Why should we facilitate a conversation on facilitation?

 

What?

A vital difference in K-12 learning and much of adult learning, specifically non-formal adult learning, is the voluntary role they play as students. Adult learners may be required to take courses or attend seminars for maybe a job or volunteer role, but they play a larger part in decision making where their lifelong learning journey leads. It is because of this overarching ideal that they tend to need to feel more involved in their learning. In a sense, it is simpler to tell a small child that their teacher has this knowledge and experience to bestow upon them, whereas an adult will have their own experiences to draw from and possibly different points of view to connect their new knowledge too. Evolving from a “traditional” teacher dynamic to a facilitator dynamic can work to foster this relationship.

So, what?

While teachers can be facilitators, the teaching and facilitation have many differences from one another. For starters, in teaching, the learning is controlled primarily by the teacher and there are less involvement from the entire group. In contrast, facilitation allows everyone to share ideals and interpretations of the core concepts and there is shared investment in the group’s learning. While facilitation and teaching do not have to be mutually exclusive in a single setting, older audiences are able to thrive off more facilitation, whereas younger audiences may struggle to self-learn the way facilitation needs and allows. Facilitation is very critical, too, in the online learning space; Being unable to control how teaching is perceived through a monitor, makes it imperative to create an engaging environment that breeds active collaboration and constructive conversations based around the goals set by the facilitator. Facilitation, when executed well, can foster more creative and critical thinking and increase individual investment, as it gives them opportunities to not only apply the concepts they are learning to their own experiences, but to see how the concepts matter and can be applied to others in their class (perhaps even the facilitator).

Now what?

It may be a difficult pivot for some teachers in traditional settings to, in a way, let go of the power that comes with the teacher-centered learning structure. However, facilitation may help adults find meaning in the material, especially if they were lacking initial motivation. Understanding their student’s motivation can, in turn, help the facilitator guide the concepts and apply them in ways that seemingly pique the interest of their students. Essentially, if learning was a bus and normal teaching puts the teacher in the driver seat and everyone else in the back, facilitating has the instructor pressing the pedals, and students sharing who steers.