The Teacher as Facilitator

In the context of working with older adults, we prefer to use the term facilitator, meaning simply 'someone who makes things easier.' And thank goodness. Learning is, for many, hard work, and facilitating learning is also hard work, requiring a more dynamic and interactive engagement between teachers and students. Making learning easier for people, and more exciting, relevant, and fun are central to the role of facilitator. Furthermore, facilitating group learning is a highly skilled activity, requiring a different kind of understanding and a wide repertoire of skills for different contexts and different formats.

While we may not know how to facilitate learning effectively, we all know when we have experienced good or bad facilitation. The following descriptions were given by students in Education 351:

• To describe bad facadation: bonng, opinionated, unapproachable, disorganized, belittling, poor location, no participation, gender segregation, no control of time, ambiguous, stress-inducing, too expensive, vain, not clear, fake, robotic, narrow-minded, non-supportive, narrow-minded, authoritarian, sexist, disrespectful, distracted, insensitive to the group, no personal or practical input.
• To describe good facilitation: preparation, challenge, humour, enthusiasm, participation, sense of theatre, drama, energetic, variety, format/content pacing, collaboration, sharing of power, opportunities for sharing and feedback, encouraging optimism, positive, optimistic, encouraging, personable, comfortable, safe, nonthreatening, no smoking, lots of water, interested in the subject, timing, making sure everyone is acknowledged, don't judge, clear instructions, people friendly, tension friendly, focus friendly, time friendly, constructive.

Stephen Brookfield is an important contributor to the theory and practice of adult learning. His (1986b) approach to facilitating learning is based on a critical philosophy that regards learning as a value-laden activity It sees education as a powerful socialization process, capable of confirming values and behaviours previously accepted or prompting people to challenge the validity of beliefs and assumptions that control their behaviour and affect the quality of their lives.

Developing in adults a sense of their personal power and self-worth is seen as a fundamental purpose of all education and training efforts Only if such a sense of individual empowerment is realized will adults possess the emotional strength to challenge behaviours, values, and beliefs accepted uncritically by a majority. With this developing sense of self-worth in the individual comes an awareness of the contextuality of knowledge and beliefs. The task of the educator, then, becomes that of encouraging adults to perceive the relative, contextual nature of previously unquestioned givens. Additionally, the educator should assist the adult to reflect on the manner in which values, beliefs, and behaviours previously deemed unchallengeable can be critically analyzed. Through presenting alternative ways of interpreting and creating the world to adults, the educator fosters a willingness to consider alternative ways of living (Brookfield, 1986c, pp. 283-284).

Most practitioners would characterize effective facilitation as embodying factors such as respect for participants, commitment to collaborative modes of program development, and acknowledgement of the value of life experience. The essence of facilitation, according to Brookfield, is an element of critical analysis that is not common to adult education practice. One of the primary functions of the book Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning is to place this form of teaching and learning-challenging the learner to reflect critically on his or her assumptions, beliefs, and behaviours-at the heart of good facilitation.

In this last week of unit 3, we are going to look more closely at the role of the facilitator in four different contexts:

• Facilitating self-directed learning;
• Facilitating a workshop;
• Facilitating or chairing a formal group presentation,
• Facilitating an older adult learning program.