Reply to:   Practitioners as Co-learners
Hello colleagues, 
July is quickly coming to an end, and the lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us.  Perhaps between taking some well deserved time off, you may have a few minutes to contribute to our discussion on Practitioners as Co-learners.  Sandy Strunk suggested that rather than writing a lengthy posting on the topic of Program Improvement through Collaborative Learning, that I, instead, pose a few questions.

What does the concept 'practitioner as co-learner' mean to you? I've often heard that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught. Does this ring true in your experience? Have you ever been taught by a teacher who assumed the role of a co-learner?  What was that experience like?  What assumptions about teaching and learning do we practitioners carry into our classrooms?  How do our previous experiences shape our approach to our work?

As I've thought about the concept 'practitioners as co-learners,' I've concluded that our work as adult literacy practitioners entails a kind of artful balance.  Learners come to us with expectations based on a lifetime of experiences, including experiences with schooling.  If I, as a teacher, embrace my role as a co-learner, how might I organize my class so that the adult learners I am working with can understand and benefit from my approach?  Since teachers and learners bring clear ideas about teaching and learning, it is my view that it is important to create spaces in the classroom for conversations about our assumptions and beliefs.

As someone who provides professional development to adult literacy practitioners, I would also like to take a stance as a co-learner with the practitioners I work with.  What should such professional development look like to assist practitioners to grapple with these ideas about our roles?  What would it mean, in a program improvement context, to strike such an artful balance?

All the best,   
Susan Finn Miller
SEPDC and Lancaster Lebanon IU 13
Adult Basic and Family Literacy Education
1110 Enterprise Road
East Petersburg, PA  17520
(717) 519-1007
fax: 717-560-6150
susanfinn_miller at iu13.org