Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i1GLcoI21493; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:38:50 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:38:50 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <04245010.7FEBE0BA.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1041] Re: Light, not heat X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 2441 Lines: 25 In a message dated 2/16/2004 4:05:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, melissa_monti@iu13.org writes: > Andres says in his last paragraph below that one > should give the teachers/learners the space to figure out > what their students > need. What does this mean for professional development? This is something that I have done, although it has taken me a long time to learn it. When I do PD, I ask participants to sit in groups of people. I give them some info and then ask them questions. I then ask them to share the answers to the questions. that allows me and other's to fill in the gaps, and help answer some questions. Each group usually has a different task. It has taken me close to 10 years to convince our teachers to teach ABE in this fashion. They have been doing this for the past two years systematically. Retention and completions has improved radically. It has been hard for me to learn to do this. I love to get up and preach, and because I've been doing this and studying for quite a while, I can regurgitate a lot of info. My tendency, is to want to revert that mode whenever questions emerge in presentations. The trick is to learn not to, and to allow participants to come up with answers. The Freirian concept of "teacher as facilitator of learning" really applies. We must figure out the way for participants, learners to discover their own answers. We must provide the minimum amount of info for them to successfully do this. I spent the last 12 months traveling around the US and doing health literacy trainings. It has been a learning experience for me in trying to find a balance between lecturing and letting go. If I lecture too much, I get some evaluations that state: "I already know this, move on" If I let the participants interact on their own too much, I get some evaluations that state: " We need more info, this workshop needs to be longer" So, there is always the pull, between lecturing too long, or letting the students do all the work. The art is in the balance. Montessori used to say that the best teachers are the invisible ones. The best teachers ought to never get thanked because the students need to feel that they are discovering,learning everything on their own. Yet, teachers need to create ideal spaces for this to happen, and they need to be alert and ready to jump in whenever their help is needed. Piece of cake, Huh? Andres go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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