Telling Learners what to do?

How tightly should you specify what you want your learners to do? And will they do it anyway?

Well, as those of us in H807 know, we don’t always do what we are told! Chris Jones and Mireia Asensio’s ‘Experiences of assessment: using phenomenography for evaluation’ talks about the fact that people experience things in different ways – phenomenography. They highlight that no matter how clear the instructions and design goals are, students can interpret them in different ways. Just as with any learning experience, it never goes the way you plan it!

For some the response is to make the learning even more rigid. But does that help? My experience is that the more you control people and what they do, the more they will rebel. It once again goes back to the skill of the tutor/trainer to adapt the method to meet the needs of learners, which may mean changing the way objectives, are met. This comes with experience and support of the trainer themselves.

I am a fairly relax trainer and often completely change the prepared session to fit with the ‘mood’ of my learners. This is especially true when delivering someone else’s sessions. I have been known to start the day one way, only to run the same session for the forth time in the day in a completely different way. I often have discussions with others about the way they prefer to train or present. And just as some learners prefer a more instructional route, so do some trainers. We try and find ‘safe’ situations for them to be able to try out different methods and skills.

However at heart, I prefer training in a way where I am not the focus of attention. Up till now, people have criticised this in me, but I realise now that my preferred way of training is very much based on collaboration and equality of learning. I don’t believe that I have all the answers, but facilitate activities that help learners to think for themselves. And I think that this is the way that I like to learn too. (Although I still hate role-plays!). I am a constructivist and never knew it! Probably as I had no idea what constructivism was having never studied theories. And this will be true of many informal trainers who happen upon the skills. Their way of learning is based on their experience of what works and what doesn’t. I am definitely feeling more confident about my approach!

Now, to find out what my learners want!

Jones, C. and Asensio, M. (2001) ‘Experiences of assessment: using phenomenography for evaluation’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol.17, no.3, pp.314–21.