A guide to facilitating networks

A Guide to Facilitating Learning Networks At this stage the material is not for distribution because the status of the document is DRAFT for Readers. Please do not quote without the author consent. Bill Lucas, Michelle Anderson and Niki Thomas National College for School Leadership Networked Learning Group A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Contents Page Introduction Part 1 Making sense of facilitation 1.1 Key terms and roles 1.2 How facilitation began 1.3 How people behave in groups 1.4 Learning theory and facilitation 1.5 Leadership theories and learning networks 1.6 Different approaches to facilitation Part 2 Becoming a confident facilitator 2.1 How to plan a session 2.2 How to get the best out of the space 2.3 How to develop and use a range of techniques 2.4 Developing a learning community over time 2.5 Checklist for facilitators 2.6 The characteristics of a good facilitator 2.7 Troubleshooting - difficult situations and how to handle them Useful resources 2 4 4 10 14 21 25 30 34 36 39 41 83 92 93 95 99 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 1 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Introduction Facilitation and networks Do staff from different kinds of schools want to come together and learn from each other? How do you share good ideas about what works well in schools? These were the kinds of questions that led to the creation of the Networked Learning Community initiative in September 2002. If you think that the answers to these questions are respectively “yes” and “through well-facilitated meetings”, then we hope that you will enjoy this guide. For good ideas to travel, networks are essential. Consequently networks are at the heart of the change agenda in schools today. At the same time as the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) has been developing them, many other communities of practice have grown up, putting practitioners at the heart of the school improvement movement. Networks take many different shapes. Some have been initiated by voluntary sector organisations, some by local authorities, some by universities or colleges and some by interested individual schools. For knowledge to be shared effectively, teachers are finding that the classic techniques in which they have been steeped – teaching, learning and attending meetings – are not enough. A new kind of collaboration is called for, one which can be best served by a relatively new style of working - facilitation. The description below is just one of hundreds of different views of what this might involve: “A facilitator is somebody who listens, somebody who can prioritise, take the pressure off the staff so that they can actually focus on certain issues…a lead learner, very much.” Co-leader Headteachers and Co-leaders have been asking NCSL for help to develop their skills of facilitation. In response to this the NCSL commissioned us – an ex school leader and independent writer, a researcher and a current headteacher to produce a practitioner‟s guide to the art and science of facilitation for school improvement. Our approach “I don‟t think that I have ever been in a network where real networked learning took place and led to systematic change. But this is essential for the development of authentic community leadership and school or community transformation.” Co-leader Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 2 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers This booklet combines theory and practice. Part 1 contains more theory than practice and could easily be read “in one sitting”. While Part 2 is very practical and is more likely to be dipped into as and when a specific need arises. Theory and practice are connected, wherever possible, throughout the guide. We hope that there will be many access points into this guide. We have conducted detailed research with head-teachers, teachers and the many others who make up school networks. This has enabled us to draw on the many rich experiences of those who have been engaged in facilitating and leading networks. As we have done so, we have become clearer that there are two senses of the word “facilitation” which matter. The first is about the development of the network and how this is enabled. The other one is more immediate. It concerns the specific needs of headteachers and others to facilitate a particular session. On such occasions there will be the extra challenge of working with people who may be “known” to you as colleagues, but not at all familiar as “co-learners”. We have also explored the emerging literature of facilitation and the more well-known theories of learning and leadership. The result is a synthesis of aspiration and reality which we hope you will find useful in leading systematic change authentically. [To follow - Acknowledgements from Readers] Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 3 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Section 1 Making sense of facilitation Coming up in this section:       a clear description of some of the key words a brief history of facilitation information on how people behave in groups some learning theory some ideas about leadership, and an outline of some different approaches to facilitation. 1.1 Key terms and roles In the last few years many new words have entered the educational lectionary. Some have political overtones (for example “earned autonomy”), others suggest a philosophical approach (like “co-leader” and “collaborative enquiry”) and a few are widely used in other walks of life but less well-known in educational circles. “Facilitation” and “facilitator” are two good examples of this latter category. Here are a few of the words and phrases which tend crop up when discussing the areas covered by this guide. Learning community A learning community is a group of people who come together for a defined purpose to share ideas and work together in ways which maximise their own development. In the context of this guide, the primary purpose of most learning communities is to improve the performance of the individuals and organisations involved in the community. Communities of learners are an established feature of adult learning, especially where a group of individuals is geographically dispersed but united by a common interest or profession. The idea of the learning community was given added impetus with the explosion of interest in knowledge management that occurred in the 1990s. The NCSL has contributed to the growth of interest in this concept by grounding a major element of its work – Networked Learning Communities – on this concept. Networked learning community “The new networked economy, although founded on technology, is built on relationships: „it starts with chips and ends with trust‟ ” New Rules for a New Economy, Kevin Kelly The addition of the word “networked” can at first glance be confusing. It brings to mind computers and the Internet. But in the context of the educational Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 4 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers subject matter covered by this guide it suggests a degree of knowledge sharing and cooperation between and within learning communities. “What we have learned in recent years about human learning [is] that it is at its best when in participatory, proactive, communal, collaborative, and given over to constructing meanings rather than receiving them.” The Culture of Education, Jerome Bruner Knowledge management The essence of knowledge management is the sharing of information, experiences and data of all kinds for the betterment of the individuals and organisations involved. The phrase “knowledge management” was first extensively used in the 1980s, largely in the USA (Chris Argyris, Peter Senge and Peter Drucker) in the Far East, (Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi) and in Scandinavia (Leif Edvinsson and Karl-Eric Sveiby). Some people challenge the idea that knowledge can be managed, preferring to think of it as being shared. But, whatever your stand-point, most people recognise that organisations thrive when knowledge is shared around those who work in it. This was also the point of much of the Peter Senge‟s thinking about the idea of the learning organisation and it is something that those involved in networked learning communities have found. Indeed Senge has argued that the ability to learn and gain leverage from learning is a critically important skill for future success. NCSL has suggested that there are four levels of knowledge or learning: personal (individuals involved in education), interpersonal (teams and groups), organisational (whole schools) and system-wide (the education system as whole). For capacity to be fully developed knowledge needs to be shared effectively across the whole system. Another way NCSL has looked at knowledge is exemplified by the Learning Model which underpins the networked learning community initiative. [Artwork: show three interlocking circles: Practitioner knowledge – we start from what people know; Publicly available knowledge – theory and research which is widely known; The knowledge we create together – the fruits of collaborative enquiry]. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 5 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers “Certain schools learn about something and say they do it, whereas the other schools – and we‟re only talking about seven other schools – don‟t find out about it until after the event. So I think that everybody should have the opportunity to take part. If they don‟t want to take part, if they want to step back that‟s fair enough, that‟s their decision…we need to know what‟s going on. We need to know what we are opting out of but it‟s got to be our decision.” HEI network link Of course knowledge is a source of power. So if knowledge is treated as a „commodity‟ then there is the risk of unequal power in an organisation. Our fieldwork suggests this can occur in a networked learning community when:  considering the steering group composition  one or two schools (or individuals) are identified by someone and participate in some form of continuous professional development or research and others only find out „after the event‟  there are breakdowns in communication. NCSL has also recognised that knowledge is socially constructed (human beings are social animals), distributed (schools depend on learning at all levels and types of staff) and situated (schools are very particular institutions; what works elsewhere may not always be true in a school!) Collaborative enquiry The essence of collaborative enquiry, as its name suggests, is the exploration of shared interests with a focus on action-oriented projects which draw on evidence provided by participants. In a school context collaborative enquiry embraces “action research” (where schools use a range of methods to assess the impact of different approaches), “action learning” (a form of real life problem solving developed by Reg Revans and explored in more detail on pages xx and yy) and “appreciative enquiry” (experiments in organisational design and development originating in the private sector). Many networked learning communities have found that this blend of approaches provides rich insights for those engaged in school improvement. The Levels of Learning activity developed by NCSL for use by networked learning communities is a good example of this approach and one which has been widely used and valued. Dialogue Dialogue is a special kind of conversation in which participants actively seek to share and learn in a non-adversarial, open way, often with the help of a facilitator. This is quite a shift for many groups of people to make. They are used to competing for resources and may be more adept at arguing a case Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 6 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers than listening to other points of view. Dialogue is different from debate in that it assumes there may be no one right answer, is collaborative (rather than combative), is about finding common ground and is about listening. Dialogue involves genuinely trying to look at all points of view to get the best possible solution. David Bohm is credited with introducing the modern approach to dialogue in the 1980s, and many educational and for profit organisations have begun to see the value to be derived from the kind of approach to sharing knowledge which he advocated. Co-leader A co-leader is one of two (or more) leaders who together lead an enterprise of some kind. This normally involves a conscious decision to ensure complementarity of skills and clarity of functions to ensure that two heads are better than one. While businesses have long found that a combination of a chairing role and a chief executive work well, the concept of co-leadership is less common in education. For more on this, see pages xx and yy. Networked learning communities have developed the idea of the co-leader in a number of different ways. Co-leaders often have a formalised external or internal role. In some cases there are several co-leaders, with two of these nominated, for pragmatic reasons, as the co-leaders. Head-teachers who have experienced the co-leader role report that it is both energising and daunting. They are finding that what they learn from the experience is also of use in their more conventional headteacher leadership roles. “There‟s hardly any correlation between headteacher and co-leader…a lot more people have got shared responsibility.” Co-leader Co-leadership is a feature of all networked learning communities and, according to participants, was not a concept that was understood when starting out. As Barbara Spender highlights, Co-leaders in the networked learning communities programme have identified four key aspects of their role: 1. providing intellectual leadership 2. remaining sensitive to individual circumstances 3. knowing when to “drive” and when to “let go” so that other can take the opportunity to lead, and 4. maintaining a coherent overall vision. See pages xx and yy for more on this and other approaches to leadership. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 7 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Distributed leadership Distributed leadership is an idea that recognises that leadership is exercised by individuals and groups who have recognised roles as well as those who do not. It is an approach to leading, increasingly common in schools and other organisations, which involves sharing roles and tasks in a variety of different ways. It assumes that the idea of finding all the leadership attributes necessary for any one situation in one person is an unlikely one. “If the conversation is only at headteacher level, then it‟s very limited” Headteacher In the context of networked learning communities, for example, there are various emerging models: [Artwork: set this as a chart Aggregated – multiple leaders, for example, lead learners of focus groups Delegated – each member of a steering group taking on a portfolio of roles Shared – headteachers who formalise their responsibility for all not just their own school Formal and informal – all people are expected to facilitate and lead a network‟s development and sustainability Exceptional – particular roles at particular times of a networks development, for example, dynamic enthusiasm in the start-up phase] The concept of distributed leadership is explored more fully on pages xx and yy. Lead learner Lead Learner has begun to be used by some as a synonym for “headteacher”. Those who use it tend to be making a deliberate statement about their belief in the importance of understanding learning as well as knowing about school management. Lead learners tend to “model” those habits which they believe to be indicative of effective learners. Our research has suggested that the concept of lead learner is itself one, in a variety of different titles, that is being widely explored in networks. There is a sense in which a newly qualified teacher, can, for example, take a lead as a learner on various occasions. Critical friend A critical friend is a trusted person who works with an individual or a group asking good questions and acting as a sounding board and alternative perspective. Critical friends are genuinely interested in and knowledgeable about the enterprise they are supporting, but also detached from it. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 8 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Organisations of all kinds are increasingly recognising the value of this role in clarifying issues, improving quality and acting as a sanity check to all those involved. Some networks describe the critical friend role as a “Network to Network” consultant because this type of role acts a broker for the exchange of new ideas and contacts. “Enthusiasts very often get carried away with what they‟ve done, the idea, and miss some of the underlying things. Enthusiasts are great but they can also be dangerous as well in that they want to shoot off to the next initiative.” Headteacher Facilitator A facilitator is someone skilled in learning method and group dynamics, who makes it easier for groups of people to work and learn together for an agreed purpose. Networked learning communities often think of a facilitator as being either internal or external to a network of schools. In the context of networked learning communities the role of facilitator and coleader can become blurred, for example where it is the co-leader who is often playing the facilitator role. Facilitation tends to work best when facilitators shape and frame but do not lead. Allowing a group to work though its issues is likely to help the group to grow and become sustainable, becoming less dependent on any one or two individuals. The idea of facilitation developed during the second half of the last century (see pages xx and yy for a fuller description of this.) Activity What has your experience of facilitation been like so far? Where has it worked well? Where less successfully? Why do you think this was? What is the difference between facilitation and co-leadership? Can you think of situations where these two roles have become blurred in your network? What happened? What has your experience been so far of each of the key words outlined in this section: critical friend, N2N consultant, lead learner, distributed leadership, co-leader, dialogue, collaborative enquiry, knowledge management, networked learning community, learning community? What other terms have you found helpful? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 9 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1.2 How facilitation began Although some of the techniques used in facilitation have been used for many hundreds of years (for example in Quaker meetings), using a facilitator in meetings and at events of the kind that many networked learning communities have run has largely evolved in the last fifty years. The history of facilitation is intertwined with the community participation movement, with developments in psychology, with concepts of organisational development like the learning organisation and quality circles, with the idea of knowledge management and, most recently, with the concept of social capital. “At its heart facilitation is about promoting participation, ensuring equity and building trust.” The Power of Protocols: an educator‟s guide to better practice, Joseph McDonald et al A common strand throughout the development of facilitation is a belief that there are some ways of working collaboratively in groups which tend to be more effective than others. In the 1960s, Shirley Arnstein developed the idea of a Ladder of Participation to describe different kinds of community participation in planning in the USA: [Artwork: chart as follows 8. Citizen control 7. Delegated power 6. Partnership 5. Placation 4. Consultation 3. Informing 2. Therapy 1. Manipulation Citizen power Tokenism Non-participation She showed that the more individuals are engaged, the more effectively they can participate. This idea is at the heart of the development of facilitation. That there are various levels and types of engagement and that the decision about which approach you adopt is a political one was, arguably, first developed by John Dewey. For Dewey believed that education must engage with and reflect on real world experience and was a passionate advocacy of democratic decision making. This approach was further developed by Paulo Freire whose approach to encouraging communities to work together using dialogue to develop their agendas foreshadows the work of many school improvement networks. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 10 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers In the 1990s this kind of thinking was given added vigour by Robert Putnam in his exploration of “social capital”. Putman argues that social interaction enables people to develop and build communities. Individuals and society benefit in a number of different and reciprocal ways as mutual understanding and a greater sense of shared values emerge, which in turn lead to changes in attitudes and behaviour. His arguments are now widely accepted in other spheres. “Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions... Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together.” The World Bank, 1999 There is a sense in which school improvement networks are the glue which holds the wider educational system together. Within networked learning communities building social capital involves reciprocity of support. [first name to follow] Langford et al, developed the following descriptions of support attributes while studying teams in nursing:      Social – interpersonal relationships Emotional – feeling of belonging and accepted Instrumental – doing something to assist another team member Informational – problem-solving skills and knowledge in times of stress Appraisal – self-evaluation of values, norms, expectations. Langford and colleagues argue that if people perceive this type of support is not forthcoming from other team members then this will negatively affect the functioning of a team. The educational psychology for such liberating approaches to education is provided by a number of individuals. Abraham Maslow showed how there are various different levels of motivation. His “hierarchy of needs” reminds us that to be able to reach our potential we need to have our more basic needs satisfied first. [Artwork; show as a pyramid with one phrase per level of the pyramid, and Physiological needs at the bottom Self-actualisation – fulfilment and creativity Esteem needs – approval and recognition Belonging needs – love, affection and respect Safety needs – free from danger in a safe home Physiological needs – hunger, thirst etc] Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 11 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Effective facilitators need to be particularly mindful of the different states of mind of those whom they are facilitating. A practical example of this approach would be the understanding that a headteacher whose school had a leaking roof, was in “special measures” and was in dispute with the local authority might find it very difficult to contribute fully to a networked learning community event! Facilitation assumes that the experience of individuals is a resource to be tapped for the benefit of all. And David Kolb is one of a number of thinkers who have helped to shape the idea of the importance of experiential learning. Kolb shows how we learn by experiencing something, reflecting on it, forming a hypothesis and then trying it out in the real world. Facilitators constantly seek to draw on the experiences of individuals, help them to reflect, create opportunities for them to construct hypotheses and then provide a framework for these to be taken forward. [Artwork: Show these four elements as a cycle: Concrete experience Observation and reflection Abstract concepts Testing in new situations] In the last fifty years there has been much new thinking about how organisations and teams “learn” which is of relevance to facilitation. It has become clearer that there are certain ways in which organisations can organise themselves so that the learning is “facilitated” and shared rather than frustrated or blocked. In the 1980s. the Total Quality Management movement in the USA drew from the experiences of Japanese workers to create the idea of Quality Circles. In these, groups of workers come together to reflect on work problems and create solutions to them. In many cases these developed into facilitated sessions where improving quality was the focus of attention. At about the same time, Chris Argyris, with his colleague Donald Schon, began to describe two different kinds of learning that go on in organisations, single loop and double loop. One is short term and immediate (single loop) while the other – the more fundamental one – deals with fixing systems for the longer term (double loop). Double loop learning involves understanding the underlying system rather than dealing with incidents as if they were unconnected. It is a powerful kind of thinking and often requires facilitation to bring it about. Double loop learning underpins the idea of the “learning organisation” a concept with which Peter Senge is largely credited for inventing. Senge describes four elements: 1. personal mastery (individual lifelong learning), 2. mental models (assumptions and beliefs) Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 12 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 3. building a shared vision (using dialogue to ensure the full engagement of employees) 4. team learning (collaborative working which allows the group intelligence to be larger than any one individual‟s!). The third and fourth elements of Senge‟s model are almost bound to involve facilitation of some kind. Activity From your experiences of facilitation to date, in what ways is it different from teaching or training? Which situations work best when they have a facilitator? What can school leaders learn from the skills involved in facilitation? “The kind of talking needed to educate ourselves cannot rise spontaneously and unaided from just talking. It needs to be carefully planned and scaffolded.” Critical Friend Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 13 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1.3 How people behave in groups Human beings are social animals. We thrive by teaming up with other people. But we also have personal needs which can sometimes conflict with our need to belong. The consequence of this tension can be seen in the literature of the psychology of groups. Any one seeking to facilitate a learning network will be well-advised to have a basic understanding of the way people behave in groups! “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.” Friedrich Nietzsche Activity Before you read this section, make a list of any examples of behaviour by colleagues in your learning network which struck you as odd (or insane)! As you read, see if you can begin to account for it with any of the explanations we have made. Status behaviours Watch a group of dogs running around the park and you will begin to see how some are more dominant than others. It‟s similar with any gang of children at play. And it‟s the same in any gathering of adults. As social animals, we are never far from our tribal roots, with all that this implies for our status in the group. Status for adults can be derived from all sorts of sources – wealth, knowledge, skills, hierarchical position, gender, age, size, appearance and so on. In any learning community, some individuals will perceive that they have higher status than others. It could be a long-serving headteacher, an experienced senior adviser or a newly qualified fast track graduate or anyone else for that matter. In a group without a facilitator, those who perceive themselves as having higher status tend to get more air-time. Their opinions are weighted as having more importance. They tend to take control of processes, assuming that it is appropriate to “do it their way”. It is particularly important to address status behaviours when you are: a] dealing with one-off sessions where participants have less time to get to know each other b] working in unfamiliar break-out groups. As an effective facilitator you may like to:  establish that everyone‟s opinions have equal status  notice those individuals who try to pull rank  have a number of strategies for dealing with status behaviours, (see section 2 for some suggestions). Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 14 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Pressure to conform Why is it that perfectly sensible people go along with things in a group that they would never agree to if they were on their own? The answer to this question is the strange phenomenon of “group-think”. In a famous experiment in the 1950s, researcher Solomon Asch first described this phenomenon. Asch gathered together seven people of whom six were his associates. He showed them a display which asked them to compare the length of a line he had drawn with other lines of differing length. His associates were told to choose one particular line which was clearly not the same length as the original. His findings proved the power of group-think. Only 25% held out for their own view, 30% adopted the incorrect view of the associates and 45% wavered between their own and the others‟ views. Interestingly, the lower the status of the individual, the more likely he or she was to adopt other people‟s views. The group-think effect can be seen to a lesser extent whenever groups of similar professionals get together. Accountants, doctors - even teachers – have all learned certain patterns of behaviour which tend to condition their responses! This can lead to illusions of invulnerability, unsound attempts at collective rationalisation and stereotypical responses. In an accelerated form this can even be seen in brainstorming sessions, once thought of as a means of freeing up less predictable thoughts, where a particularly way-out idea tends to generate a stream of similar ones. (For more on brainstorming, see page xx). [Art-work: wherever there are tips, use a similar layout/colour wash background] As an effective facilitator you may like to:  make sure that everyone introduces themselves properly so that people are seen as individuals  use anonymous voting or opinion-giving methods if you want to ensure that status is not an issue when dealing with contentious issues. Individual learning styles While we sometimes lose our capacity to think for ourselves in a group, we often retain our distinctive personality traits. With regard to learning there is a well-established literature of learning styles which seeks to account for the kinds of preferences we all exhibit. A good example of these is the learning styles developed by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford in the 1980s and widely used in organisations today. Honey and Mumford draw on the work of David Kolb and others to suggest four distinct learning styles: Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 15 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Activist Reflector Theorist, and Pragmatist. As the names suggest, two of these “types” are more about thinking and two more about doing. Of course, to be an effective learner you need to be able to learn in all four styles, depending on the situation you find yourself in. These learning styles will be most apparent whenever people are working in groups together. Activists will tend to jump to their feet to try something out, where reflectors will still be mulling over the instructions. Theorists are often reluctant to embark on an activity until the point of it is clear and the proposed method has been justified. Pragmatists will tend to adapt to the circumstance in which they find themselves. It is worth saying that the validity of learning styles data has been questioned by various people, most recently by research undertaken by Frank Coffield. Nevertheless empirical data suggests that most people find the approach roughly right enough to be helpful. Another current way describing learner preference is the acronym VAK – visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. These words are really being used to describe someone‟s preferred method of data input rather than any particular learning style. In other words, whether they tend to prefer taking in data by watching, listening or getting up and try things out. It is helpful for a facilitator to ensure that there is a balance of methods in any one session. As an effective facilitator you may like to:  be aware of these (and other) very different learning styles  always seek to be clear about the purpose of any activity and explain your choice of method  offer choices of methods wherever possible. Role modelling If a parent exhibits high levels of anxiety about school, her child may do the same. When teachers model their love of learning by talking about a favourite novel to their class, there is a good chance that pupils will pick up on this. If a facilitator chooses to humiliate a participant, then this may become an accepted way of behaving in the wider group. For, in any group, individuals tend to model their behaviours on its dominant members. The role of the facilitator (or co-leader), as someone with a clearly important role is, consequently, particularly important in: a] setting the tone and, b] from time to time, challenging the behaviour of participants if it is ever unacceptable. As an effective facilitator you may like to:  always try and use people‟s names 16 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers   focus on behaviour and not on personality show what you want people to do, rather than criticising them when you do not like what you see. Roles people play It was not until the 1920s that the first serious research was undertaken into groups in the workplace. The Western Electric Company in the USA started a series of investigations at its Hawthorn plant, experiments which are now known as the Hawthorn studies. Among other effects, the company found that after a while teams start to perform less well on repetitive tasks, “dumbing themselves down” to the lowest common denominator. It depends on how roles are allocated and how motivated individuals feel. In the 1980s, researcher Meredith Belbin noticed that the managers he was studying exhibited certain predictable kinds of behaviour. Belbin went on to identify three different clusters of behaviour which tended to be present in successful teams. These were: Action-oriented roles People-oriented roles Cerebral roles Shaper, Implementer, and Completer Finisher Co-ordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator Plant (The quiet ideas person), Monitor Evaluator and Specialist. His thinking is now widely used by managers across the world. Although networked learning communities are not conventional teams, Belbin‟s discovery of predictable roles is still helpful, albeit to be applied more flexibly. Whether at work or at home, it is all too easy to slip (or be cast into) into certain roles. These tend to reflect our personality, experiences or mood. Sometimes we are aware that we are adopting a role (being in defensive mode, for example). On other occasions, especially when it has become a habit in certain situations, we may become blind to our actions. We can also mall too easily adopt roles as a result of the position we hold. The roles people play in groups can be both helpful and counter-productive. This can be especially complex in a networked learning community where a number of participants already have strong working relationships and tend to fall into set roles whenever they work together. Activity The following is a list of some of the possible roles which you might encounter in a networked learning group. For each one try and define the main characteristics and then move on to thinking about how you would react to them if you were the facilitator. You might also like to refer to the chart below this list: Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 17 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Leader, Follower Challenger Joker Cynic Attention-seeker Energizer Blocker Pessimist Reality-checker Spokesperson Recorder Chair Cooordinator Know-it-all Manipulator Consensus-builder. [Artwork: Include NCSL chart on co-leadership that names co-leaders as e.g. drivers; directors, managers, pragmatists] As an effective facilitator you may like to:  notice clues from participant body language  spot individuals who are playing predictable roles and encourage the positive ones while providing alternatives for those which are counterproductive. How behaviour changes over time “We yield to popular pressure and clamour, first on the side of the instinct for progress, and then on the side of the habit of inertia.” The Education Situation, John Dewey Something happens to people as they work together over time. The way people behave changes. It was Bruce Tuckman in 1965 who first described a phenomenon of group dynamics which many people will have experienced. He noticed how they tend to go through various different stages in which the characteristic of their behaviour is very different and called this: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing. . [Artwork: Show as flow chart Forming – unclear roles, lots of experimentation and questioning, dependence on leaders Storming – tensions, power struggles, cliques Norming – consensus achieved, decision making and working practices agreed, facilitation working well Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 18 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Performing – shared vision, group working well with little direction from leaders, any issues are easily resolved.] Obviously the goal in any group such bas a networked learning community is to reach and then stay at the performing stage. In 1975, Tuckman added a fifth stage – Adjourning. This is the moment when the group breaks up and individuals go their own separate ways having completed their tasks. Tuckman‟s framework has since been expanded by others for example Bill Mulford in 2002 to include „dorming‟ („time-out‟ to take a breath, celebrate, recuperate and review next steps) and „mourning‟ (triggered at any time signifying experiences of a „loss‟; a disengagement). You can read more about the development of a learning community over time on pages xx and yy. As an effective facilitator you may like to:  lay down clear ground rules to ensure that the forming, norming and storming stages are short-lived  help a group to appreciate which “stage” they are at  help the group to realise that the stages they are going through are commonly experienced by other groups. The effect of group sizes The way we behave in influenced by the size of the group we are part of. The larger the group, the more complex are the possible relationships and interactions. In large groups: It is possible to “hide” More skills are available Rules and processes need to be clearer Clear facilitation is particularly important Individuals get less time to speak Sub-groups tend to form. In smaller groups: There is more chance to establish intimate relations Tasks get completed more quickly Individuals feel more valued One individual can dominate. An averaged-size networked learning community has about 12 schools and will usually include all staff, pupils and the wider school community (e.g. parents, governors). While the network will hold whole-network events even within these a facilitator or co-leader will tend to split people into smaller groups from time to time. Many people find that 5 people is an ideal group size. With 4 it is all to easy to have two isolated pairs and with 6 it can be hard 19 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers to ensure that each member has enough air-time to warrant the group working together as a whole. Effective groups No one group is the same. It is, therefore difficult to generalise too much about behaviour. Nevertheless it is possible to identify three areas of critical interest to most groups irrespective of their size or remit: 1. „P‟ - erformance – unless people feel that the group is achieving something they are unlikely to want to be part of it. 2. „P‟ - rocesses – unless there are clear roles, processes and structures time is wasted and energies are dissipated. 3. „P‟ - eople – unless individuals are valued and encouraged, then they are unlikely to be motivated. Within NLCs we have also found that two further „P‟s can be added: 4. „P‟ – urpose – unless the reason for getting together is clearly linked to a need for the group then it is unlikely to be sustained. 5. „P‟ – lace – unless the network creates a visible place for networked learning (e.g. inclusion in School Development Plan; joint CPD sessions; a dedicated office space or visual identity through a wall planner, newsletter, website) then it is likely to slip off the agenda. Activities Two key types of groups that networked learning communities are using to facilitate their knowledge development and sustainability are:  steering groups  enquiry / focus groups. Thinking about these (or other groups) talk about your own experiences of the ways in which people behave in your networked learning community and what you have learned from this. What kind of behaviours would you want to encourage in an effective learning community? And which ones would you want to discourage? You can read more about how this issue has been tackled by different networked learning communities in 2.4. What might you do differently as a result of reading this section? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 20 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1.4 Learning theory and facilitation Why should learning theory be relevant to any consideration of facilitation? Consider this. Imagine a society in which it was thought that knowledge should be held by a small number of people (let‟s call them experts or teachers) who would decide when and how it should be shared. In this world children would be sent to special institutions where they could be filled up with knowledge, like empty vessels, and then set loose on the world after they had passed certain tests. Once in the world of work, they would become apprentices, sitting at the feet of their master and learning how to do things by watching, listening and imitating. If you had grown up in such a society where the underlying theory of learning was that learning was a passive activity and essentially about the transfer of culture or skill from one generation to the next, then you might not have the first clue about what to do in today‟s society: a] as a facilitator, or b] as a participant in a networked learning community. For facilitation involves sharing ideas and the active exploration of new insights and approaches. It does not assume that there is necessarily one expert for any subject, but rather that collective exploration is a good thing. Of course it could never happen like this, could it?! “There‟s nothing so practical as a good theory.” Kurt Lewin “Our theories determine what we measure” Albert Einstein “Learning theory is an evil-smelling bog” Frank Coffield Being aware of some basic theories of learning can help you to facilitate more effectively. It may also help you to understand more about those you are working with. Of course too much theory may well weigh you down in the noxious bog that Frank Coffield imagines! Five broad views of learning The history of learning is extremely complex. Nevertheless it is possible to explore it by looking at five broad strands of thought. None of these exists in isolation from the other and many of these are inter-connected, but each one brings with it a set of attitudes that, as a facilitator, you may wish to be aware of, for the reasons which have already been suggested. