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What Do Facilitators Do?
辅导师都做些什么?
Dr. Roger Greenaway Dr. Roger Greenaway trains facilitators, educators, trainers and consultants to bring out the full benefits of active and experiential learning. He works with training organisations, training departments and educational institutions - worldwide. His Train-the-Trainer workshop was widely successful in Shenzhen in 2011 and he will be presenting another TTT in Shanghai in May of 2013.
“How do you do facilitation?” is a bit of a conversation stopper. Ask this to a facilitator and I guarantee that you will get hesitation and evasiveness.
I (too) have spent many years being evasive on this point – and for a very good reason: which is that I like to be ‘learner-centred’ and pay attention to what the learner is doing (rather than being facilitator-centred).
In the Tao of Leadership, John Heider admires the kind of group leadership, which might result in the group saying ‘We did it ourselves’. Such a leader is working in such subtle ways that the group does not notice what the leader is doing (if anything).
So how can you model yourself on a style of leadership in which the leader is almost entirely invisible?
I hope the article below brings some useful clarity to what facilitators do without destroying the spontaneity, flexibility, and ever-changing nature of what it is like to facilitate learning in groups.
“So how can you model yourself on a style of leadership in which the leader is almost entirely invisible?在这种领导者近乎无形的领导风格中,你该怎么塑造自己呢”
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depends very much on the situation. Being tuned in to the ‘situation’ will help you make good choices about what to do. And the more you review in ways that encourage people to express themselves, the more you will be in tune with the ‘situation’. So it is very useful (and rewarding) if you can get this virtuous cycle going in which everyone, including yourself, gets tuned in to what people are experiencing.
7 SITUATIONS YOU CAN ANTICIPATE (You can plan for these)
Some situations are quite predictable and can be anticipated. For example:
1. You can anticipate the priorities for what you need to do at the beginning, middle and end of a programme - which is why I advocate designing reviews into a programme before you put the activities in place
2. You can anticipate how certain activities will generate particular kinds of incidents, experiences and issues
3. You can anticipate how you might need to facilitate a different kind of review following an experience of success or failure
4. You can anticipate how you can best facilitate a loud group, a quiet group, a group with a mix of loud and quiet people
5. You can anticipate how you can best facilitate a review when time is short and when there is more time available
6. And the group size will determine which kinds of facilitation strategy will work best
7. The current situation may lend itself to working with particular learning objectives - whether from the general programme objectives or arising from individual needs or goals
So, before deciding what you are going to do as a facilitator you may want to consider the above 7 points. Here they are again presented as questions:
1. What stage of the programme is it?2. What reviewing opportunities will the activity provide?3. What is the mood of the group?4. How can I engage all participants (quiet or loud)?5. How much time is available?6. What works best with this size of group?7. What opportunities are there for
个积极者和沉默者并存的团队。
5、你能预测当时间很短或者有多余的时候,你能怎样进行最好的回顾。
6、同时,团队的规模将决定何种类型的辅导策略将会最可行。
7、无论是一般的目标,或者由个人的需求或目标,特定的学习目标会有助于当前的学习。
所以,作为一个辅导者,在决定你要做什么前,你可能需要考虑上面7 个点。这里以问题的形式展示:
1. 课程处于哪个阶段?
2. 这个活动将会提供何种回顾与引导机会?
3. 团队处于何种气氛?
4. 我怎样吸引所有参与者(活跃或沉默的人)
5.共有多长时间?
6. 什么最适合这样的团队规模?
7. 有什么样的机会能实现关键目标?
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working on key objectives?
And when you have thought this through and have come up with ‘Plan A’ you will be well advised to have a ‘Plan B’ (because things change and facilitation is mostly a responsive role). And a ‘Plan Z’ will be handy too: an emergency plan that will work in almost any situation.
3 SITUATIONS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO ANTICIPATE
(You can even plan for these too!)
1. YOU ARE IN THE DARK
You know very little about the event you are about to review. You are reviewing an event at which you were not present. (You may have less information than usual, but you can still prepare a review for these situations.)
2. THE UNEXPECTED
Un ex p ected events o f ten captu re people’s interest and can become a more significant source of learning than the events you had planned or predicted. (You need to judge whether the surprise is a distraction or a welcome opportunity for learning.)
当你已经详细考虑上面的问题,并想出了一个 A 计划,你最好还要有一个 B 计划,因为事情会变化,而且辅导一般是反映式的。而 Z 计划也可能会派上用途:找一个能在大多数情况下都可以用的办法。
“Unexpected events often capture people's interest and can become a more significant source of learning than the events you had planned or predicted意外事项经常能捕捉人们的兴趣,而且有可能成为一个比你准备或预测的材料更有意义的资源”
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3. YOU ARE STUCK
All your options seem to run out. Or none of your options feel right. Or it feels like a brand new situation that you have never encountered before. You want to dial the facilitation hot line (or try strategy 5 described below).
6 WAYS OF FACILITATING ACTIVE LEARNING
1. BE A ROLE MODEL
Remember that groups will tend to copy how you behave. So think about what you want learners to do and set a good example of what it is like to be an active learner. Some examples:
• If you are asking participants to set learning goals, you can declare your own learning goals.
• You can join in active reviewing exercises as a part ic ipant ( tast ing your own medicine may not always be a good move, but it often is).
