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(Un)Teaching
2013-Dec-16, Monday 03:34 pmI was at the hackerspace talking to Julie and Aoife about our plans for workshops/courses in the new year and we digressed into talking about teaching/mentoring methods in our informal group settings. Here's a few things I've picked up along the way;
1. Set expectations at the start. Explicitly state things like; no learning objectives, self-directed/motivated learning, no course-work, not traditional classroom scenario, here to help not to make you learn/work. Ask if attendees have particular thoughts/concerns not mentioned. Because if reality doesn't match peoples expectations they can get confused and/or frustrated/angry. Clearing this up means people can buy-in, or opt-out altogether.
2. Particularly with children, it can be helpful to get the group to create a set of group-behavioural-guide or code-of-conduct. Things like; don't interrupt, listen to others, don't be shy, ask any question no matter how 'small', don't skip breaks, anything the group thinks is important. When created by the group they are also often enforced by the group.
3. Sometimes forcing attendees into groups can help them learn better, especially if they're normally very quiet. I find this is more difficult with adults, but it could be worth exploring further. Don't hesitate to go, you-you-you one group, or maybe one-two-three-one-two-three, now all the ones are one group, twos are another, etc.
4. Give people just enough information to get started, then answer questions as they get to them. (But make sure to give them the roadmap for the session.) This increases active participation, stops info-dumps, and prevents people feeling overwhelmed. I suspect the associative nature of the learning will help people retain the information better as well.
But it's an endlessly fascinating subject, so I'm curious to find out what things you found worked for you? Either as attendee or teacher/mentor. Any tips, suggestions?
1. Set expectations at the start. Explicitly state things like; no learning objectives, self-directed/motivated learning, no course-work, not traditional classroom scenario, here to help not to make you learn/work. Ask if attendees have particular thoughts/concerns not mentioned. Because if reality doesn't match peoples expectations they can get confused and/or frustrated/angry. Clearing this up means people can buy-in, or opt-out altogether.
2. Particularly with children, it can be helpful to get the group to create a set of group-behavioural-guide or code-of-conduct. Things like; don't interrupt, listen to others, don't be shy, ask any question no matter how 'small', don't skip breaks, anything the group thinks is important. When created by the group they are also often enforced by the group.
3. Sometimes forcing attendees into groups can help them learn better, especially if they're normally very quiet. I find this is more difficult with adults, but it could be worth exploring further. Don't hesitate to go, you-you-you one group, or maybe one-two-three-one-two-three, now all the ones are one group, twos are another, etc.
4. Give people just enough information to get started, then answer questions as they get to them. (But make sure to give them the roadmap for the session.) This increases active participation, stops info-dumps, and prevents people feeling overwhelmed. I suspect the associative nature of the learning will help people retain the information better as well.
But it's an endlessly fascinating subject, so I'm curious to find out what things you found worked for you? Either as attendee or teacher/mentor. Any tips, suggestions?
