TAADEL503A Provide advanced facilitation to support learning
What is facilitation? Having asked this question we need to look at the 'root' origins for the term. The core component of the word ' facile', means to make a process easy or smooth. Unlike the educator and teacher, a facilitator need not be a content expert. A facilitator is focussed on the process of learning and assisting the individual or group to recognise, plan and achieve their desired outcomes. Facilitation is more than simply teaching the student and promoting knowledge transfer. It may be considered a: . . . pedagogical term that applies to student-centred approaches to teaching as opposed to teacher-driven-the teacher's role moving from expert to one of facilitation -'sage on the stage' to 'guide on the side'. (Kempe 2001, cited at http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/facilitation.html ) But is the facilitator skilled, empowered and resourced to achieve these outcomes? Anderson, Rourke, Garrison and Archer (2001) view facilitation as a component of advanced teaching and required for 'the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes'. This suggests achieving advanced facilitation is as much about improving the professional practice of the teacher, as it is about enabling non-teachers to enhance learning. It is also about changing the mindsets of the managers of training providers to supporting such advances. Role of the facilitatorThe role of the facilitator is to encourage and facilitate the process whereby learners learn. This simple statement may be achieved through an enormous array of techniques (tools) and processes (practices and methods). Traditional paradigms on the role of teaching seemed to have relied on methods and methodology that place the teacher at the centre of the learning process. The concept of facilitation has been viewed much like the role of instructor, knowledge expert and assessor: as just another subset of the teacher's control and dominance of the learning process. Advanced facilitation is about the facilitator having a distinct set of competencies and roles. This is not to say a teacher cannot be a facilitator: it means people other than teachers may also be facilitators of learning. The concept of facilitator of learning has at its heart the acknowledgment that learning is participative and may be self-directed. Adult learners have the capacity to adapt learning to their needs. They can make choices and decisions on their own learning process. Ultimately, they can also take the responsibility for initiating learning and engaging that can occur across learning within multiple environments (i.e. home, work, life). There are five fundamental variables that will shape facilitation:
While it is not possible to cover all the above variables directly, we will examine the first one in detail and the rest obliquely throughout the ensuing sections and readings. Approaches to learning: theory and practiceIt is worthwhile to reflect on four of the core learning theories. These are:
As summarised in the table below (cited in Smith, 2003) the four orientations to learning affect how the facilitator views or interacts with the learning process. Table 1 Four orientations to learning (after Merriam and Caffarella, 1991:138)
While it is not the intention within this topic to discuss all the different views on learning, it is important to note that different facilitation approaches will be adopted contingent upon the facilitator's approach to learning. The pedagogical or andragogical basis adopted by the instructional designer for the learning strategy will also shape the role of the facilitator.
An advanced facilitation model
OrientationOrientation is about connecting the learner with the learning process. Orientation critically relates to the facilitator eing able to provide adequate information for the learner to confidently enter into a learning process. This may include information on:
The following four aspects should be considered when undertaking facilitation. Control -For learners and facilitators the most intimidating issue in learning can be the confusion created over uncertain processes or unclear outcomes resulting from options presented. Humans tend to be adverse to risk. Early orientation of individuals to a learning process is therefore often focussed on the ability to control the outcomes sought. While some individual learners also embrace the ability to control their own learning process, others prefer to be in a 'controlled' learning process led by the facilitator. The design of the facilitation techniques needs to be cognisant of each individual's preferences for independence or self-direction. Alignment -Orientation of effort requires alignment in which the individual learners agree on and affirm a basic direction. Alignment may involve every learner or a particular group of participants. Attunement -Beyond individual alignment to a direction and learning purpose it is also important that facilitation build involvement of all learners. This requires team building to ensure that everyone knows how their individual effort will contribute to the collective effort required to move in a particular direction. Attunement is about balancing two different realities. One the facilitator's view of what the learning process is and will result in, and the other the individual learner's vision of what the learning process is and will result in. How these are mutually attuned can affect learning. Commitment -Commitment is typified by individuals converging towards agreed outcomes while individually they may hold outcomes they consider appropriate. For instance, a learner may attune and converge towards outcomes agreed at the place of work, but this does not negate other important outcomes they may generate through participating in a learning process completed at home or in an institution. Commitment is therefore about commencing the process of motivating the learner. The task for a facilitator is to 'shake out' the restrictive practices caused by different purposes, learning styles, beliefs or meanings that individuals ascribe to in the learning process and get them to learn and communicate within the given environment. Sharing a direction that all learners can ascribe to not only will encourage learning, but also will promote commitment to the purpose Co-orientation