• Try to use demonstration rather than a pure verbal briefing. For example, with Action Replay you can demonstrate how to use the remote control and conduct
interviews before handing over the remote and the microphone.
Watch out. While joining in as a learner can be an influential facilitation strategy, it can be too influential if there are not also times when you let go, step back and leave space for others.
2. DESCRIBE YOUR CHANGING ROLE
The more different kinds of facilitation roles you take on (joining in, standing back, helping, not helping) the more confusing it can be for learners. The answer is not to cramp your style and limit yourself to one role. Quite the opposite: whenever it seems necessary, explain what your preferred role will be in the next learning process - and why. (This point is expanded later in ‘The Role of the Facilitator’ where I summarize John Heron’s model)
The more successful you are in helping groups grow and develop, the more you will want to adjust your role and relationship to best serve the group and their learning objectives. Spell out how your role can change at different stages of group development and at different stages of learning new skills.
Joining in as a learner can be an influential facilitation strategy, (but) it can be too influential if there are not also times when you let go…当你以一个学习者的身份加入,是一个有影响力的辅导策略。但如果不懂得什么时候放手、退一步,并给予学员学习的空间,那这些影响力就可能过犹不及了。
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3. LEAVE SPACE FOR LEARNING : Don’t be a space invader!)
What is NOT facilitative:
• Stepping into a problem-solving exercise with the solution.
• Being the main source of wisdom rather than letting participants look to their own source of wisdom – their experiences.
• Filling in the silence while people are thinking about the question you have just asked.
• Asking all the questions and not drawing out questions from learners.
• Telling participants what they should have done and should have learned.
• Generally being too busy, too helpful and too interfering.
Tell the teacher inside you to take a rest when you want participants to learn by reflecting on their experiences.
4. SHARE OUT OPPORTUNITIES AND INVOLVE EVERYONE
Although a discussion circle looks very democratic, a closer look usually finds that the discussion is being dominated by
演一种角色。相反,无论什么时候,一旦觉得有必要,解释在下一个学习阶段你将要扮演的角色以及原因。(这点在我总结了 John Heron 模式的《辅导者角色》中将被扩展)
a few: it is effectively becomes ‘theatre in the round’ with a few people performing while the rest spectate. Of course you can try making it more participative by persuading ‘spectators’ to get up ‘on
stage’, but it is smarter (and more effective) to f ind ‘stages’ on which everyone is happy to perform. See ‘Turn taking in Group Reviews’ for better ways of sharing out opportunities and involving everyone.
5. USE TRANSPARENT FACILITATION
If you face a facilitation problem and you feel a bit stuck and are wondering what will be the best course of action ... you are not alone. For a start there are probably different voices in your head - and you can choose to tell the group about (some of) these voices.
And if you have no voices in your head, you can tell the group about that too. And there are the voices of the participants too. You are not throwing yourself at the mercy of the group. You are using a very deliberate strategy of presenting a problem to the group (a problem that might affect them more than it does you). And you are consulting with them about the best course of action. You are inviting
“If you face a facilitation problem and you feel a bit stuck and are wondering what will be the best course of action ...you are not alone如果你面对辅导难题,感觉思路堵塞,并疑惑于什么才是这个课程最好的行动,别担心,你并不孤独”
5、使用简单易明的辅导方法
如果你面对辅导难题,感觉思路堵塞,并疑惑于什么才是这个课程最
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them to be your facilitation advisory committee...
Mmmm - perhaps that one is a step too far, but I think you can see that such a st rategy i s very cons istent with empowering learners to take responsibility for their learning. It is a bit more facilitative than saying ‘I haven’t a clue’.
If you want to dig deeper into this approach of ‘over to you’, ‘what do you think?’ or ‘let’s work this out together’ then you may find some useful insights f rom John Heron in the Complete Facilitator’s Handbook where he describes the value of moving around between three basic facilitation modes: hierarchical, cooperative, and autonomous.
6. DELEGATE FACILITATION
Question. When you work with groups how many facilitators are there?
Answer. Everyone! All influence each other’s approach to learning through their motivation, curiosity, support, example etc.
So? Bring this to participants’ attention. Praise facilitative behaviour and give opportunities for participants to praise
Praise facilitative behaviour and give opportunities for participants to praise each other's facilitative behaviour鼓励促进(学员的)辅导行为并给予机会让参加者能称赞其他人所表现出辅导行为
6、分配辅导任务
问题:当你跟一组人在学习时,那里有多少位辅导员?
答案:每一个都是辅导员!通过
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each other’s facilitative behaviour. Assign responsibilities for facilitating eg using learning buddies, coaching (in ‘Goal Keepers’), giving feedback or facilitating reviewing (such as in Simultaneous Survey).
Facilitating Experiential Learning
Most experiential learning theory is clear about what learners do after their ‘’experience’’: they reflect, interpret, and experiment. But experiential learning theory is less clear about what role (if any) facilitators should play in this process. The principles, strategies, and tactics of facilitation cannot be deduced from experiential learning theory alone: We also need a theory of facilitation. A facilitator who makes deliberate moves among Heron’s three modes of decision making (hierarchical, co-operative and autonomous) also frees up learners to be more mobile and responsible in how they exercise and share power. Such mobility helps to make debriefing and learning more dynamic, versatile, and effective.