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 21 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers The behaviourists Behaviourism is founded on the belief that learning takes place in response to changes on the learner‟s environment. One of the most famous examples of this is Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov‟s discovery that when dogs encounter food they begin to produce saliva or drool. Pavlov also found that dogs would drool if they heard a sound which they associated with feeding time, for example the ringing of a bell, whether or not there actually was food on offer. In other words, the behaviour of the dogs with regard to drooling could be controlled by changing the environment (ringing a bell.) BF Skinner and Edward Thorndike are also influential thinkers in this approach to learning. This theory has, for many people, been significantly discredited by Martin Seligman and others who have shown that it, although behaviours can all to easily become habitual, it is also possible to unlearn them. You can become helpless, dependent or pessimistic but equally you can choose to learn how to be resilient, autonomous and optimistic. This will involve rethinking the way you handle the things that happen to you. Behaviourists tend to ascribe considerable influence to the environment and the situation they find themselves in and underestimate the power of individuals to determine their own future. The cognitivists, Cognitive relates to the faculty of cognition (knowing, investigating, thinking). So you may encounter the use of the word “cognitive” as a contrast to the word “affective” where the comparison is between head and heart, thought and feeling. The cognitive theory of learning is mainly interested in the internal thought processes that we acquire through learning, the insights and perceptions we gain in our heads. Key thinkers in this area include Jean Piaget and Kurt Lewin. Also part of this view of learning is gestalt theory. This sees the importance of looking at wholes rather than parts. Gestalt theorists see the individual mind at the centre of it all, as opposed to the behaviourist theory of learning, which sees the environment as more important. The constructivists Constructivists assume that learners construct their own knowledge based on the way that they personally extract meaning from their experiences and beliefs (rather than, for example, being told what it is by someone else.) According to constructivists, learning is a process by which learners make sense of the world. This process is hugely shaped by previous experience. There is no such thing as absolute knowledge; knowledge is relative to the perspective of the learner. There are two particular implications for the learner of this theory. The first is that learners move to the centre of the stage; they are more important than Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 22 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers subjects. For people construct their own meaning and their perspective matters. The second is that learning involves doing. As with experiential learning, involvement is key. This theory was first suggested by John Dewey, but has subsequently been adopted and adapted by many other thinkers. Not surprisingly, constructivist theories are much cited by more progressive educators as they put the child rather than the school or school subjects at the centre of things. The humanists Humanists see learning is the key to self-fulfilment and growth. Each person in this theory has an unlimited potential for growth. Humanists do not accept that either the environment or your innate nature determines success in learning. Humanists tend to believe that we learn best when we are safe, confident, respected and empowered. Key advocates of this view include Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Social learners The social view is centred on valuing contact with other people. It assumes that learning happens through interaction with others and explores the different relationships in which this can happen. The degree to which you enjoy the social aspect of learning is likely to be related to the extent to which you are extrovert by nature. Lev Vygotsky‟s theories of language, culture and the zone of proximal development (the need for “scaffolded” support to stretch learners beyond their comfort zone) fit here (and also in the paragraph on cognitivists). Activity Looking at each of these five theories, think about the likely mind set of someone strongly holding any one of these kinds of views. What advantages does each one bring to you as a facilitator? And what might the disadvantages be? What are your own views? Espoused theory or theory in use? One other theory may be of interest at this stage. It concerns the way in which you do or do not put theories into practice in your life and was invented by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon. Your espoused theory is what you say you do. Your theory in use is what you actually do! We tend to have a mental map as to how we act in certain situations. The theories you actually use are what people know you by. They are much more powerful than anything you say you believe in. If there is a large gap between what you say you believe and what you actually do this tends to cause problems for those around you! So, for Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 23 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers example, if as facilitator you lay out ground rules which involve the showing of respect for all kinds of opinion and you consistently demonstrate your prejudice against a particular view point, then those around you will spot the theory you are actually using rather than the ones you say you believe in. Activity What do you believe about learning? Have you ever stopped to write this down? Why not take time to do so now? How would people see these theories in use in your life as a: a] facilitator b] co-leader c] headteacher d] teacher e] parent f] child How can you use Argyris and Schon‟s theory of action to good effect in your facilitation? What other theories of learning might be important to you as a facilitator? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 24 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1.5 Leadership theories and learning networks Networked learning communities have, by their advocacy of the idea of coleadership, placed a particular concept of leadership at the centre of the debate about educational leadership. “So much of our work in schools has been isolated and driven largely by other people‟s agendas. But this process has meant that we create our own vision for ourselves and through networking make those visions come about in reality.” Headteacher “My dealings with people I think have improved quite a lot since I started. I feel much more confident now in talking to people on a professional level and I think it‟s also not just my age – having just been out of University a year before starting this job – I hadn‟t had a lot of experience of that. It‟s fantastic because you‟re thrown in at the deep end, you‟ve got a room full of headteachers looking at you with that scrutinising expression that they have on their face and that can be quite intimidating.” Network Researcher/Developer Yet if you were to go into most schools today they would not know what a coleader was and, consequently, would not realise how different it is from other forms of leadership. Indeed there is no reason why they should or why they might be familiar with the theoretical base for the different approaches to leadership. Activity Look at the chart below which summarises some of the key approaches to leadership. Talk about people you know in leadership positions who seem to you to exemplify these different approaches. Do you think that certain situations tend to lead to certain types of leader in schools? Where do you think that the professional headship qualification sits with regard to these theories? And what about you? Can you describe yourself some of these words? [Artwork: set the descriptions below in a chart] Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 25 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers The theory Great man theory Key points Exceptional leaders are born not developed. Trait There are certain characteristics which leaders need. Some patterns of behaviour are more effective than others. Behaviourist Situational Contingency Transactional The kind of leader you need to be depends on the situation you are in, autocratic and decisive if you struggling to survive and participative if you want to bring people along with you. A refinement of situational approaches which explores the key variables in different kinds of situations There is an implied contract which is “transacted” between effective leaders and their “followers” Comment True perhaps for really exceptional leaders but plenty of evidence that it is possible to get better (or worse) as a leader. Assumes that leadership is a solo activity. There is a very long list of desirable traits and often no clarity about which are essential! Tends to lead to oversimplification. McGregor famously described two types of manager. Type X dislike work inherently, try to avoid it and need to be coerced, while Type Y see work as entirely natural and not the only arena in which talents can be demonstrated. Employees, according to Type Y managers will naturally seek out responsibility. As with the behaviourist approach, this can easily lead to stereo-typical thinking. Can assume that the variables are always the same in situations which are subtly different. Assumes you can work out the characteristics of the leader, the temperaments of the followers and the precise situation in which you find yourself and can seem overly practical and mechanistic to some. Recognises the importance of clarity of vision but tends Transformational Puts great emphasis on the visioning 26 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers capabilities of the leader Principled Assumes that certain attributes are more acceptable or desirable than others Group leadership – whether involving 2 or more people – is both possible and desirable in many circumstances. to place great emphasis on the individual Recognises that leadership carries moral responsibilities with it Assumes that leadership in complex situations is better when it is a collective act. Shared leadership Metaphors for leadership “A leader is like a shepherd; he stays behind the flock letting the most nimble go ahead whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind” Nelson Mandela Another way of viewing leadership is to think of the leader by association with other roles. Here is a selection of metaphors sometimes used:           shepherd organisational architect social architect moral agent community builder capacity creator learner servant follower facilitator. Which of these metaphors have the most powerful associations for you? Activity The idea of co-leadership “They were very pushy I have to say. Very good at it, very plausible, put it over really well, particularly in the beginning of a networked learning community. The way they sold it and the people they chose to sell it to.” Headteacher Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 27 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Co-leading involves a combination of knowledge-in-action. From earlier case studies, inquiry and various writing about co-leadership and facilitation in networked learning communities there seem to be four key dimensions used by co-leaders. These categories are not discrete and each seems to have a particular leadership theoretical emphasis. The last category of the list on page xx – shared leadership – provides the theoretical underpinning to the concept of co-leadership in networked learning communities. Chris Kubiak and Michelle Anderson; Jane Creasy and David Jackson; and Barbara Spender identify the four dimensions as: Co-ordination and planning: the importance of understanding different roles within any network and strong management and operational skills Developing people and processes: the need to be a driving force and evangelist, encouraging exploration and transformation Meeting emotional and social needs: the discernment of others‟ needs, the ability to make people feel valued and a coaching mentality. Creating a culture of evidence-led improvement: The creativity and critical judgement to test theories and change practice. Certain attributes seem to be more important than others for co-leaders. These include enthusiasm, energy, curiosity, communications skills, humour and the capacity to deal with complexity, ambiguity and contradictions. “I think probably one of the co-leaders was very supportive and pointed out how much there was to offer in our school, which maybe we had assumed everybody else was up to scratch on, which they weren‟t. And I think when he came to visit and he worked through things with myself and staff, it made us aware. Very simple things sometimes are the best and we had a very simple good practice going on here. It was the support from that co-leader that actually helped me.” Headteacher, Special School Underpinning effective co-leaders there seem to be a number of beliefs, including:       that leadership is essentially a distributed activity and one which everyone – from a teaching assistant to a headteacher – has the capacity to contribute that leadership involves failure and experimentation that there is value in diversity that building consensus is worthwhile that change is desirable and that you need to be clear about what you want to change if you are to make significant improvements that a degree of uncertainty is inevitable 28 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers   that leadership is itself a developmental activity that delegation is essential not optional. Using particular personal attributes and implementing dimensions of coleadership is a balancing act, an ongoing negotiation and learning experience. It often involves challenging long-held views and approaches. Activity What have you found to be the key dimensions of the co-leader role? Which beliefs underpin these? In what ways is a co-leader role differentiated from a headteacher role? If you are a co-leader, how do you see yourself? What are the most valuable attributes you bring to the role? And which attributes might you want to work on? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 29 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1.6 Different approaches to facilitation “What I mean by a facilitator is a person who has the role of empowering participants to learn in an experiential group.” John Heron in The Complete Facilitator‟s Handbook We have already seen that there are many different approaches to learning and to leadership. The same is true of facilitation. Which one you choose will depend on a number of factors, including:        your own personality your confidence and energy the size of the group the nature of the group the kind of activities or tasks being undertaken the time available, and the physical environment. This section attempts to help you to start thinking about the first two of these factors by asking you some questions and providing examples of different approaches for you to consider. (You can find out more about the more practical issues in Part 2 of this guide). Activity Do you agree with John Heron‟s definition above? Think of a specific example of something that you have facilitated in the past or something that you are planning to facilitate. Now look at the chart below. Ask your self ten questions about your possible approach, using the words below as prompts. (For example “Do you think a facilitator should be directive or non-directive?” etc) None of these has a yes/no answer. Each is more likely to be a question of degree. [Artwork: set this is a diagram with each word at the end of a continuum line, which is marked off into five segments] Directive __________________________ Non directive Interpretive __________________________ Non interpretive Confronting __________________________ Non confronting Cathartic __________________________ Non cathartic Structuring __________________________ Non structuring Disclosing __________________________ Non disclosing Involved __________________________ Detached Theoretical __________________________ Practical Expert __________________________ Non expert Visible __________________________ Invisible How you have answered these questions is likely to depend on a combination of factors including the list at the tops of this page! But for many people, it is Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 30 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers their own personality which is the deciding factor. Sometimes it is easier to choose methods which suit your natural l style when you are learning the craft of facilitation, progressing to less immediately suited methods as you gain in confidence. As with leadership, there are a number of metaphors which can be applied to facilitation which can help to crystallize your understanding of some of the choices which any facilitator has to make before embarking on a session. [Artwork: create images for these words: Conductor, Charismatic, Dancer, Midwife, Mediator, Coach, Critical friend, Secret Agent, Ghost] Activity Talk about these images. What does each one suggest to you about a style of facilitation? Think of people you know in your networked learning community (including yourself) and see if you can match any of the images to real people! What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches which they suggest? The image of the ghost above was included because it represents possibly the most radical of all approaches to facilitation, known as Open Space Technology. This approach, developed by Harrison Owen, assumes that the facilitator‟s job is to be as invisible as possible, skilled in the natural ebbing and flowing of large groups of people, and largely enabling the group to get on with things unaided. Aspects of facilitation Most thinkers about facilitation conclude that there are certain aspects of the activity which benefit from specific input from a facilitator. Here are six which draw on the work of John Heron. Each is illustrated with quotations from Networked Learning Communities [Artwork: Set as a table with quotations] 1. Planning The facilitator role is to work out how best to help a group achieve its objectives. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 31 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers “The network very quickly became too unwieldy for two people with other jobs, or five people with other jobs, or 25 people with other jobs, because the focus was removed. It was a decision early on, first of all to appoint [a business manager and network manager]” (Co-leader / Primary Headteacher) “They decided [the steering group] to have the third Tuesday of every month completely free of individual school meetings. This freed-up time for specialists to meet up across the network if they so desired.” (Critical Friend to Network) 2. Meaning The facilitator role is to find the best ways of extracting the experiences and knowledge of the individual member of the group. “I think a skill and ability to see a wider perspective than the school that you‟re working in. And it is an ability to take the wider picture and to translate it into practice. It‟s about taking those theories and seeing what does that look like when you‟re working with children.” Co-leader / Primary Headteacher “I set up a kind of research project [research on transition between primary and secondary] where I‟ve gone in and met with my old year 7s and asked them to tell me a little bit about how they felt about the move; how we could have prepared them better and what worked well and what didn‟t. I asked them to take part in a questionnaire for me and I then I analysed those results with the Head of the lower [secondary] school…I mean I talk about how it‟ll benefit this school but actually it‟s going to be how it‟s going to benefit the whole cluster” Teacher, Year 6 3. Challenge The facilitator role is to know when attitudes and statements need to be confronted for the good of the whole group. “He wasn‟t generative in mentioning who‟d sort of got it [the network] going and I don‟t think that went down too well. So I had to sort of quietly have a word with him and make sure that he did, when he was doing all these things, constantly remember. That sort of commonsense micro-political thing but very important really” Critical Friend to Network Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 32 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 4. Feeling The facilitator role is to be sensitive to the feelings and emotions which are present in an engaged group and skilled in allowing them to be explored without de-railing the work of the group. “Teachers have a lot of knowledge, professionalism, etc, but don‟t always have the confidence. They think there‟s something mystical about research in some way and it‟s a question of encouraging them to understand that some of the things involved are a matter of commonsense and objectivity and those kinds of things. A lot of interpersonal skills need to be involved. I‟m respectful of their office, communicative and encouraging, I hope.” HEI network contact 5. Structuring The facilitator role is to be confident in a good range of learning methods and group techniques (see Part 2) and work out how best the group‟s learning can be structured. “Through the co-leader work, I came across various publications which I put into a rack outside that‟s empty fortunately. I say to staff every staff meeting bring something you‟ve read from that publication, and that was a direct commitment from co-leader training. And it works. And we‟ve been doing that now for nearly two years.” Secondary Headteacher 6. Valuing The facilitator role is to respect the integrity and diversity of individuals and create a culture in which individuals can grow and be empowered. “Support staff are coming back absolutely buzzing. And it is giving us the confidence to break into lots of different things that are happening. And I really think artistically, creatively, through ICT, through many areas, they do have knock-on effects because it‟s enabling us and our children to see that they are valued within the community. And I think that‟s really important.” Headteacher, Special School Activity Think about your experiences of facilitating or being facilitated. Reflect on the six aspects listed above and the degree to which they have been effectively dealt with. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 33 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Section 2 Becoming a confident facilitator Coming up in this section:      guidance on planning a session thoughts on how to get the best out of the physical space a range of techniques for use in sessions useful checklists troubleshooting advice for those difficult moments! “According to research in cognitive psychology, teacher learning is an organic process rather than an accumulation of facts and discrete pieces of information. For teachers to assimilate new ideas into their knowledge base they need opportunities to pose questions, view situations from multiple perspectives, examine their personal beliefs and assumptions, and experiment with new approaches.” Collaborative analysis of student work, Ellen Langer et al Facilitated learning networks work! They enable people to come together question their experiences, learn from each other interactively and build new capacity. But it is clear from all those who have been involved in learning networks that the role of the facilitator is critically important in determining the degree of success in any one session. In Part 1 we outlined some of the relevant theory and concluded, on pages xx and yy, with some material to help you start to think about your own role as a facilitator. We now to become very practical, always, where appropriate, reminding you of any relevant underlying theory. In Part 2 we assume that you have explored some of the larger issues about your own personal preferences and style and have drawn some conclusions, at least in essence, about the kind of facilitator you want to be. The goal of this part is to help you to become confident in all aspects of facilitation. “Luck is where opportunity meets preparation” Denzel Washington “Chance favours a prepared mind” Louis Pasteur Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 34 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers If you have never acted as a facilitator, then the best way you can achieve this is through really careful preparation. And the same is equally true if you have many years of experience! Networked learning community members say that the following enablers and barrier are key to successful facilitation: Enablers “I think for too long now we have had courses laid on, whether it is at a local level or further a field. It‟s actually okay, you have some very standard training going on, but this is slightly deeper I think and thought provoking. And I like that, that‟s exciting. …” Special school headteacher Joint spaces that are formally recognised and facilitated so t participants can:  plan together (for example, “…the cleaners have as much say in the development plan as does the head teacher” )  train together (for example, use of interactive whiteboards; use of „talk2learn‟)  learn together (for example, Investors in People programme; Transforming learning; Collaborative Leadership Learning and Concept Café groups)  draw knowledge from joint data sources (for example, „My Voice‟ survey) “I‟m an ex-teacher. I flatter myself that I still remember some bits about it, enough to make myself informed, but I haven‟t actually taught in a classroom for five years now. The skill, the expertise, the knowledge, rests with practitioners, so you don‟t walk in and tell the teachers how to do it” HEI network link Learning is conceptualised as developmental. Including:  Action research which facilitates formal reflection  “buzzing about learning”  When learning is not perceived to cease because of role (for example, headteacher)  “Don‟t be afraid to ask questions, then again, the culture of a learning networked community should encourage that and should let people feel comfortable doing that.” (for example, questions about the language, policies and reasons behind things; about the long-term view and approaches) Barriers Facilitation is conceptualised as having something done for or to you. When network members perceive that the co-leader or other facilitator roles are there to provide for the network without recognising the reciprocity of the relationships this creates a number of barriers. 35 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.1 How to plan a session “One thing we would have done differently is to be more focused and specific on what we set out to achieve” Co-leader, The Leading Edge Network There are a number of conceptual and practical things which need to be organised before any session. They are set out in a flow chart below. Often networked learning communities have a planning group which work through these kind of issues with whoever will be facilitating the session. [Artwork: set as a flow chart] Agree the purpose of your session Write out the aim of your session What will it look and feel like if it is successful? Write this down, too What are you expecting from those attending? What do you want them to get from it? What will you do with the knowledge that is created in the session? Do your own research What do you know about the content of the session? How much preparation do you need to do? What learning methods might suit the content? Where will it be taking place? Does the space have any constraints? What happened last time the group met? What mood will they be likely to be in? What do you know about any particular individuals coming, especially any egos, feuds and sensitivities! Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 36 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Invite people properly Think of the session as if it were a party in your own home. This way you will really be treating people as your guests rather than leaving basic information to chance! Work out how far in advance to send out details. (Many networked learning communities find that an annual programme of facilitated sessions ensures better attendance) Make sure those attending have the location, timing, aims, preparatory materials, issues that they can start to think about and that they are clear about what they can do to contribute fully Ask about any dietary preferences. Check access issues. Make it easy for people to respond to you in advance of the day of the session Design the session You might like to look at the paragraph on Getting the mix right before reading this part of the flow chart Write the focus or objective in the centre of a large piece of paper. Also make a note of any other key issues about people or place. Jot down as many words or phrases as possible that come into your mind with regard to how you might organise the session Allocate rough timings to your emerging list of possible activities Do a rough draft and get some feedback Produce a timed agenda for yourself with clear notes about what you will be doing at each stage, especially any key transitions from one activity to the next Type up two versions of the programme, one for participants, one (the more detailed version) for you. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 37 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Getting the mix right A typical session might have these ingredients: Your welcome and thanks to anyone, especially if the venue has been provided by one of the participants Introductions, especially of any new members Practical information about loos, parking, fire alarms etc A clear reminder of the purpose of the session and any learning objectives The establishment of ground rules (or a reminder about them, if they have been agreed beforehand) A warm-up activity (see pages xx and yy for suggestions) A number of activities, each facilitated in a style and using a method which suits the content, the people and the available space. Various plenary moments when knowledge is shared A wrap-up, including outcomes, outputs, decisions (especially roles, responsibilities and timescales), next steps, next dates and thanks Activity Now test out your deeper assumptions by looking at these statements. Which do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? In which cases is the answer more subtle than yes or no? A good facilitator: Always lets participants know what is coming next Always gives the big picture Never stops an activity when it is going well Changes the activity every 20 minutes Always has food and water available Always leaves it to individuals to decide which groups to work in Never offers only one method Always offers only one method Spends time getting to know people Jumps straight in to an activity to get people working together Starts with safe topics Starts with difficult topics Never takes a vote Only takes a vote when s/he knows what the result will be Always does what the majority want to do Listens more than talks Encourages participation while remembering people participate in different ways. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 38 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.2 How to get the best out of the space How a room is organised matters. Walk into a room with chairs set out in rows and you know you are in for a lecture. Arrive at a workshop and find that there are not enough chairs and you feel unloved. When chairs are set out in a circle the message is clear; your opinion may be wanted! Many networked learning communities use school halls for their meetings. Some opt for hotel rooms. Others find more individual locations. Whatever the apparent constraints of the space you have available, there are things that you, as the facilitator can do to get the most out of it. Ideally you will have a large, bright, open room, with plenty of natural light, no distracting views and with smaller spaces also available. But in practice this may not be possible. Nevertheless you can influence the physical layout and create the kind of emotional environment that you want almost anywhere. Getting the basic layout right Your choice of layout will say much about the kind of facilitation you want to create. It needs to be fit for the purpose you intend it to be used for and the style of your facilitation. Activity Look at these different configurations. What does each say to you about the likely learning experience it will encourage? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one? Which kinds of activity suit particular layouts? Which kinds suit your style of facilitation? [Artwork: Show: chairs in rows and lectern chairs in a big circle chairs in a number of small circles chairs (5) around small round tables chairs (4) around a small square table chairs (6) around a small rectangular table double horse-shoe of chairs] Many people have found that cabaret-style groups of 5 participants and small round tables seems to create the kind of environment which is conducive to Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 39 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers sharing experiences and shaping knowledge in the kinds of sessions run by networked learning communities. Creating a flexible and creative space The more you can set up a space so that it gives maximum flexibility of use, the better. Here is a list of some of the elements which can help to make the space dynamic and creative:             additional break-out rooms water on tap coffee and tea (fruit as well as traditional) on tap lots of flip charts walls and boards to write on music making equipment computer equipment hand-held electronic devices digital whiteboards blue tac post it notes spare paper and pens. What else helps? What have you seen or experienced which contributed to making a really effective space for facilitation? Activity Mobile phones and pagers can be particularly intrusive. If you sense that a number of participants have a genuine need to be in touch without the outside world, you might like to acknowledge this by building in the opportunity for a few mobile phone breaks. Sometimes you will want to have name badges or name cards on the tables. Sometimes this seems overly bureaucratic for a group that knows its members well. But it is always important to Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 40 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.3 How to develop and use a range of techniques: “It‟s uncomfortable when you are not in control any more.” Headteacher Networked Learning Community members tell us that a key barrier to facilitation is frustration when things don‟t go as you expected. As one Special school headteacher put it to us: “I think we have had some highs and lows. I think that you‟re always going to have concerns, when you have a large group of people. The tendency is to criticise when it‟s not going well, and I think we have got to deal with that.” This section contains descriptions of a range of techniques which you may like to use. Some have been used many times in educations settings, some were suggested by networked learning communities, some are drawn from other spheres of life and adapted and some are our original ideas. The techniques are organised into three sections: Starting out: The ideas for the first few minutes of a session are especially important in establishing its tone. Methods that work: Lots of ideas which you can choose from, depending on your needs Endings: Suggestions for ways of ensuring that the good ideas you have generated are captured, that participants reflect on the session and that improvements happen as a result of your work. While you will not be “in control” in the sense of the quotation with which this section starts, you will be able to discover a new power of influence as a facilitator as you realise how powerful some of the techniques which follow are. [Suggest that we have a mini matrix here to make this section really user friendly and before each of the three sections in 2.3 with titles such as method – suitability – page number. This can be done at design stage] 2.3.1 Starting out: a) Establishing ground rules In brief Ground rules are simple statements of the kind of behaviour which is acceptable and, by implication, that which is not. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 41 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Just as any school has its rules and protocols, so do most learning communities or workshop groups. Ground rules can be created by the facilitator or developed by the whole group as part of the process of working together. Benefits In any situation where groups come together to learn and work, ground rules are essential to ensure that all participants get the most from the experience. They help to ensure that:       everyone has a chance to have their say and be listened to no one individual can dominate a session difficult or contentious issues can be dealt without rancour or personal animosity individual differences are respected decisions are taken with the full involvement of the group, and time is used as productively as possible. How to establish effective ground rules While you could leave the decisions about ground rules entirely to the group to determine with your help, most facilitators (like most teachers and trainers) believe that it is part of their role to set the tone and style of any sessions by proposing a set of ground rules. You might like to: 1. Prepare your proposed ground rules on a flip chart or charts (or on a slide or on a hand-out). 2. Once you have introduced yourself (and, where appropriate, your cofacilitator) and outlined the processes you intend to use, suggest that the group looks at your proposed rules. (Once your community is up and running, it will not be necessary to re-iterate your ground rules every session, unless you have new members joining you.) 3. Explain that, although they may know you as xx from yy school, your role is as facilitator(s) and that you will, therefore, be seeing it as part of your responsibility to ensure that the group follows its agreed rules. 4. Listen to any suggestions members of the group have and incorporate them as you think fit. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 42 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. While ground rules are important, avoid spending too long on them as this can be counterproductive. 2. It helps to try and include at least one sensible addition to the list you have prepared. 3. Number your rules so that you can refer to them easily. 4. Don‟t have too many rules; certainly not more that ten and ideally much fewer. In networked learning communities unfamiliar roles and new ways of working have evolved. Some networks have found it helpful to attempt to clarify what these new roles and ways of working are; to develop a shared understanding of who does what and on behalf of whom. Activity What roles do you have in your networked learning community? Or, if you are just starting out, what rules do you envisage might be helpful? Does everyone have the same understanding of these roles and the responsibilities they attract? How will you agree who does what and who is accountable to whom? Do you envisage any potential areas of tension? If so, how might developing protocols early on help to resolve or dissipate them? Having developed a protocol, what will you do if a tension remains? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 43 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers b) Introductions In brief Introductions are those brief but important moments at the start of sessions or when new people join which ensure that we know who we are working with. Benefits By making time for people to introduce themselves you give out strong signals that everyone‟s contribution is unique and valued. The act of introducing yourself is, as a time honoured ritual of all societies, an essential part of relationship forming. And everyone likes to talk about themselves! How to make sure people introduce themselves effectively There are lots of ways of doing this. Here are six methods to try. You might like to: 1. ask everyone to get up and look for someone they do not know and go and introduce themselves. This can be repeated several times. 2. as above except this time provide a focus to the introduction, for example “Say who you are and share your best ever learning experience” or “Say who you are and explain what you would like to get out of the session” 3. give participants exactly two minutes to meet as many people as possible and return to their seats 4. ask pairs to interview each other and then introduce their partner 5. use alliteration by choosing an adjective that starts with the same letter as your first name (Mysterious Michelle, Naughty Niki or Bolshy Bill, for example!) to help others remember your name. (This works well when you are in a large group and trying to get everyone to introduce themselves.) 6. split the whole group into two. Form into two concentric circles, one group facing outwards, the other inwards. Each person in the facing in circle stands opposite someone from the facing out circle. You have 30 seconds to get to know the person opposite. Every 30 seconds the outer ring moves round by one or two or five people, whatever you feel like asking them to do! 7. introduce yourself but without saying your title or role. Tips 1. Avoid long, drawn out introductions 2. Discourage people from using it as an opportunity to: boast pull rank sell services they might want to offer whinge air personal grievances talk about their hobby horses 3. Don‟t forget to introduce yourself. