacities for seminars and theories in oral history.[1]

Historians of oral history despite their education and previous studies require effective trainings in the field. The most important aspect in design and implementation of such training courses is training productivity assessment.

The main goal of on job training is preparation of individuals for quality conduct. These types of trainings are mainly focused on three domains of cognitive, affection, psychomotor and in short-term, besides their formal function have valuable informal functions as well. Induction of people from various cities gathered together and share of information and experience in oral history might be perceived as the implicit function of on job trainings. Also, summon and invitation to participate in training courses creates the sense of value and attention.

It’s an undeniable fact that all those involved in oral history have a type of formal or informal education in the field; however, considering the knowledge boom, they need to be exposed to new findings in the field every now and then since their knowledge grows old. No one might claim that merely attending training courses or official education credits is in no need of acquiring new knowledge and skills. Global development in science and technology is so rapid that some believe that the life span of knowledge is maximum five years. In planning trainings for human resources, every organization has its own focus and emphasis in order to modify the approach of its human resources and drive the organization towards excellence.[2]

There have been many oral history training courses arranged and held by various institutions, organizations, etc. in the country. To attend such trainings there are expenses such as the time spent and the cost of transportation and others; hence, evaluation should be a critical consideration to determine their effectiveness and application.

In order to assess success and evaluate the performance of organizations there are criteria and standards such as: Effectiveness, productivity, application

Application of oral history trainings is a fair expectation. In defining application it is said that it relates to proper implementation of activities in the organization.[3]

Promotion of application does not ensure productivity; it is the sine qua non of productivity but not enough. In fact, to achieve productivity application and effectiveness are both essential. Application is the actual ratio of the product (or service rendered) against the expected product; while effectiveness represents the level of goal realization in an organization and productivity represents the collective of both.[4] It means that productivity is inclusive of both application and effectiveness.

It seems that in a training course some elements have to be evaluated to ensure its credibility. These elements include entry characteristics, material, and trainer proficiency, type of trainees, training environment, learning and course outcomes.

Evaluation of Entry Characteristics

What is meant by entry characteristics is the pre-requisites and willingness of individuals to learn new lessons and it represents the mid and end goals of the course. It refers to what the trainee has leaned before which is the pre-requisite of learning new lessons.

All positive and negative experiences earned in previous trainings which affect learning of new lessons are perceived as entry characteristics.

The training material shall be graded starting with simple concepts and moving toward more complicated subjects so that there is a hierarchy to include trainees in various levels.

Entry characteristics have cognitive, affection and psychomotor aspects. The cognitive domain refers to previous lessons learned; affection represents the interest of the individual to learn new concepts and psychomotor domain refers to motor skills.

In order to ensure eligible trainees are entering the program a pre-evaluation shall be conducted.[5]

Imagine a situation in which experiences participants have to spend couple of days in a classroom with amateurs who are even unaware of the basics of oral history. The situation grows critical if the trainer, ignorant of such differences, merely presents the content as provisioned!

The trainer might conduct the pre-evaluation by asking questions and prepare the trainees by offering some general explanations.

Provisioned Training Material Evaluation

One of the key principles to be considered in designing a training course is provision and arrangement of the training material. Decision has to be made concerning the content to be included in such material. The material shall be compatible to the needs of the trainees, training goals, longitudinal and transverse relevance to previous knowledge, concepts, and principles of the intended science.

The curriculum shall be the outcome of planning. Curriculum development or planning entails arrangement of a set of teaching and learning activities to result in desirable changes in the behavior of the learner and evaluation of the level of goal achievement.

Training content and material in a curriculum is subject to the specific goals provisioned. Hence, once the goals are set comprehensive it is relatively easy to select the material. Besides the main topics it is essential for the authorities to decide on the material and references.

Curriculum development is provision of a set of learning opportunities for a target audience to achieve the training goals. Subsequently there are four key elements in a curriculum: 1- Goals, objectives, targets, 2- programs, 3 – training (implementation), 4 – evaluation.[6]

Shoarinejad has stated in “Learning Psychology”: a curriculum is interesting and valuable when it addresses individual and social needs of the students and professional trainer is the one who successfully relates the curriculum to the life and needs of students to encourage them to study.[7]

Considering the brief summary provided above it is understood which determinants have to be taken into consideration in development, presentation and evaluation of a training curriculum. Ignorance of such determinants is waste of resources.

Evaluation of curriculum might be conducted by the trainer, authorities, decision-makers, participants and colleagues in a trainer role involved in oral history trainings.

Oral History Trainer Proficiency Evaluation

Training is the art, science and technique which provides the trainers with new concepts, skills, approaches and capacities. While talking to trainers in a classroom, each trainee expresses their attitude towards the trainer from their own unique perspective. Nevertheless, despite all different opinions, there is a general approach which might be traced in all expressions which might be positive, negative or neutral.

Consensus is lacking among pundits and trainees on the eligibility and proficiency criteria of the trainer where they have expressed unique characteristics. Wright Coombs says: Research on trainer eligibility has failed to reveal a set of characteristics but has shown that a good teacher, more than anything, has to have a unique character and behavior.

In the same way there is no “good” or “bad” training technique. Such characteristics merely apply to goals, outcome or discoveries. However, the techniques applied to achieve such goals acquire their values from the very same objectives and outcomes. Hence, a good trainer is not the one who has a pre-determine method but is the one who has the art and skills of creating new outcomes. It is the outcome of his/her work which is evaluated and might be good or bad not the technique applied.[8]