Co-orientation is about connecting the learner with other learners and their individual purpose. It is where individuals bring their unique orientations together to coordinate their meanings and act to achieve individual and collective purpose. The co-orientation stage is where the facilitator needs to build trust and commitment not just to the learning process and outcomes, but also to the communication between learners and each other, and with the facilitator. McFadzean and McKenzie (2002) draw on the well-known work of Malcolm Knowles (for instance, 1978) to express the view that a good learning facilitator has to move beyond seeing learning as a process whereby pre-formed knowledge is delivered down some conduit in an assembly-line manner. Instead, the argument goes, learning should encourage learners to 'put flesh on skeletal concepts' through conversation, practical activity, negotiation and collaboration with others. With this in mind, McFadzean and McKenzie (2002:474) claim facilitators must set the foundations for learning by being attentive to five matters:
Culture -Learning is a social activity. It is not simply a mechanistic function that can be switched on and off. Every human action involves learning because individuals adapt as they transact with people, with technology and with their environment. Equally, learning is shaped by these interactions and experiences. Perspectives may change as physical skills and knowledge are acquired, transferred and deployed. Nevertheless, learning will still draw on values, beliefs and attributes that an individual gathers from their own cultural context. As cultures differ they will emphasise different learning styles or intelligences (Vincent and Ross, 2001). To develop an environment within which learning can occur a facilitator must undertake a process of translating the myriad of values, ideas and beliefs that individual learners possess into an environment conducive to learning. It may also be necessary to modify the facilitation process to suit the learner's culture/s. Accessibility -Learning has to be accessible to the individual seeking access. This is not just about overcoming limitations experienced by facilitated learning (e.g. timing, location, and technology barriers such as bandwidth and hardware and software limitations). It is also about structural barriers such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, arbitrary prerequisites, learning styles, location and any other related barriers that limit access to learning. Contextualisation -The learning function cannot simply be oriented by a facilitator, with the learner 'switched on' and knowledge transferred on the relevant topic. Not only is it impossible to codify all skills and knowledge that an individual will need to 'perform', it is undesirable. Individuals learn and work in different contexts. So vocational learning should not be restricted to a 'course'. People need to learn for work, for life (lifelong learning) and for everyday collaboration. Learning may occur in relatively small but important 'chunks'. It is also important to realise that competence (i.e. the acquisition and capacity to successful deploy skills and knowledge over time to the required standard) is context and environmentally dependent. Competency attainment needs to be judged by an examination of learning or performance outcomes tied to operational activities. Learning, whether for a course or smaller component, needs to be contextualised to the individual or group's situation. Personalisation -Accepting that people are different, and that we can cater for differences in learning styles and learning needs, it seems reasonable that catering for a high degree of personalisation is an effective way of advancing both the competency and the overall ability of an individual to learn. It is also about extending their learning styles and moving the learner outside their 'comfort zone'. The personalisation of the learning experience in this case may not be a comfortable one, but it certainly can be an excellent opportunity for personal growth. Engagement
Engagement is about connecting the learner with the knowledge and the process of learning. Collaboration -Collaboration is a basic activity in human society. While purpose and the attributes of each individual involved may vary, collaboration reinforces not only learning outcomes but also a sense of shared interest. Often it is the ability to share ideas, challenge one's own perceptions and engage with others that will stimulate learning. Building engagement for individuals may therefore reside in the facilitator's ability to reinforce collaboration through activities that hold meaning collectively and for each individual. Where the individual's interest does not match learning that emphasises certain outcomes, suboptimal learning and performance can occur. Timeliness -Timeliness impacts both the learner and the facilitator. Traditional, structured classroom-based delivery has structured learning to fit the curriculum and timetable set by the provider. However, timeliness and relevance is driving business processes and in turn changing when and how organisations and individual learners access learning. Learning can be provided in multiple modes and accessed on demand by the user. Flexible and distance learning is a response to learners gaining greater control of when they learn. Concepts such as learning on demand, or just-in-time learning, reflect the need to disaggregate learning into 'bite-sized' chunks that can be completed anywhere, anytime and in short (even less than five-minute) durations. Equally, the cycle time for the facilitator to respond to learners in such models has changed. Learners expect service. Electronic and other communications are used to promote access to the facilitator and secure 'immediate' response to learner needs. Integration -Integration is an important ingredient in the facilitation of learning in the modern world. Integration is about creating seamless learning processes that address:
Relevance -Learning is dynamic. One of the unquestionable advantages of the good facilitator is their ability to make learning relevant. This often entails rapidly repurposing content and learning processes to accommodate changing needs. Facilitation is therefore critical to taking the 'skeleton' of the learning strategy and translating it into a learning solution relevant to the learner in their given context. Good facilitation can ensure that the learning experiences can be replicated in the real world, e.g. use of problem or discovery-based learning, simulators and action learning (Rieber, 2002; Rothwell, 1999; & Werkman & Boonstra, 2002). Measurement
Measurement is about connecting the learner with outcomes. Reflection -Deep learning usually requires an individual to be prepared to accept and give feedback, to empathise with others and to consciously reflect on their own progress. Reflection is an important process that can actually encourage:
Assessment -Often the assessment of educational outcomes occurs through the examination or 'regurgitation' of materials and information provided during class activities and lectures. This can often fall short of fully evidencing a student's understanding (Entwistle, 1992:39). Deeper understanding that goes beyond simple knowledge retention can be evidenced only through applied assessment of the knowledge. Different types of learning and learning outcomes will critically impact what assessment criteria are set or how assessment tools are shaped. Facilitation strategies can use different points of assessment to gauge an individual progress (diagnostic and formative), as well as determine the attainment of overall learning outcomes (summative). Monitoring -Monitoring learning is becoming more complex. Not that it has ever been easy, but the growth in distributed learning (anywhere, anytime, just-in-time learning) accentuates the importance of understanding individual differences, the context of learning (real time, right now), the pedagogies (note the plural) used for individual and group interaction, and the factors that influence communication. Beyond continually monitoring how individuals progress through learning it is also important to monitor each individual's readiness to progress with learning activities or to undertake assessment. Equally important is to ensure that individual students can monitor their own progress. Recognition -Individual motivation to learn is often tied to the recognition obtained. Qualifications, professional status and improved career opportunities are often more meaningful outcomes of a learning process than the learning itself. By ensuring that different components or stages in a learning process can gain 'credit' towards a qualification, the facilitator can often raise levels of motivation. Improvement
Improvement is about connecting the learner with future opportunities. This includes the pathways created into further learning and work. Evaluate -From a facilitation point of view, evaluation can assist in determining discontinuity between:
Renew -If learning is dynamic, then facilitation strategies must be able to be revised and redesigned to meet future contingencies and needs. Report -How outcomes are to be reported needs to be known and built into both facilitation and the data collection points within the learning process. Reporting is also about capturing problems or solutions that can improve the current learning strategy, process or tools. Quality systems place an emphasis on the end users of products and services and the ability of the production processes to meet learner or end-user expectations. In learning, this means that reporting is the point at which suggestions for improvement are recorded, reported and actioned. From this point, actions have to be followed up and actual changes implemented. Review -Implementing any improvement requires review and management. Suggesting changes is different to actually possessing the processes to ensure that future facilitation approaches and strategies continuously improve. Advanced delivery and facilitation practices
Inclusive learning facilitation and practicesInclusive facilitation practices aim to optimise how individuals participate and learn. Including all learners in the learning process means exactly that. It is not about accommodating differences as a variation to the norm, it is about anyone in the target audience being able to access and be included in the learning experience. Inclusive practices need to specifically address:
Example The Griffith University Guide to Staff and Academics provides some very important guidelines ( http://www.griffith.edu.au/text/ins/webdev/accessibility/mod03/content_m03bod.htm ) on inclusive educational practices derived from Creative Teaching: Inclusive Learning , which was produced as part of the Tertiary Initiatives for People with Disabilities (TIPD) Project in 1997. Identifying student needs
Making appropriate adjustments
So, in working with academic staff across the University, educational designers should encourage an approach that:
Self-review and evaluate current facilitation practices
It may be useful over time to compile a diary that captures your self-reflection on current practices. This reflective diary can ensure that common issues or personal development needs are recorded and addressed. Set actions and timelines for their resolution. Evaluate progress and tie these outcomes to personal goals. The construction of a personal development plan is covered in some detail in the unit and topic area TAAENV501A Maintain and Enhance Professional Practice. Dangers Self-reflection should not be isolated from any review and evaluation process. Make sure that all aspects of the delivery strategy and plan are honestly appraised. Don't be afraid, for example, to do the following:
Promote collaborative facilitation modelsCollaboration influences the design of learning and the contribution the facilitator can make to a learner's engagement and knowledge absorption. It is through facilitation processes that encourage collaboration that some of the most effective knowledge sharing can occur in an organisation. In effect, roles and role relationships represent a repertoire of mental models that people learn and use to collaborate. They encompass expectations of protocol, actions and outcomes. A person entering a shop as a 'customer' expects there to be someone present who acts as 'salesperson' and that salesperson will act in certain ways. The 'salesperson' identifies a 'customer' and seeks to provide sales assistance. In this way, roles and role relationships can provide ready-made templates for collaborative behaviours. Learning processes can refine or alter these mental models and encourage learning through changed roles and relationships. A key role of a learning facilitator is to design the learning intervention so that learners can interact with each other in helpful, productive, trust-building ways. Similarly, a role of learners here will be to engage in learning activities in ways that are likely to foster a convergence of purpose within the learning group. How can this be done? One way would be for the facilitator to involve students in planned, sequential, structured, problem-solving experiences requiring high levels of mutuality and equality and 'guaranteeing' their individual and joint success. Collaborative, group learning experiences will usually need to account for, and be related strictly to, the purpose of the learning process and the particular stage of progress. Without learners and facilitators having a shared understanding of the stage they are 'at' in the intervention, and structuring their relationship-building activities appropriately, effectiveness is likely to be impaired. This does not mean learning will not occur, but it may be suboptimal if specific outcomes are being sought. Group-development experiences can be broadly of two types. The first type is where the experiences are related directly to the delivery strategy or plan. Thus, for example, a set of learning tasks in an environmental studies course might involve a group of four students developing an interview schedule to gather information from a sample of the community, writing a letter to the appropriate city council authority, designing a garden and obtaining a firm quotation from a landscaping contractor. The exercise might be set out so that each student is required to take the lead in one of the sub-tasks while the others are required to assist in refining the four 'deliverables'. 'Free-riding' will be minimised if the group is required to submit all preliminary and final drafts as they are developed. Furthermore, success will be 'guaranteed' if the material students work with is of high quality and if the instructor provides good formative feedback as drafts are submitted. The second type is where the experiences are 'artificial' in that they tend to be 'generic' in regard to their learning outcomes. Thus problem-solving skills and group-development might be fostered initially (and if necessary, from time to time throughout a course) in, say, an engineering class, a building class, and a teacher-training class by students being engaged in the well-known 'Man on the Moon', 'Lost in the Desert', 'One-way, Two-way Communication ' sorts of activities (as provided by sources such as Pfeiffer & Jones, various dates 1974-1985). Here the approach is to reinforce the learning how to build teams. The task at hand becomes secondary to the effort and later reward when the team is oriented towards a task and operating efficiently. The upshot of these comments is that facilitators and learners have responsibilities to develop their learning communities. In traditional face-to-face learning contexts it is likely to be an easy matter for facilitators and learners to see the benefits of good teamwork in the classroom. However, in electronic contexts, facilitators need to consciously offer trust- and communication-building opportunities to their learners. However, such opportunities alone will not bear fruit. Learners need to engage themselves in these. In other words, learners will need to accept that their learning extends beyond learning content and process as they are typically understood, to learning how to build trust, networks and wholesome communication with fellow learners and with their facilitators. Another way to create collaboration is in learning communities. A definition of learning communities is still evolving (Tu & Corry, 2002). At the core is the collaboration of individuals and groups through the act of learning that is either formally or informally oriented by a shared purpose (Bowles, 1997:90). Tu and Corry define community learning as learning that occurs within a social learning process and claim there is a distinction between learning community and community learning. Learning community is seen as a community for participants to learn together and learning is gained horizontally whereas community learning is where learning is gained both horizontally and vertically. One is generally dependent on the other. Mentis, Ryba and Annan (2001), on the other hand, define a community of learners as ' a group of people with a shared purpose, good communication and a climate of justice, care and occasions for celebrations"'. In an earlier work Bowles (1997:42) had also differentiated between different types of communities for a learning society, knowledge, community of practice and collaborative learning communities. A learning community can also be built in a virtual setting. Tu and Corry (2001) argue that the development of an online learning community is an important approach to enhance the learning of students. They claim that there is little if any differentiation in the literature between online and traditional communities, stating that 'most studies have transferred the traditional community model to an online environment', clouding the meaning of online community. Kaplan (2002) notes that learning communities can be a vehicle for 'connecting to other people's stories and experiences"' and a place for mentoring and the sharing of tacit knowledge within an organisation. Kaplan gives three reasons for building community into a learning strategy:
Kaplan describes a number of different types of online learning communities. The term 'elearning communities' describes groups of people connected solely via technology. They are communities that promote virtual collaboration around a specific topic, supported by a number of technological tools such as Webconferencing, streaming video, narrated PowerPoint presentations and facilitated discussions. Blended learning communities integrate online learning and face-to-face meetings where, for example, learners meet face to face initially, engage in activities to promote their ability to 'think as a team' and then 'meet' online. Kaplan argues that these types of collaborative communities require:
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