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 44 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers c) Warm ups In brief Warm ups are to the brain of the workshop attender what stretching before a race are to the muscles of an athlete. Benefits We all need thinking and tuning-in time. It also helps if we can begin to focus our minds on the content or approach. In social activities it also helps to build trust by successfully completing relatively easy warm-up tasks. How to run an effective warm up There is no one way of running a warm-up. Sometimes you will may to concentrate on the content of what is to come. Sometimes you may want to get people thinking in certain ways. Other times it may be that you want to get people in the mood. Or your warm-up can double up as a means of helping people to get to know each other. You might like to try one of these ideas: 1. Getting people to talk. Break the larger group into groups of 5 or 6 people. Give each person a soft juggling ball. The person with the ball starts talking about something that they are interested in the area of learning. After a few moments s/he throws it to someone else in the group who has to continue sharing their views on the same topic. The person with the ball can change the topic at any time and decides who to throw the ball to. 2. Getting people in the mood for thinking. Explain that you are going to get them to do something which will show how easily we fall into patterns of predictable thought. Ask people to move their chairs away from a table. Get them to cross their legs. Then ask them to cross them the other way (ie right over left rather than left over right.) Ask each person to stand up. Get them to fold their arms. Then fold them again the same way. Then fold them the other way. Most people find this difficult. Explain that some people never learn how to fold their arms the other way round! This is because the brain easily falls into routines and there is no biological need to fold your arms the other way. Use it as a metaphor for the session, ie you are going to ask participants to think new thoughts and “fold their arms the other way”, metaphorically speaking! 3. Focussing on the subject in hand. Split the group into pairs. Ask each pair to swap watches. Get people to take it in turns to see how observant each watch owner is by asking them questions, (“what colour is the ..? Does it have a second hand? Etc) Most people do not notice/remember the details of their own watch! Use this as a metaphor to urge participants to pay attention to what you are about to say next (as you introduce the first activity). Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 45 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Concentrate on giving clear instructions 2. Ensure that participants get straight into doing things rather than talking about doing it or speculating as to the benefits of doing it! 3. Give a clear time limit “This will take about 3 minutes, then we‟ll return to our tables” 4. Some facilitators like to be very upfront (“This next activity is a warmup to get us in the mood for thinking through some difficult subjects today”, while others prefer to be vaguer “Let‟s start with this. I‟d like each of you to get up and go and meet someone you do not know etc”. You decide what suits your style. d) Getting into groups “My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.” Indira Gandhi In brief Different activities require different group sizes. And it helps the social blend of any learning community if members are regularly asked to work with different types and sizes of groups. Nevertheless, many facilitators find that the transition moments – the few minutes where people need to be sorted into appropriate groups as effortlessly as possible – can be challenging. Benefits If you want to involve all participants then this will be impossible if you work in a large group all the time, especially for those who are shyer by nature. Smaller groups allow people to:  discover things for themselves rather than waiting to be told  have more chance to speak and share ideas  feel more involved  take more control over timings and choices of methods  play lots of different roles  get to know more people. Many learning networks still find it all too easy to fall back on a kind of subschool-assembly mode of delivery with one or two dominant individuals holding forth from the front. This kind of delivery is extremely inefficient and inevitably leads people into expert/student roles and behaviours unless the individual at the front is very skilled. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 46 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers How to get people into groups Here are a number of different ways of sorting people into groups which you might like to try one of these. 1. Just ask. Simply asking them to get into groups (pairs, threes, fours, fives whatever). Often this is all that is needed, especially in a mature group. You can always add the rider “Can you get into groups of three or four, whichever seems to work most naturally for you.” This prevents people fretting about exact numbers. You may also like to spot anyone who has sat on their own and quietly tell them that you are about to split people into groups and asking them to move. 2. The last time I…An enjoyable way of grouping people which also builds in lots of social interaction is to line the whole group up and then simply go along the line identifying groups of 3 or 4 or whatever and asking them to work together. Essentially this is most effective if you find a motivating way of getting people to line up randomly, ie according to the last time they ate a curry, or the last time they went on an airplane etc. You might say, “Right, I„d like you to line up now, please, according to when you last had a curry. If you had one last night then stand at this end of the room, if you have never had one then go over there.” Approaches like this require people to ask each other when they last did something. 3. Categories. Another way involves categorising. A simple example which should divide the whole group into twelve groups is to ask people to get together with people who have a birthday in the same month. This also provides social opportunities and tends to lead to astrological speculation! It is not reliable if you want equal numbers and you may need to adjust and combine groups to achieve your desired group sizes. Another simple category to use is the alphabet and surnames. This allows you to split into two, three or four large groups with relative ease, although surname distribution is not evenly spread across the last part of the alphabet! 4. Doubling up. The following pattern of working seems to work well when the activity involves the progressive sharing of ideas. Start with people working in pairs, then combine into fours and eights and so on. 5. The sorting hat. This is an adaptation of an idea from Harry Potter where new Hogwarts arrivals are sorted into houses by a talking hat. Harry Potter quote (to come) Have an old hat and use it in a similar way. Simply allocate people to groups in an apparently thoughtful (if magical but actually arbitrary) way by presorting them using an attendance list. 6. Sweet surprise. Pass a hat around full of wrapped sweets (more hygienic!). Participants randomly select a sweet and all the, for example, „bon bons‟, „chocolate eclairs‟ form a group. Tip: remember to pre-count or adjust sweet numbers to ensure an even group distribution. 47 Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Make your instructions as clear as possible. Some people love to natter rather than get down to work! 2. Be flexible, ie always assuming that there may be an odd number when you are trying to form groups of pairs or fours! 3. Be forcefully polite and insist that people get into groups. Sometimes a certain kind of group lethargy sets in where people say “we‟d much prefer to stay together as a large group”. This may well indicate that this has become a too comfortable way of working in which a few people are actually dominating things. e) Getting in the mood “That blessed mood In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world Is lightened.” William Wordsworth In brief Mood matters. For the most effective participation in a learning network you need participants to be relaxed, alert and felling that they are in an environment where they can express themselves without fear. On many occasions you will need to invest time at the beginning of a session to ensure that a collective mood of calm is introduced (if not the kind of Romantic tranquillity imagined by Wordsworth!) Benefits Getting people in the right frame of mind is essential if you want to get the best out of y learning opportunity. The more mature the group, the more they will recognise this fact and prescribe remedies that work if the consensus is that something (outside the meeting normally) is exerting such a powerful impact on people‟s minds that they are unable to concentrate. Networked learning communities are using these types of strategies to help prepare for a „learning session‟:  Have off-site sessions and events  Ways of focusing head teacher attention on learning “We‟ve had several head teacher days or half days… you couldn‟t go into school before you went…”  Music as you arrive  „A gallery‟ of words / statements and/or pictures. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 48 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers How to You might like to take the temperature of the group and then have a few techniques to bring stress levels down and introduce alert, focus on the tasks in hand. 1. Assess the mood of the meeting. Use this mood meter. [Artwork: set this as a thermometer with words down each side rather than degrees: relaxed, alert and confident relaxed alert motivated happy distracted worried bored stressed angry] Either create a version of this on a slide or on flip chart paper and ask people to choose the level that describes their mood best. Or ask them to close their eyes. Read out the words and ask them to put up their hand when you get to a word or phrase that describes their mood. Work up from the bottom! The advantage of the second method is that it is more individually based, and tends to act as a calming process anyhow, although the more theoretical and reflective members of the group will be need you to say something like: “The reason I am asking you to close your eyes is so that you can each do this without being influenced by those around you!” Once you have got a picture of the group‟s mood, you will know if you need to take any remedial action! 2. Some possible remedies: the 4Ms Try one of these. Music – Have a selection of baroque, classical and contemporary music to use if you need to slow the pace down or energise people. Movement – Get people to move around by giving them some simple stretching exercises and then getting them to go and walk to the opposite side of the room and back. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 49 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Meditation – This requires confident facilitation! Try any of the meditation ideas in the BBC book, Be Creative, essential steps to revitalise your life and work (see page xx)! Mouth work – Sometimes it is better to see if you can talk it out. So, if you sense that people are worried about something get them to talk about it before you begin. Allocate 10 minutes to see if you can get people to “slough it off”. A therapeutic variation of this is to write worries down on a bit of paper, crumple it up and throw it in the bin. Tips 1. Don‟t worry if you spend slightly more time than you had allocated on this part of the session. It should be worth it. 2. Be open about what you are doing. Talk about what we know about the importance of mood and mind-set in learning. (Read Ellen Langer, see page xx, if you want some reminders on this!) 3. Take risks. The 4Ms require a bit of facilitator courage! In general Here are some Dos and Don‟ts to bear in mind when starting out. Do Arrive at a venue early Greet everyone as they arrive and start to make a relationship by introducing yourself and finding out their name Use the early activities to be sure that you have a map of the room showing where everyone is sitting including participants‟ names Make sure you define roles clearly Deal with any real concerns raised early on or they may come back to haunt you Check that people know where all necessary facilities are Don’t Allow individuals or sub-groups to take you off-track in the early stages of a session Be put off if the room is not as good as you had expected (but get on and sort it out!) Get drawn into arguments or provocative statements Don‟t put people down; focus on the behaviour and link it to your ground rules rather than to any individual Don‟t evaluate and judge people or ideas being generated. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 50 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.3.2 Methods that work – an A-Z "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams creator of the Dilbert cartoons In this section you will find a range of possible methods to try out. Sometimes they will work well, other times they may not. The art of the facilitator is to know which one to use for which situation. To help you decide a list of key words (like “categorising”, “problem-solving” etc) has been included under a sub-heading, Suitability, for each method. Action Learning “Why” said the Dodo, ”the best way to explain it is to do it” Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland In brief Invented by Reg Revans in the 1980s for use in the coal industry, action learning is a process of inquiry. It starts with the identification of a real problem or issue. A group of learners then come together to find solutions. Suitability Problem-solving; collaborative enquiry. Benefits Action learning allows theory, practice and experience to combine effectively. It provides a very real context for learning and often creates very tangible outputs. How to use action learning Action learning is an approach to group enquiry which typically exists as an action learning set, a group of individuals, often from different organisations and possibly with different professional backgrounds, who come together for the specific purpose of learning together over a period of time. But the approach can be adapted to become part of a networked learning community‟s way of working. One person acts a facilitator/adviser for each group. A group might typically be 3-5 people. The group establishes a trusting and confidential atmosphere in which it is safe to share difficult issues. Individuals take it in turn to describe one or more real personal or organisational issue that they are currently struggling with. The group then decides which one (or more) of these they Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 51 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers would like to tackle. In some cases the combined group expertise will be enough to provide useful answers to individual issues. But often a process of collaborative inquiry is called for. Tips 1. Make sure the time is divided up equally among the members of a group so that everyone‟s problems can be discussed. 2. Encourage individuals to share real (not superficial) problems which they genuinely want to solve. 3. Discourage participants from offering solutions or answers to other people‟s problems and encourage them to reflect and explore, allowing the person who presented the issue to draw his or her own conclusions. Brainstorming “It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” Edward De Bono In brief Created by Alex Osborn working in a New York advertising agency in the 1950s, brainstorming involves a group of people generating ideas about a given topic. As ideas are generated, they are written down, without anyone judging them and without stopping to explore them. The aim is to create as many ideas as possible in as free an atmosphere as possible on the assumption that some of the ideas will be worthwhile. Suitability Ideas-generation; problem-solving. Benefits 1. It is means of generating lots of ideas. 2. It provides a framework in which it is acceptable to think out of the box without fear of being put down. Health warning: Brainstorming has possibly become the world‟s most used creative tool for thinking up ideas. While it can be helpful to defer evaluation (which can kill creativity stone dead) brainstorming tends to induce a sort of frenzy of talking which quieter and more reflective participants do not enjoy. Evidence suggests that the frame of mind of the participant and the culture in which the brainstorming takes place are critically important factors in determining the quality of the ideas produced. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 52 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers How to brainstorm The group‟s leader encourages members to contribute ideas and these are written on a flip chart or captured electronically. Each contribution is acknowledged. No judgements are offered as idfFs are shared and all suggestions, however wacky, are accepted. After an agreed time, the brainstorming stops and ideas are looked at carefully. Tips 1. Start the session with a moment of quiet thought allowing less confident members to make a few notes 2. Ensure that you everyone is encouraged to contribute 3. Urge people to keep going when they seem to have run out of steam; they may really have to think! 4. Look carefully at the ideas that you produce towards the end of a session rather than at the beginning 5. Spend as long looking at what you have produced critically as you do generating the ideas in the first place. 6. Try some of the variations suggested below. Variations of brainstorming Synectics. Created by William Gordon, synectics is a form of brainstorming that uses metaphors and analogies to help you to see the relationship between seemingly unrelated ideas. Three approaches are commonly used: 1. Direct analogy – seeing how something is similar to something you are familiar with 2. Personal analogy – pretending you are the object of the comparison, ie using role play 3. Symbolic analogy – developing a key word or image to provoke ideas. An essential difference between synectics and brainstorming is that critical comments are encouraged throughout the process. Outrageous opposites. By contrast, forcing yourself to think about the possibility of doing something that is completely the opposite of what you would normally think can provoke interesting ideas. Start with a clear objective. (It could be to design the classroom of tomorrow) Then brainstorm lots of traditional ideas. (Stimulating, child-friendly room) Then come up with the opposites of each of these. (Unstimulating outdoor space). See where this takes you. Using this approach a pizza company came up with the pie-crust pizza, by thinking what would happen if you put the topping on the bottom…. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 53 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Yellow stickers. Also known as post-it notes, these throw-away notes can be used in all sorts of creative ways to help people to make connections between their ideas. They can be used for silent brainstorming, one idea per sticker. These can then be stuck onto a flip chart or onto a table and moved around into logical groups. Or each participant can be equipped with a pack of stickers and invited to use them at any stage by affixing them to any group„s work in progress to add a comment or question. Categorising “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” Edward De Bono In brief Categorising, or seeing the patterns between apparently unconnected ideas or experiences, is an essential part of thinking and learning. In facilitated sessions you may well end up with too many ideas to make sense of or find yourself not being able to see the wood for the trees if you are unable to structure your data and establish the connections between things. Suitability Testing hypotheses; evaluating different course of action. Benefits Categorising helps you to:  make connections  organisation data economically  see the bigger picture  transfer knowledge more effectively. How to use categorisation effectively Here are a few ways of categorising and structuring for you to explore. Some of these are significant enough to be treated separately in this section and some are dealt with here. 1. Columns. One of the simplest ways of organising data is to split it onto two by putting a line down the middle of a piece of paper, small or large. Some possible headings you might like to use include: More than/Less of Like/Dislike Positive/Negative. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 54 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2. Alphabet categories. There‟s an old parlour game which involves seeing how many items you can think of beginning with each letter of the alphabet. This approach can be adapted for use, for example, when developing ideas further. You can take ideas from a brainstorming session and use the alphabet discipline and think of other ideas for the same original idea by going through the letters of the alphabet. “An idea is a feat of association”. Robert Frost 3. Plus, minus, interesting. This is an Edward De Bono idea which encourages creative categorisation of ideas. By preventing the typical reaction of “useful” or “not useful”, using a chart like the one below, participants are able to use a third category – “interesting”. Under this heading ideas which just may have some merit tend to be better scrutinised and not instantly rejected. [Artwork: Create chart like this: Plus + Minus - Interesting ? ] Encourage participants to investigate the “interesting” column especially carefully. 