4. People learn by doing. This is probably the most important principle for trainers to understand. Inexperienced trainers tend to confuse talking (i.e. lecturing or demonstrating) with teaching. Explanations can be part of the teaching process but are only useful if they are followed by application activities that require the learner to do something. To illustrate, consider the example of teaching an employee how to ride a bicycle. You can present a thorough lecture on the principles of pedaling and steering and give a comprehensive demonstration on how to do it. However, until the employee gets on and begins pedaling, he or she will not learn how to ride a bicycle.