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.

Pandora's box

Hello reader,

What a strange week it's been. Just as things are starting to improve with the new job, the teaching gig goes all weird.

As part of an assignment for the PGCE, I had to ask my students to complete an evaluation form on my teaching methods and strategies. I duly put together a suitable form which asked for feedback on areas such as their enjoyment of the classes, how engaging, challenging and stretching the material is, how prepared I am, how useful feedback from assignments is and whether they make use of the College library. In completing the form, the students needed to tick a box which most represented how they felt about the statement. There was also some space at the bottom of the form for them to feedback the aspects of the lessons they liked most and their suggested areas for improvement.

Overall, the feedback was really good with most learners giving positive responses to the statements and lots of comments in the box about what they liked. The comments in the areas for improvement box were a real mixed bag. Some learners took the opportunity to feedback about the amount of work they had to do for the last assessment and some gave quite specific comments about particular aspects of the lesson. What was a common theme was the number of remarks about some learners dominating the rest of the group with their contribution.

Well, once you open Pandora's box and release what's inside, you can't get it back in now can you! At least it will give me plenty of fodder for the next assignment - dealing with classroom behaviour.

Observation - part deux

This week's class saw Margaret observing for the second time.

Overall, I feel that the session went well. I'd had a hard day at work so things could only get better really!

For this evening's session I tried to apply a couple of the learning points from the first observation in January. First of all I tried to control the learning environment more by getting into the room early and moving the furniture around so that learners would be sat in groups of 4 - which would facilitate the exercises later on. I also asked the two learners from each group to move so they had the opportunity to work with other people.

Second, I included a method for assessing learning. This took for the form of an initial assessment method which required learners to rate themselves against a set of skills they had come up with. This worked well and gave me an idea of where their strengths lay and areas for improvement/development.

Later in the session I also used a group exercise technique which I'd learnt in the PGCE class. The learners worked in small groups to form an answer which I then took and compared to those from other groups and finally revealed the real answer. This enabled learners to share their thoughts and perceptions on the question and to form a group answer.

Time for some more?

After last week's early finish blip, tonight's session went well. I had a good range of activities and the learners really got a lot out of the visualisation exercise. I'd learnt this on a course I attended years ago whilst working for another company. Put simply, you are asked to close your eyes and picture someone who's excellent at doing something - in this case delivering training. The facilitation (me) then gives you a range of prompts to get you to reflect on certain aspects of their behaviour, such as their body language, how they interact with the delegates and the words they use to deliver messages. When the learners open their eyes, they need to record quickly their observations, share these in small groups and try to pick out common themes.

This works well because the learners are basing their thoughts on real people rather than the usual 'write down what you think'. It also encourages role model behaviour and for learners to construct how they want to use this information to inform their personal training style.

This evening I also tried to control the learning environment more. I arrived early and moved the tables so they were in 3 large groups - to facilitate the exercises. I then had 3 tutorials to do and can you guess what had happened when I went back into the room? Yes, the learners had moved the table back to the usual position. My learning point is to tell them or, if no one if there to tell, to leave a note. They only had to move them back again.

Next week, observation number two...