Vocational training works better when the mistake happens in front of you

In vocational training, I stopped trusting quiet classrooms. At first I thought silence meant people understood the material. Then we got to the hands-on part and I could see half the class had been lost for twenty minutes. They were polite, they nodded, and they did not want to look slow in front of everyone. That is normal with adult learners, especially people trying to change careers. What wo…