4. Learning from Amazon. Think of the way books are categorised by the Internet bookseller. You can see them according to their popularity (the ranking system), there is a one to five star rating system. When you select a book you can see other books by the same author. Before you buy a book you can see what other people who bought your selected book have also bought. And so on. You might like to get groups to invent their own categorising systems stimulated by these kinds of approaches. 4. Mad, sad and glad. You can also ask people to categorise themselves! When you are talking about contentious issues it is sometimes helpful to deal Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 55 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers with the feelings they provoke. Divide the tables into three different types, mad, sad and glad. Put a large self-supporting pieces of card on each table to show which is which and invite participants to gather at the appropriate table to give vent to their feelings. Then conduct a plenary session in which you capture the key points on a flip chart, white board or computer under the three headings. The act of undertaking this kind of analysis tends to introduce a sense of perspective for those who felt mad about the topic! 5. Mind maps. Invented by Tony Buzan, these highly visual ways of organising ideas allow a more networked approach to the association of and hierarchies implied by ideas. [Artwork: show mind map example of a typical NLC issue] See also Diamond 9s and SWOT analysis (page xx). Tips 1. Keep it simple. 2. Don‟t overdo it. 3. Think on your feet. There are many variations you can try. Collage “A picture is a model of reality.” Ludwig Wittgenstein In brief Sometimes words won‟t work and it is better to resort to pictures. First introduced by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the early twentieth century, a collage is an assembly of images which are stuck on to a flat surface. Suitability Generating ideas; visioning; expressing feelings. Benefits Using collages encourages a different kind of creativity. It allows less extrovert people to be “loud” with their choice of pictures. It encourages free associative thinking. How to use collages Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 56 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers For this to work well you need a huge stock of glossy magazines, a pair of scissors for everyone, lots of paper and a glue stick or two per table. The basic instruction you need to give is for participants to create collages out of the available resources. They can do this alone, in pairs or in other sizes of group. This activity is effective for picturing the future or the ideal. “Create a collage that represents your idea of the perfect classroom”. It is also a powerful medium for the expression of ideas. “Create a collage which captures the essence of what it is to be an effective learner.” Or it can help describe feelings. “Create a collage which expresses your current feelings at the school where you are working.” If you start by letting people work singly, then you may like to get individuals to pair up and then pairs to make a four, at each time inviting people to say what they make of their collages. Or it may be that you want to use the act of collaboratively creating a collage as a means of team-building and offering chances for more informal conversations to take place. Another use for a collage (or a picture) is to act as a stimulus for a session generating new ideas. “What does this make you think about…?” Tips 1. Expect this to take longer than you have allowed. 2. Make sure that the collages can be effectively displayed during the session. 3. Be prepared to encounter resistance from those who believe that they are not artistically endowed! Reassure them that this is not a test of their artistic ability but a medium for communicating. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 57 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Critical incident review “It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognise out of a number of facts which are incidental and which are vital” Arthur Conan Doyle In brief Although we learn all the time, certain episodes in our life may be packed with more meaning than others. The process of critical incident review encourages individuals to:  invest more energy in recording and reflecting on their own practice  develop a process of extracting meaning from experience by involving fellow professionals. Suitability Reflection; performance improvement. Benefits This is an excellent way of encouraging reflective practice and of enabling participants to come to sessions with material on which they have already begun to reflect. How to learn from critical incidents Stage 1 Participants keep a log or diary of incidents which seem to be important to them in their professional lives. In a school context these could involve: key staff performance moments, insights into the learning process, challenging situations with parents etc. Participants develop a set of questions with which they are comfortable to help them reflect on and learn from the incident. Stage 2 Participants take it in turns to share their incidents in groups, outlining their own initial thoughts about them. Stage 3 Listeners then comment on what you have said. They might focus on the content. Or the way the incident has been described (for example if it has shown disproportionate anger!) may lead them to make a remark. They might share their own experiences or give a wider perspective or suggest some development work you might undertake. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 58 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers A useful way for listeners to respond is as follows: “You might like to…..”. Using “might” not “should” is important as it leaves it open for the recipient. And for the person being advised it really helps if they can just say “Thank you”, rather than challenging the advice, that helps to build in reflection time. Stage 4 Participants then need to decide what action to take in the light of the advice they have received from their peers. It is important that this gets written down as this act of commitment will make it more likely that it will happen. This activity can be adapted so that it focuses entirely on “good news”, by encouraging participants to bring to the group examples of things that are going well – one each – to share and comment on in the same kind of ways. Tips 1. It helps if you coach people beforehand in the types of ways in which they might like to respond to the incidents, especially in the use of “might” not “should”. 2. Encourage everyone to respect their peers by focusing on the incident and not on any personalities involved. 3. Different incidents will require different amounts of time, so flexibility will be called for. 4. As with any learning, it will be important for those giving feedback to find positive things to say as well as those which may be more critical. Dialogue "Dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today. Moreover, it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated." David Bohm In brief Dialogue is a special kind of conversation in which the emphasis is on sharing and learning about another group's beliefs, feelings, interests and needs in a non-adversarial way. It emphasise listening and consensus building rather than talking and argument. No one wins a dialogue. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 59 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers In the second half of the twentieth century, the technique was given added impetus by the advocacy of a number of key thinkers, including educationalist Paulo Freire and scientist David Bohm. Suitability Problem-solving; consensus-building; issue clarification and exploration. Benefits Being able to use dialogue rather than debate or argument is an essential skill in today‟s increasingly complex world. For any learning community it is a core tool with which participants need to be familiar in order to learn from each other. How to have a dialogue Having a dialogue is like having a debate but crucially different in that in debate you seek to win an argument where in a dialogue you seek to find common ground or to help push someone else‟s thinking along a little. Once a topic has been introduced, your role as a facilitator is to get participants to practise the kinds of statement which might accompany these approaches:     trying to collaborate rather than compete listening sharing the assumptions which underpin your thinking finding positive ideas in points of view with which you disagree. Tips 1. Ask people to do their best to suspend their assumptions. 2. Insist that they speak for themselves and not for interest groups. 3. Ensure that everyone is treated equally. 4. Be assertive if you see combative behaviours. Tell the group what you are hearing and urge them to try another way! Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 60 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Force field analysis “So much of our work has been isolated and has been driven largely by other people‟s agendas. But this process has meant that we can create our own vision for ourselves and through networking make these visions come about in reality”. Headteacher in Networked Learning Community In brief Invented by Kurt Lewin, force field analysis is way of analysing situations and assessing the different forces which may impact on it. It helps you to explore the relative strengths of the impulses which might make you want to act (driving forces) and those which prevent you from doing so (restraining forces). It is especially useful technique when you are trying to weigh up competing possible courses of action. In any situation you need to have more driving forces than restraining forces if you want to move forward. [Artwork: In margin show force field analysis diagram as applied to an imaginary network deciding whether to appoint a paid co-ordinator] Suitability Analysis; reflection. Benefits It helps you to see the relative pros and cons in any complex situation. By carrying out an analysis you can also plan to strengthen the forces supporting a decision, and reduce the impact of opposition to it. Force-field analysis encourages agreement and reflection in a group through discussion of the underlying causes of a problem. How to use force field analysis Try these steps: 1. Take a particular proposition or vision that you are considering, for example, the employment of a paid coordinator for your learning community or the idea that you are going to combine all your INSET budgets to fund network events in the coming year. 2. Draw two columns on a page or flip chart, labelled Driving Forces and Restraining Forces. 3. List all driving forces for change in one column, and all forces against change in another column. 4. Assign a score to each force, from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong) Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 61 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 5. Draw a diagram showing the forces for and against change. Show the size of each force as a number next to it. 6. Use this as the focus of a discussion. Tips 1. Use numbers to help you to estimate the forces for change, but only use these as a guide 2. If all the restraining forces have high numbers and the driving forces score low, then you may want to think more creatively! Futuring “FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true, and our happiness is assured.” Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary “Visualising, present-tense, a scenario three years ahead can be very powerful process. Then visualising backwards the obstacles that were overcome in order to achieve the ideal.” Critical Friend to Network In brief As well as reflecting on the present reality, being able to think creatively about future possibilities is an essential characteristic of any sustainable learning community. Suitability Blue sky thinking; agreeing the vision. Benefits Futuring ensures that groups have goals and consider possible options. Without this it is difficult to achieve focus and hard to move beyond what is currently seen as being possible. How to think about the future There are many ways of doing this. You might like to try one of these suggestions. 1. What if? Imagine a world in which there were no restraints. No history. No rules. No expense spared. Use this approach to generate ideal solutions to any issue being explored. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 62 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2. 5 years from now. As with the first idea, encourage participants to suspend some of the current constraints they may feel. But this time they have to be a little more realistic. 3. Creative visualisation. Sometimes we forget to give ourselves time to dream our own private thoughts. Or perhaps we find it embarrassing! Whatever the reason you may like to try taking participants on a guided visualisation. Get them to close their eyes. Allow silence to descend. Ask them to take five slow breaths in and out. “Paint” a picture of somewhere nice and invite them to create a special place of their own. Once you have calmed them down, start to inject some of the issues you have been discussing and invite them to visualise solutions. There are a number of tapes and books on the market which can help you with this kind of approach if you want to explore it more fully. Tips 1. Insist that the group takes time on a regular basis to think about where it is going in the future, 2. Be aware that those of a more active or pragmatic nature may find these kind of activities difficult at first. Photo-language In brief Photo-language is an increasingly widely used observation research method. It can complement other sources of data collection like interviews and other kinds of observation: such as participant observation. Suitability Photo-language can engage people in the use of photographs or visual material. The purposes of photo-language include:     understanding a context or situation; telling a story / develop a narrative(s); exploring values; surfacing assumptions. There are many ways that photo-language can be used. For example, a single photograph can be covered up and revealed slowly to an individual or group. This approach has the potential to surface assumptions about a context or situation and to heighten awareness of inquiry by getting participants to raise issues and questions (Where do I start? What else do you need to find out?) Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 63 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Benefits The use of photographs or visual material collects and reveals different and potentially deeper understandings of contexts and situations (i.e. photographs or visual material is developed; sourced and/or analysed by participants which then may minimise bias of the researcher). How to use photo-language Display a range of photos around the room or lay them out on the floor. Participants move around in silence looking at the photographs. Participants select one photo from the range available that represents for them a particular situation such as, being a headteacher; a pupil; a learner; a co-leader or running a CPD session, attending a NLG event; planning a NLC learning walk. You may wish to ask participants to just note, in their mind, the photograph they have selected rather than picking it up off the floor. In this way more people can choose the same photograph or it gives participants a nonthreatening way to change their mind. The participants describe why they selected the particular image and what it means. Depending on what the „purpose‟ is for the photo-language exercise you might ask the participants to go through a group consensus process to narrow the number of photographs to be examined. You might do this in response to a question, such as, “For you how might these images reflect the present situation of the networked learning community/your school?” Or you might focus on a group of photographs and ask more detailed questions. Prioritising “In its first year the network buys in the services and content of a course. However, we‟ve got to the point now that we simply can‟t afford to have this as open access. So what we do? Do we stop it? Do we charge for it? Do we set criteria priorities for who might have it? Headteacher In brief Prioritisation – the ability to put “things” into an order of importance – is an essential skill for any group of individuals. It is, of course, important to remember that you can prioritise according to many different criteria. Suitability Evaluating ideas; taking decisions. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 64 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Benefits Prioritising creates focus and critical evaluation. Using methods which allow small and large groups to prioritise effectively helps to ensure that the group feels ownership for decisions. How to prioritise Here are two possible methods. Pyramids. This is an effective way of ranking ideas or items of information according to agreed criteria. Introduce this shape to the group. [Artwork: illustrate this xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx] Ask groups to use this to choose their top 1, second 2 and third 3 ideas. The technique forces groups to argue the merits of the most important single idea (thereby focussing their thinking) but allows them to agree to differ on the second and third choices. Diamond 9s. This more complex method works well when groups are tackling a long list of issues. It also facilitates conversation about the issues very effectively. [Artwork: diamond shape with 9 mini diamonds numbered 1 to 9. Could use existing NCSL artwork?] Invite participants to read a long list of items and reflect on their own as to their relative importance. Give them each a Diamond 9 grid and ask them to create their own top 9 ranking. Then ask them to get into small groups and explain their decisions. Invite each group to create a common group version. Your role as facilitator is to use the group versions as part of a plenary session to get individuals to explain their reasoning and structure a discussion about the relative merits of different elements. Finally you can see if you can get the whole group to agree on their top one item. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 65 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Sometimes groups will want to avoid the process and jump straight to a ranking. In such cases check that this is not the thinking of one dominant individual by insisting that they go through the process. 2. Allow at least an hour for the Diamond 9 activity and expect it to take longer. 2. Given the complexity of the Diamond 9 tool, you may not want to use it until the group has acquired a reasonable level of confidence. Recording “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.” Christopher Isherwood In brief Facilitation of a networked learning community can take many forms and serve different purposes. Records can be spoken, written, drawn, taped, typed, photographed and so on. The choice of medium is considerable. Keeping a record is an essential part of the facilitator‟s craft. Suitability Recording is appropriate for all kinds of facilitated learning or meeting. Networked learning communities are recording to build up a knowledge bank “treasury of good practice”, to help them evaluate experiments, to capture things which have been learned or to seek to demonstrate impact. Benefits Keeping records helps to ensure that:  knowledge is captured and shared  decisions are noted  decisions are taken fairly  opinions are valued  the meanings of terms is clarified  progress is made. How to keep records effectively The simplest and in many ways most effective method is for the facilitator to make regular verbal (and written) summaries of what s/he thinks has been said or agreed. This starts with the setting of ground rules (see pages xx) and Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 66 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers is an essential part of the role. Sometimes it involves tentative interim summaries “I think I am hearing that you want to…”; sometimes it is more definite “Can I just check that we have agreed to…”. In most groups there will be many moments when smaller groups are working together. Simple recording methods here include:     writing on flip charts drawing on flip charts creating mind maps giving a one minute report back which is written down. More imaginative methods include:    creating newspaper headline versions writing a poem performing a rap. Increasingly technology can help. So, taking digital photos which can then be projected or form the basis of a report and using real-time lap-top notation are good example of this. See also Talking Walls on page xx) Tips 1. Make sure you regularly record what is going on. 2. Choose a method which suits the style of the group. Role play To follow In brief Role play involves one or more individuals taking on the character of someone else and acting out what might happen in certain situations. Suitability Understanding point of view; empathy; exploring a change (anticipated or encountered). Benefits Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 67 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Role play adds a dynamic element to situations which can otherwise be quite static. It encourages creativity by inviting people to imagine that they are someone else. When it works well, it can create an almost electric atmosphere. When it goes badly it can produce leaden, stereotypical cameos! Those who are more activist by preference love it. More reflective and theoretical individuals or those who are introverts can find it challenging. How to role play Effective role play requires:     a strong situation plausible roles private rehearsal a willingness to let go! Sometimes it is helpful to exaggerate the situation (A parent comes in to your office to complain that you do not have a credible model of how learning takes place!). And the same is true of roles (An Ofsted inspector call to say that…). Often the best role plays involve slightly exaggerated situations with wellknown roles (for example, teacher, parent and pupil.) A good way of focusing creative attention is to introduce a plausible real time element (“In ten minutes, John Humphries will be calling from the Today Programme to interview you about what has been happening at your school”). When you know a group well or have a confident group, they may well really enjoy using role play as a means of closing a session, bringing into their role plays all the things which have been happening during the session. A variation of role play is hot-seating. This involves putting a willing volunteer in the “hot seat” by inviting them to answer a series of questions in role. So, for example, you could ask a headteacher who had chosen to style herself as the “lead learner” a series of probing questions from possible interested parties like parents, LEA representatives, colleagues etc. This technique is used by actors who are trying to explore a role and work out what their character might say and think in different situations. Another variation to role play is inner-thoughts – outer-thoughts. You need four people and an audience. Take a plausible issue for the group (e.g. meeting with a headteacher in the network about them joining a network or recommitting to the network). Two people are the outer-thoughts and two people are the inner thoughts in the encounter between the headteacher and co-leader. