Just to give a little background to me, I currently run a lifelong learning project for UNISON based at WEA Cymru; I develop (and often deliver) unaccredited digital skills workshops and recruit volunteer Digital Champions for public service workplaces. If you're interested in my day job, take a look at http://www.digiskillscymru.org.uk and as the weeks progress, I'm sure this blog will address some of the work of my project and some of my previous experiences as a learner, an educator, a learning technologist and a public servant. I'm quite sure it will also reflect my passion for developing digital literacies and using digital technologies to enhance learning experiences.
I also want to make it clear that whilst I've got a good amount of experience in Higher Education teaching, workplace training and informal group facilitation, and have attended a number of courses on the subject in the past, this is the first time that I've formally enrolled on a teacher training course.
Setting the Scene
So, the course began last Tuesday evening in the fantastic venue of the Conference Cube at Ty Menai near Bangor and is taught by Tudur Evans, an experienced teacher and trainer who also happens to be my line manager at WEA Cymru. We were a small group of 3 learners last week, but hopefully this will rise to a healthier 6 or 7 this week.My first reflection is that the choice of venue for the course is great; a modern room with a good wifi internet connection and resources. I'm a big fan of modern architecture and design, and I go along with the idea that the environment within which people learn is an important factor in framing the whole experience. It can help to set the expectations of the learner and getting the venue right sends the message that the learning experience is important and has been properly considered. To me, the Conference Cube venue screams "innovative", "cutting edge", "professional" and "important". These are themes I'd like to carry on into my learning and practice.
On to the content of the session itself. The key topics we addressed were Individual Learning Needs, the Attributes of an Adult Education Tutor and Setting Class Rules.
Individual Learning Needs
The first task we were set was to look at Individual Learning Needs, and specifically what questions might be asked of an individual (or group of learners) in order to establish their specific needs beyond the learning objectives of the course or qualification, ensure that overall the learning meets their expectations and that it makes sense within their individual learning journey.
I struggled a little with this task, possibly because I was tired after a long day at work, and found it a little difficult to separate out individual learning needs from some of those issues that may be addressed prior to the learner entering the classroom, such as the identification or disclosure of learning differences like Dyslexia. But once I had this clear in my head, thanks to the patience of my fellow learners, Debbie and Glyn, we drew up a list of questions that might help a teacher to understand the needs. The answers then should form the basis of an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) for each learner, but it was stated that this process often will be carried out with the whole group as many individuals on a well constituted course (i.e. with a broadly similar group of learners) would share many needs. The ILP sets a baseline from which the learner and the tutor can judge progress and measure achievements. This plan would be made up of SMART targets or goals, i.e, ones that are Specific Measurable, Attainable or Achievable, Resourced and Time Bound or Timely. It will be interesting to get the chance to create an ILP for real in the weeks and months ahead.
Attributes of an Adult Education Tutor
We were asked to recall the best and worst teachers we'd ever had the pleasure and misfortune of learning from and write down their attributes. The hard part of this for me was choosing one teacher - but in the end I settled for my former British Politics tutor and PhD supervisor, Professor Philip Norton from the University of Hull. His style of teaching is rather unique (2 hour seminars with tea and cake, all the 18 year old learners being addressed by their formal titles.. ."Mr Speight", "Miss Pilling", etc) and involved respectfully challenging received wisdom and lazy assumptions in a way that made each of us on his course us think deeply about the merits of our own positions whilst having a firm understanding of the foundations of opposing views. As a schooling in how to be a thoughtful and consensual politician it was second to none (and this is reflected in the number of Hull graduates employed in politics at Westminster and beyond, the so-called "Hull Mafia")
After sharing our positive and negative experiences, we worked together as a group to put together a Job Description for the role of Adult Education Tutor. Here's what we came up with:
The big challenge here was differentiating between duties and responsibilities, skills and characteristics, but I think we managed to put together a really comprehensive set of attributes. I particularly like the final characteristic we noted down, that a good tutor will "challenge pre-conceptions". It brought me back to something that the head teacher in my 6th form once told me, that the root of the word "education" is "bringing into the light" and reminded me of the progressive role that teachers play in the development of a civilized society.
Class Rules
We learned that an important first step for a tutor to take with a group is to set the ground rules for the class. We reflected that rather than the tutor laying down the law and expecting unquestioning compliance, a more effective method is to allow, within reason, each group of learners to generate their own rules. This approach encourages a sense of ownership over the rules, and enforcement becomes both less necessary and also peer-driven - "These are not my rules, their your rules".
I used this technique when teaching groups of undergraduates in political science seminars , and it was generally successful. One problem was that recording and displaying these rules was difficult, so adherence did tend to slip. Also, sometimes they were a little ambitious and even too strict so that rules like "if you've not done the reading you will be asked to leave" were rarely if ever enforced.
Our final task was to collectively agree on class rules for the "Award in Education & Training", and here they are (bad spelling included):
I plan to stick rigidly to one rule in particular, "Ask Stupid Questions"
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