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.
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