AI - no, not artificial intelligence

As we're getting towards the end of the course we've pretty much covered all the content we need to. To keep the learners engaged over the next couple of weeks, I'm running some workshops on subjects which are additional to what's required but still relevant to the subject area.

So, this week I ran a workshop on appreciative enquiry. This is quite a difficult concept to explain so I ran it with them as I would in a real situation. Appreciative enquiry is a way of using delegates' existing experience as a firm base for future learning, action and improvements in performance and is typically a 4 stage process:

1. World cafe - group based sharing of experiences

2. Positive core - distilling those experiences down to a handful of behaviours

3. Image of the future - building a clear picture of what the future should look like

4. Making it happen - putting in place actions which use existing behaviours to make the image of the future a reality.

The content of the session seemed to go down very well as it is something that the learners hadn't experienced before and which they could apply to their own training practice.

It's the final countdown

This evening's class was the forth and final one which was observed and for this session I tried something out which I'd seen someone else running as part of their teaching. The other week I carried out an observation on one of the other lecturers at the College and they used some case studies as a learning method. This seemed to be particularly effective so I thought I'd have a go at writing some to run with my group.

The week before we'd covered the levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model so I wrote four case studies which required the learners to create evaluation strategies which could be used in the different situations. The learners were then required to present these back to the larger group.

I think this went really well and it enabled me to engage the learners in some of Blooms higher learning objectives as they were required to analyse and evaluate.

Snowball anyone?

My class is coming towards the end of the course now so I'm trying to keep the momentum going by including lots of activities.

This week we started to look at the subject of evaluating training and I applied a snowballing technique to the first activity. I started by asking the learners to work independently to think of and write down what they felt was the purpose and benefits of evaluating training. When they had done this, I asked them to discuss their thoughts in pairs, then in fours. The aim of the task was for each group to come up with a definitive list.

This technique seemed to work well as it allowed all learners to form their own opinions before discussing them with others (in either pairs or fours). This is particularly beneficial for the quieter learners who may struggle to make the opinions heard in a large group. It also led to well formed responses rather than random ones, which are quite often the result of brainstorming.

Workshops, workshops, workshops

This week's class was the second I ran in a workshop format - this time focusing on the management report. I would usually avoid a repetition in format like this (especially considering previous feedback); this report is due in in a couple of weeks' time so the repetition was justified.

I applied a structure to the workshop and started with an information exchange exercise which was probably the most effective part of the lesson. Here learners started by working independently and thinking about where they have gaps in terms of information/data/research for their reports. They then discussed these with the other learners on their table and then with the full group. A type of snowballing I suppose. The objective of this, which I feel was achieved quite well, was to exchange sources of information and to provide support. It's the first time I'd run this and it resulted in most learners having either identified sources to fill their information gaps or direct contact with other learners who will send them what they need.

I followed this with a trigger DVD on report writing and a run through on the format of the management report itself.

I finished the input element of the class 30 minutes early to allow individuals to stay behind and ask specific questions about their reports - a sort of mini tutorial.

Assessment feaver

The learners in my class are coming towards the end of the course so the focus of my teaching has changed from input to having an output focus. In a few weeks' time they'll be handing in their management reports so the first couple of classes after the break will be workshops. I like the less structured format of workshops although I think the challenge is to apply some structure to them, otherwise they run all over the place and no real progress is made.

This Saturday is also the assessment day for the delivering and evaluating training module which involves learners delivering a 15 minute training session to their peers. To make sure they are ready for this, I included time in the workshop (about an hour) to spend time with each of them. Although this amounted to 5 minutes each, it reassured me that what they had prepared was going to meet the criteria (with a few amendments) and reassured the learners (who were a little nervous).

Easter break

It's about halfway into the Easter break and I've been using the time away from College to catch up on some teaching and PGCE stuff - Happy Easter!

And action!

This week I put into action some changes to how I teach my class.

The evaluation exercise which I carried out for one of the PGCE assignments (see last blog) highlighted that learners found some of the exercises repetitive in format. Following this, I created a new exercise for the learners to complete on the subject of facilitation and group dynamics. The session started with some knowledge input from me. I then allocated roles to the learners - 2 were facilitators, 8 as group members and the rest as observers. I gave the facilitators the task of running a group discussion whereby they had to discuss how to make roleplays effective. I gave each group member a brief which outlined how they should behave and the observers had observation sheets to fill in while the activity was running.

Overall, I feel that the activity worked really well and that the learning outcomes were met. The exercise itself took flipping ages to put together but I think it was worth it. And this brings me on to the second change of the evening - managing the learning environment more tightly.

The previously mentioned evaluation exercise also highlighted the need to manage some of the stronger personalities in the group more tightly. Over the weekend I'd thought about how best to do this and decided to use the group discussion activity. I chose a couple of the quieter learners to facilitate the discussion. I felt that it was important for there to be two of them for mutual support. I asked the three strong personalities to be the observers, so they would need to be quite and watch what was going on. The remaining learners where the participants in the group discussion.

This seemed to work in terms of managing the stronger personalities and the quieter ones had the opportunity to contribute to the classes learning.