It always amazes me how many layers there are to the transfer of learning. A new facilitator who came to me to ask advice on her lesson plan, made me start thinking on the details of the strength enhancement we do in our organisations.
She had her plan, she had her timings straight. Her conceptual understanding was crystal clear. As I said to her later, if she went with what she had, put it up on the Internet and circulated it to the development world, she would have a full calendar for her workshops. Luckily for her, she was in the habit of listening well - both to herself as well as to whatever was going on around her and she asked me a critical question, that gave me the confidence to expand her exposure. She asked how the participants of her workshop would need to tweak what she taught and how she taught it such that it would make sense to their students. As we unravelled the answer to her question, we discovered that she may well be learning about how learning is transferred - an art and science that pedagogues are responsible for. In fact a subject expert is not strictly meant to know. Alas! We are rarely as meticulous when planning human resource development programmes.
To design a good workshop, there is the need for at least a content expert, a pedagogue and a qualitative researcher. The process begins with the identification of need, the specifics of the learner group and context, the objectives of learning, the determination of content, followed by an understanding of how the transfer of learning will occur. The young entrepreneur who consulted me, was the subject expert. She was acting on a brief to her from an organisation stating that she
Gen1Can - Partners in Pedagogy.
She had her plan, she had her timings straight. Her conceptual understanding was crystal clear. As I said to her later, if she went with what she had, put it up on the Internet and circulated it to the development world, she would have a full calendar for her workshops. Luckily for her, she was in the habit of listening well - both to herself as well as to whatever was going on around her and she asked me a critical question, that gave me the confidence to expand her exposure. She asked how the participants of her workshop would need to tweak what she taught and how she taught it such that it would make sense to their students. As we unravelled the answer to her question, we discovered that she may well be learning about how learning is transferred - an art and science that pedagogues are responsible for. In fact a subject expert is not strictly meant to know. Alas! We are rarely as meticulous when planning human resource development programmes.
To design a good workshop, there is the need for at least a content expert, a pedagogue and a qualitative researcher. The process begins with the identification of need, the specifics of the learner group and context, the objectives of learning, the determination of content, followed by an understanding of how the transfer of learning will occur. The young entrepreneur who consulted me, was the subject expert. She was acting on a brief to her from an organisation stating that she
Gen1Can - Partners in Pedagogy.
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