REP: Reflect-Engage-Perform

How many times have your heard Nuts and Bolts Team Leaders saying, “Reflect! Engage! Perform!” during bootcamps or coaching calls?  More than a few times, I bet. But it’s important. Just like a trainer at the gym building your muscles, your NaB Team Leader is helping you to build the muscles of each student’s brain by helping them through a very important process. Your NaB team leader is using the REP approach to help you not only teach your student’s new concepts, but to help your students master their principles and apply them behind the chair when they start their careers.

REFLECT

The first component of a REP is Reflect.  The reflect section identifies the learning goals and key words students must master.  Reflect includes:

• What you will learn: A clear statement of learning goals
• Key Words: A list of key words students must learn in order to develop a professional vocabulary.

For example, when students are just learning about hair terminology they are given key terms, such as asymmetrical. Likewise, Nuts and Bolts students learn things like budgets and business plans.

ENGAGE

The second component, Engage, is the section that provides students with educational materials to master the learning goals and key words. This section includes:

• Section Heading: Clearly identifies the topic at hand to help ensure you understand the concepts and skills related to the learning goals and key words.
• Learning Tools: Tools used for in-class activity or discussion. Learning tools are meant to increase your engagement and provide jumping off points for activities and discussion.

Workbooks used in cosmetology school using the key words introduced to you in the Reflect stage and are put into character examples, charts, etc. to help student’s retain the new concepts.  Sections in the Nuts & Bolts training manuals have sections for engagement such as, Jim’s Corner, In the Know and Time Machine help students get a better understanding with examples, perspectives and scenarios to play out.

PERFORM

The perform section asks students to demonstrate that they have mastered the learning goals and key words. The act of acting out or putting into action their new skill is essential in long-term retention.  This section includes:

• Activities: To make learning fun and engage a variety of learning styles. Working in small groups is known to boost self-confidence and build allegiance between students.
• Putting It All Together: Where students demonstrate that they have learned the learning goals and key words with an in classroom Q&A time.
• Step Quiz: A brief quiz completed in class or online for Team Leaders to tracks students’ mastery of the learning goals and key words and helps students verify their own mastery as well.

This is where the learning really gets social by putting their newfound knowledge into action.  For example, your students put in countless hours on mannequin heads and guests to the student clinic to practice techniques they’ve learned.  Nuts and Bolts students also put into practice the consultation vocabulary and knowledge from examples they’ve learned in the first two steps of REP.

There is a method to our madness, one that is used at even Ivy League institutions.  Using the REP methodology helps to instill lifelong skills and has helped Nuts & Bolts schools produce better qualified graduates.  Successful new professionals that have the business skills to build a long standing and successful career.