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 68 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Choose situations which engage participants and are not too far fetched. 2. Be prepared to encounter resistance to this technique form some people. SWOT analysis “The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.” Oscar Wilde In brief A SWOT analysis is a method of analysing data and situations. It takes its name from these four words: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is a very useful tool for analysing possible courses of action. Suitability Establishing a base-line; analysis of organisations and situations. Benefits SWOT analysis helps you to come up with a realistic overview and begin to think of possible courses of action and develop strategy. How to do a SWOT analysis Decide on a situation or focus on a particular organisation. Using the diagram below, starting in the top left hand corner, make a list of as many ideas as possible under each of the headings. You might like to give everyone a few moments of quiet to make their own lists first before sharing them with the group. [Artwork: Diagram as per below Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 69 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Set clear guidelines about the amount of time to be spent. 2. Make sure participants start with the positive or they can get very down-hearted! You can also use this approach with other combinations of headings, such as PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) to provide a different kind of focus. Or you make up your own. There is a special kind of quadrat known as a Johari window, which you might also like to try. It is a way of helping people understand the ways in which they interact with others. Johari is made up word from bits of the names of the two people who invented it, Joe Luft and Harry Ingram. You can use the window and its four panes to help you understand more about yourself. Imagine you are exploring your relationship between you and your manager. The open area is the information that you and s/he both share. The facade contains things others you are aware of but have not disclosed to others The blind spot consists of things others have noticed about you, about which you are unaware. The unknown area contains unconscious factors influencing your behaviour which not known to you or your manager. You can expand the open panel by telling people things. And you can find out more about the blind panel by asking questions. Effective relationships occur when there is a fair and reasonable balance between self-disclosure and feedback. Although this may seem at first sight rather complicated, the four paned “window” is a very useful tool in analysing all sorts of issues in life. [Artwork: include chart like this Self Aware Unaware Aware Others Open area Blind spot Facade Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 70 Unknown area A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Unaware ] Talking walls To follow In brief Walls cannot really talk, but some can communicate more effectively than others. A Talking Wall is a portion of wall, large whiteboard, large vertical stand or series of flip charts which is used in such a way that participants can communicate with each other as a session progresses. Suitability Engaging large numbers of people in a discussion; capturing points of view; reviewing work. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 71 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Benefits The main benefit of a Talking Wall is the degree of communication between participants that can be introduced without any facilitator activity. This enables participants to keep on returning to complex issues, iterating and reiterating their opinions and modifying them in response to other people‟s comments and questions. It can also be used a bit like an Internet chat room. How to set up and use a Talking Wall There is really no limit other than your ingenuity as to how this concept can be developed. The picture below illustrates many of the more common features used by groups. [Artwork: Show large panel with post-its, clouds for cartoon messages, hexagons to cluster points together, various shapes, lots of pens, coloured dots, pins, felt tips, stars etc] The role of the facilitator is to ensure that the Talking Wall is seen as an integral part of the session. This can be achieved by constantly creating opportunities to use it and also by referring to it on a regular basis. You might also like to devote parts of the session specifically for people to use it. Tips 1. Make sure you have lots of equipment especially felt tipped pens. Having to wait for a pen takes away the creative edge! 2. Decide which elements of the session the Talking Wall will contribute to most and focus your efforts on this. World Café “Creating a positive future begins in human conversation. The simplest and most powerful investment any member of a community or an organization may make in renewal is to begin talking with other people as though the answers mattered." William Greider In brief World café is a phrase that has been adopted to describe an approach to knowledge sharing which assumes that it is more akin to conversations in a friendly café than to formal meetings in airless rooms. There is no set methodology, although it a typical assumption would be that conversations would be held between people sitting at small round tables according to a number of simple principles. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 72 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Suitability Ideas generation; developing relationships; engaging large groups in dialogue. Benefits The World Café approach is especially effective when large numbers of people are seeking to deal with lots of complex data. How to use a World Café approach Assuming that the room is set up to resemble a café (round tables with table cloths, flowers, water and lots of useful materials to read and to write on), the role of the facilitator is to ensure that the following principles underpin the session. 1. The context is clear, with everyone understanding why they are there and what the purpose of the session is. 2. The environment is conducive, as much like a warm, friendly café as possible. 3. The issue you are discussing really matters to people. 4. Effort is made to connect the diverse view points of participants, possibly by using learning mats (table cloths you can write on or which may have been prepared specially for the session) and by encouraging one or two members of each table to move on the next table at the end of each conversation 5. Everyone‟s contributions are encouraged, possibly by having a host on each table who ensures that this happens 6. Real listening is encouraged so that new patterns and new knowledge is noticed 7. All knowledge is shared. Typically you might want to have two or three topics for conversation and ensure that participants have moved to at least two other tables before returning to where they started sitting. The last part of the session might be a whole group one, with random sharing of interesting insights, rather as if you were at a community meeting. If you are facilitating these kinds of sessions it may help you to think of yourself as the host of a party, encouraging your guests to meet as many as possible of your interesting friends. More information about these kinds of approaches can be found on www.theworldcafe.com. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 73 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Invest considerable time in creating a café-type atmosphere. 2. Sit people in groups of about 5. 3. Allow 20-30 minutes for each strand of conversation. 4. If you are using the technique for the first time, constantly remind hosts of the importance of making people feel welcome and ensure that those who move from each table share what they have learned at their last table. 5. Keep it flowing. 6. Adopt an especially friendly and welcoming tone! In general Here are some Dos and Don‟ts to bear in mind when using any of these methods. Do Make sure you define roles clearly Repeat yourself or test your assumption if you are not sure whether participants have understood you or if you have inferred something correctly from what you have heard Ask lots of questions; open questions to get people thinking, focussed questions to help people concentrate (“What‟s wrong with our learning environment now?” Watch out for body language which indicates participant emotions! Be clear about timings. If you don‟t know how long something is going to take, say so! Build in a review moment when you can get a sense of how long the activity is going to take, “Let‟s see how this is going in ten minutes and then decide how much longer we want to spend on it” Be prepared to take a break or re-energise the group if energy levels are flagging Don’t Get drawn into confrontations Let your own views about a topic show Abuse your position by talking too much Be like a teacher! Stick with a method if it is clearly not working Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 74 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.3.3 Ending: “I have come to the conclusion after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.” Vita Sackville-West In this section you will find some ways of bringing things to an end. How you close a session is very important. You can provide shape, make people feel that their time has been worthwhile and motivate the group to act on what they have learned. You can also prepare for the next session. If you are planning to be working together for period of time as a learning community, then the smart thing to so may well be not to come to a conclusion but to live with a certain amount of uncertainty! Of course, endings do not just happen at the end! In any session you may have lots of mini-sessions with many mini-endings. In fact it is a feature of effective facilitation that you will need to be able to choose from a variety of different methods of bringing things to a close. There is nothing more tedious than being in a session where the facilitator has not realised that listening to eight groups reporting back, each taking 5 minutes when they were asked to spend 2, each repeating what others have said and all starting only minutes before you thought that the session was scheduled to end! Capturing data “The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.” Arthur Conan Doyle In brief Writing, drawing, recording, filming, typing, projecting…. There is a long list of ways in which what has been said and the insights which have been generated can be captured. Benefits Keeping a record is essential for any learning community wishing to reflect, share and grow. How to capture data There are many methods to choose from. Your skill will be in matching the method to the people and setting in which you are meeting. Here are a few principles to consider: Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 75 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 1. The facilitator does not have to be the only person who captures data. 2. The facilitator has a key role in ensuring that data is captured. 3. If you want to analyse data, it helps to capture it in a common format. 4. Good questions often form the basis to effective data capture. 5. Investing time in typing up notes or comments on a lap top actually at a session means that knowledge can be shared much more quickly within a learning community. Tips 1. Make time to record what has been agreed. 2. Make sure everyone can see or hear what you are writing or saying. 3. If in doubt, check it out! Community market place “Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary.” Oscar Wilde In brief Community market places have always been the place where news and gossip are shared and where the seeds of discontent can be sown! Adapted for facilitated session and they are an excellent way of sharing information in a spirited and rapid way. Benefits This method:     is a highly interactive means of giving and receiving feedback allows lots of opportunities foe challenge and dissent prevents facilitators from having to provide neat summaries of complex issues can be used with large numbers. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 76 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers How to run a community market place As small groups are beginning to finish a task and starting to write up their findings, take a moment to explain the process you are going to adopt. Tell them that you need to outline a method of sharing, challenging and refining their work. 1. Get each group to make a really clear (and possibly graphic) summary of their conclusions or issues or key points on a single piece of flip chart paper. 2. Explain that that you are going to ask them to create a kind of community market place with stalls and stall-holders outlining their findings (a bit like a freshers‟ fair at a university). 3. Ask each group to ensure that one or two people are able to stay with their stall and the rest go out as knowledge gatherers to visit other stalls. The knowledge gatherers are invited to talk, question or challenge the stall-holders they meet. 4. Every 5/10 minutes or so, make a distinctive sound or use a microphone to signal to the groups that it is time to move to the next group. 5. Once you have given groups a chance to visit the majority of the other stalls, ask them to return to their original group. Get them to share what they have learned and alter their own flip chart in the light of insights they have gained from others. 6. Then invite everyone to go on a grand promenade look at all of the stalls. 7. Finally, get a flavour of people‟s impression by asking for one or two comments before formally closing the market place. Tips 1. Make sure that the room is set up in such a way that it is easy for people to stand around flip charts and listen to stall holders. 2. Listen in and watch the interactions as they are happening so that, as facilitator, you can observe any helpful trends or common impressions. 3. When you bring the session to a close, you may like to point out a few of the ideas or points which seem to have been interesting participants. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 77 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Plenary “The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. “ John Galsworthy In brief A plenary session is one that involves all the members of the group. Typically it allows opportunities for reporting back, summarising and whole group discussion. Benefits While small group working is often the most effective way of engaging people in activities, it is helpful to bring people together from time to time to:     share ideas see what others are up to reflect on common issues agree solutions and ways ahead. How to run a plenary session Running an effective plenary session is a core skill of any facilitator. It is one of the most difficult aspects of your craft to define, as the way you choose to do it will be largely a function of your personality. The essence of what needs to be accomplished includes:      hearing or seeing a representative selection of views/ideas discussing issues raised dealing with any common concerns getting a sense of where there is consensus and where more dialogue will be required agreeing next steps. The effectiveness of any session will largely depend on how those reporting back have been briefed. So, for example, if you have asked them to choose the one most important point or focus on something that they found especially challenging, you will be more likely to get input from them which is helpful. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 78 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Tips 1. Make sure everyone feels involved. 2. Avoid letting strong-willed individuals dominate plenary sessions. 3. Avoid being predictable. If there are 8 tables of people, then do not automatically assume that you need to go round each one in turn. “Dot” around the room or frame the session by saying things like “Can I hear from anyone who takes a very different view on this?” 4. If you have allocated time limits for people reporting back, enforce them strictly! 5. Be prepared to be flexible; not all plenary sessions are tidy affairs! Vernissage “In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” T S Eliot in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock In brief Vernissage is a French word used to describe the day before an art exhibition opens when the artists come and “varnish” (ie put the finishing touches to) their paintings. It is also the time when critics come and get a sneak preview of the works on display. In facilitation it has come to describe the process where groups can comment on and react to the work of their colleagues. Benefits From time to time, either because the subject matter is complex or because it is important to take a decision which involves prioritising a number of different elements, when it is helpful for a group to be able to give its collective opinion on something. Vernissage is a technique which many facilitators find helpful for managing this process. How to use vernissage This technique is, in a sense, a variation of the community market place idea on pages xx. The difference is that it allows amore quantitative approach to conversations and allows individuals to express clear personal preferences. Ensure that each group (or individual) has expressed their opinions on a flip chart. Then equip each individual with a number of coloured sticky dots, postit notes, hearts, jagged lightning “strikes” and Cartoon “balloons” for writing comments. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 79 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers For those issues where you want to “vote”, use the coloured dots. Ask individuals to choose the ideas that they which to support by sticking a dot on them. (Give each person the same number of dots!) For those issues where you want to encourage dialogue, invite people to use their post-it notes, cartoon balloons, hearts (to describe support) and lightning strikes (to show disapproval). Once all the “voting” has taken place, then see if you can draw together the strands of opinion. Tips 1. Start by drawing attention to areas of common ground. 2. When there are strongly different view-points, avoid trying to massage the facts. See it as your role to point out the areas of disagreement and engage the groups in working these through. 3. Encourage people‟s creativity by getting them to come up with novel ways of expressing their opinions as part of this process! In general Here are some Dos and Don‟ts to bear in mind when using any of these ending methods. Do Make sure you build in plenty of time for plenary sessions Be creative and varied in the techniques you use Finish on time Summarise what you have achieved in the session Agree plans and remind participants of the date and time of the next session Don’t Assume that everyone has to report back every time. At the end of each session the facilitator has a role in reflecting on the effectiveness of the session. A simple way of doing this is to structure feedback under the headings: What went well What we could have done better. This can form the basis of individual, pair, small group or whole group reflection. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 80 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers By way of preparation for this kind of activity you might like to ask participants to write down specific examples of things that went well and things that went less well. You could encourage them to begin to tease out possible explanations for this and to share this with others. For those steeped in the practices of teaching, the kinds of approaches described in 2.3 may seem very different from those that they have developed for many years in the classroom. They are! But the gap is closing. Effective teachers and effective school leaders are beginning to use many of the techniques which are the stock in trade of facilitators. You may find the chart below an interesting summary of some of the differences between being in facilitator mode and being a teacher. It is based on work undertaken by Sharon Butler for Beacon Consulting in 2003. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 81 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Facilitator        leader of discussion coordinator of activities shaper of group norms provider of feedback comments reflector of questions back to group for consideration structures expectations and objectives with the group builder of group processes and relationships between members structures environment with the group negotiates areas of focus, scheduling and pacing encourages group application of concepts and skills. versus        Teacher presenter of information director of assignments enforcer of rules evaluator of answers provider of answers structures expectations and objectives for the group creator of teacher-student relationships structures environment for the group dictates areas of focus, scheduling and pacing directs application of concepts and skills.       Facilitators do:         structure program activities coordinate exercises stimulate discussion ask questions clarify key points guide problem solving support participants during confusion and doubt reflect, expand and summarise participant comments Facilitators don't:      present themselves as the experts direct and maintain constant control evaluate and judge solve problems for others spend most of the time talking Do you agree with the contrasts being drawn here? What would you add or take away? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 82 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.4 Developing a learning community over time This 2.4 section has been developed with the support of Chris Kubiak and has drawn on the research and writing of colleagues, in particular, Barbara Spender (See Useful Reading). How do networks develop? “We either collaborate or we compete. There is no middle ground… At the very beginning it was all new for us and we were not sure how we were going to develop…” Headteacher Forming a network is ultimately about improving pupil and adult learning and performance. These networks are in the business of building and sustaining collective capacity underpinned by principles of collaboration and shared leadership. So facilitation assumes a wider brief involving the development of individuals as learners and leaders but not resting at just this perspective. Facilitation also involves the development of structures and processes that promote the sharing of ideas between different sites – internal and external to the network. So, configuring as a network is one thing executing activity as a network is another. Studies show network structures to be supportive of the development and sharing of good ideas. But this presents its own challenges that may or may not be recognised by those responsible for leading and facilitating the network. Not least of these challenges is the lack of a blueprint for the development of a network. As such, networks take many different shapes and forms and each will have their own chronology. Chris Kubiak, Joan Bertram and Duncan O‟Leary describe network growth and development as a landscape of activity with five core components: Refocusing New issues emerge that need attention. Network needs reenergising or cohering. Need for new partners identified. Approaching potential partners, developing proposals for new networked activity. Winning leadership buy-in through individual or group negotiation. Preparing plans for the network. Creating structured opportunities for teachers to work together. Institutionalising the network through its formal links within and between schools and growth of informal relationships. Courting Aligning Connecting Embedding The components ebb and flow in their prominence as they interact with network conditions. Very much, as Louise Stoll suggests, like the flow of bubbles rising and falling in a „Lava Lamp‟. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 83 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Effective facilitation will take into account network conditions. Sometimes this may mean challenging long-held views (of individuals and groups) approaches and activity and reconstructing them as something different. Mapping and understanding network conditions is therefore an iterative and ongoing responsibility – particularly of network leaders and others (e.g. critical friend type roles to the network). Mapping and understanding network conditions Having the will to bring schools together needs to be matched by skill to facilitate the process and the design of the network infrastructure. This calls for adaptive forms of leadership and facilitation as conditions within or external to a group and whole network change. Questioning, framed by critical areas of interest for most groups, can be a powerful form of reflection. People, within these different sites of network activity, might like to make sense of internal and external conditions by using (or adapting!) the following map: [Artwork – a colour wheel of the 6 „P‟s and key questions that link to the „P‟ descriptors earlier in the book with „Our group?‟ in the middle] Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 84 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers ‘P’ - urpose What need(s) does the group have? Why are we getting together? Who should be getting together? ‘P’ - erformance What benefits and for whom? What does success mean? What does progress mean? ‘P’ - eople Who is affected by the activity of this group? How will they be engaged? What form(s) of acknowledgement and recognition does the group use? The site of network activity ‘P’ - lanks What structures support the group’s activity? How are structures created? ‘P’ - lace Who knows the group exists? What is the group’s identity? How is a visible identity created? ‘P’ - rocesses How is activity carried out in and by the group? Who does what in the group? Connecting activity to the history, site and individual biographies of those inhabiting and affected by the activity is complex but necessary if networks are to avoid the „flurry and fizzle‟ scenario of some new relationships. This is not to say that in developing this type of learning community people won‟t flounder – it is highly likely they will. Sometimes this will be avoided by those leading and facilitating the network: but other times it will not. This is where reading and listening to other peoples‟ experiences in order to make sense of our own situation can be helpful. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 85 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers In the next pages we explore, briefly, changing styles of facilitation through examples and reflections of people working and learning in network configurations. The temptation is to construe this section as a linear trajectory of network development. In practice we know this is not the case. For example, building ownership needs facilitation every time there is a change in a network site‟s membership. Changing styles of facilitation Activities that give ownership “Initially activities that give ownership…second phase the nuts and bolts of the people who could change – so engaging with the classroom teachers…third phase sustainability…how is what we are doing linking up with the immediate and wider community?” Assistant Headteacher An early task for leaders is building ownership of the network‟s goals and activities beyond a core group of enthusiasts. An important early facilitation task by network leaders is establishing an identity as soon as possible and creating a sense of belonging for a wider group. This is characterised by lots of presentations and face-to-face discussions with head teachers in the early days. Others set up a network office and display boards in every school as a visible symbol that the network „has arrived‟. All networks have some kind of launch to put the network „on the map‟ and secure support and commitment. Network conditions (e.g. prior history of collaboration; awareness and application of adult learning principles) influence the timing and nature of a launch activity. The more successful launches have a clear purpose, build social capital, celebrate existing good practice or successes and raise awareness of being in a network. A network launch - bricks but no mortar A lot of preparation by the network leaders goes into the launch. There is great attendance from teachers across the whole network. All head teachers attend for the whole event. The activities launch people into sharing their practice with one another. But they forgot one thing – the „readiness to share‟ had not been facilitated. It was too much too soon for a number of teachers. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 86 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers A network launch – but what about post-launch? All staff from all schools are involved in the launch. The network leaders draw upon the richness and variety of ideas and give a wide group of people the chance to be involved. The idea is for follow-up activity to evolve from the interests, energy and enthusiasm of people within in it. Network leaders envisage groups led by „lead learners‟ in each school and that somehow they will connect up. It‟s hard to get going let alone sustain. Without structured follow-up and relying on volunteers to come forward, only a few groups meet, not all schools are represented and some of the groups fade away. In general, here are some Dos and Don‟ts when building ownership Do Set in motion activities that build self-awareness of leadership and facilitation styles as early as possible for all people in the network – not just the coleaders and Headteachers. For example, one school offered each member of teaching staff a voucher after the network launch entitling them a timetabled half-day non-teaching to visit another school in the network. Establish a steering group with cross-network representation. Build a protected space within or separate to the group meeting for „learning‟ not just operational aspects of network governance. Balance the time that co-leaders spend away from the network. Consider the use of protocols between key roles (e.g. co-leaders, critical friends, consultants, head teachers) in the early days to support a coherent and manageable approach to internal and external demands. Identify quick wins for all network members. For example, a place at a launch event to post „can you help‟ ads or „top tips from teachers‟. Create an atmosphere which conveys the network as more than a passing phase that people once „signed-up‟ to can forget about. For example, schools reserve a place at network events by putting down a deposit which is refunded or forfeited when the members turn up or not on the day. Don’t Assume that having shared principles – wanting the best for children and adults – is enough. It might bring the network together but it‟s not enough to sustain it. Reluctance to explore „new‟ ideas and possibilities beyond school and network boundaries limits the network‟s capacity for growth and achievement. Put activity in front of learning processes and principles. Ask yourself what is it you want to change and how will you know when you have succeeded. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 87 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers The „nuts and bolts‟- engaging others “…If the conversation is only at Head teacher level, then it‟s very limited…I think we did make the mistake early on of trying to keep everything within eight Head teachers, keep it all neat and tidy…” Co-leader, Primary Head teacher The intensity of a handful of people „doing it all‟ is relieved by the „buy in‟ and identification of other people within the network taking on various roles. This presents different conditions and challenges for the network‟s governance and facilitation. For example, potential fragmentation because of the increase number of roles and activity. Privileged knowers and ways of knowing Certain schools within the seven-school network find out about an event and attend. The other schools find out after the event has been and gone. There is some unease from the members of these schools. “We need to know what‟s going on. We need to know what we are opting out but it‟s got to be our decision …” It is common for networks to set up groups where development activity and knowledge sharing take place. These groups are, usually, populated with practitioners from a wide range of perspectives and roles within their institutions. The origin of these groups, their configuration and operation varies though whatever their configuration, these groups require leadership and facilitation. Initially, these groups are likely to spend some time identifying the location and type of knowledge to be shared, establishing common understanding of this knowledge and building trusting relationships. Facilitating the sharing and exchange of knowledge and the joint development of new knowledge within and beyond the group is often new territory for the leaders of such groups. The following typology attempts to provide an overview of common facilitation and leadership configurations in networks: in practice hybrids are widespread. All will have pros and cons. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 88 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Facilitation and Leadership Configurations Leadership and Facilitation Configuration Co-Leaders and Facilitators Synopsis Two or three practitioners. Possibly prior history of collaborative working. Cross-school representatives. Practice is shared developed, and evaluated by all members. An „expert‟ practitioner identified from within the network. Representatives from other schools are initially coached. As dialogue develops the ideas are further improved. The external „expert‟ supports representatives from the schools. Potentially Positive Aspects In-built succession and sustainability. Mutual support for leadership and facilitation. Potentially Negative Aspects Co-leaders may have strong agenda. Others may feel unable to challenge the perceived authority of the Co-leaders. The expert may lack the necessary skills to coach, lead and facilitate. Perceived hierarchies may prevail in the group, The external facilitator may lack local knowledge of the network. Network requirements may not be met. Group participants may not have the opportunity to develop and apply leadership and facilitation skills and knowledge The group may flounder without the direction and support of recognised leaders/facilitators. Ideas may not be fully extended and developed without reference to other external sources of evidence. Individuals may not feel able to roll out the programme in their setting. The links between the „off the peg‟ package and the needs of the group/NLC may not be clear. Off the peg training can be expensive. ‘Expert’ Leader and facilitator (Internal) ‘Expert’ Leader and Facilitator (External) Early momentum gained as skills already exist. The individual „expert‟ develops leadership and facilitation skills. External knowledge, leadership and facilitation is brought in. The external individual can „hold a mirror‟ up to group; requiring the network to challenge its assumptions. Egalitarian Representatives bring existing pockets of expertise around an common theme from a variety of settings. Co-creation of new knowledge around a shared theme. Near peer relationships and a felt understanding of the need. Off the Peg The network „buys in‟ a training package designed to support development. Representatives from the schools attend a sequence of sessions and then are required to roll this out in their own setting. Having adopted the themes of the „package‟ the mutually supported group may collectively have the confidence, knowledge and skills to adapt this. The package may include support in developing coaching skills to enable participants to impact on others. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 89 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers In general, here are some Dos and Don‟ts when engaging others Do Plan for communication of outputs and outcomes from sites within the network to avoid some teachers feeling that their enquiry work has little worth. [To follow - examples of communication from networks] Be willing to change and re-construct with others existing views, ideas and approaches to building ownership – not once but as many times as necessary as conditions internal and external to the network change. Be aware that as network activity widens the infrastructure to support it will also need to develop. Don’t Think that networks can be managed but do recognise how much they need management. Do Plan for the network‟s present and its future. Walk into a school telling teachers how to do it. Do start with the premise that the knowledge base exists with teachers and you would like to engage with that. Sustainability – connecting the internal and external environments “After six months of the network, you could ask the question in a school, „what‟s the network done for you?‟ and the answer was probably „what network?‟ For a year they were saying „oh yes, the X Network Learning Community, I‟m not sure‟. Now it‟s 18 months on and they‟re all engaged in some form of network activity.” Co-leader, Primary Head teacher The metaphor of a „family‟ is used by some network members to describe a sense of togetherness, belonging and trust. However, this type of metaphor may lull you, potentially, into a sense of taking issues of power for granted. As Nick Foskett and Jacky Lumby suggest, families have issues of power and control to deal with too! Characterising a sustainable network are deep reservoirs and repertories of people, structures and processes. As the complexity of the network landscape intensifies, through increased activity, critical facilitation becomes a key function of taking into account issues, such as power, when connecting the internal and external environments. Here, leaders seek ways of exploiting the early successes from building ownership and gains made through „nuts and bolt‟ reach activities within the network. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 90 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers New opportunities beyond tokenism, compliance or guilt Pupils – Two pupils from every school in the cross-phase network meet for a whole day to consider how ICT could improve learning for all teachers and students. A team of Facilitators (dedicated roles from the network) guide the day‟s activities. Ideas are brainstormed and presented to the teachers by the pupils using PowerPoint and Interactive Whiteboards – and discussion followed. The day was so successful that the network has formed a „pupil steering group‟ with connections into the network leader steering group. Pupils are both developers and evaluators of learning. In general, here are some Dos and Don‟ts when facilitating for sustainability Do Consider what might be indicators of developing an inclusive network “People are offering their services to the rest of the Network. So that‟s a big shift. Because at the beginning the biggest challenge is developing the sense of ownership and once people have developed the sense of ownership, they want to do, not just take from the Network but give back to the Network. I think that‟s an incredibly important shift.” Co-leader Assistant Head Teacher Don’t Go for expansion which is more than the network can cope with at the expense of deepening the roots through existing schools and agencies in the community. Success attracts other schools –but some suggest a network can sometimes feel too big. Like the literature on learning in groups is there an ideal size for a network of schools? Be seduced that any network activity is good network activity; Do test all new activity against the purposes and aims of the network. Take common foundations and purposes for granted. Research suggests that change is more easily achieved where schools have a lot in common but too great a convergence between sites can create exclusivity. Assume that just because you offer a role and/or activity to all the network that all network members receive the invitation or perceive they have the capacity to participate. Network leaders need to be proactive in selling not only the benefits of being in a network but what individuals or groups also have to offer to the network. Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 91 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Jump to conclusions about levels of participation. Commitment takes various forms. Voluntarism, says network members, is key to successful innovation. Planning should take into account what sites and individuals within and external to a network can offer at different times. Networks are flexible so why should expectations be fixed? Activity – A learning journey [Artwork – graphs of conditions over time showing dips and rises and various trajectories, with one example from a network more „fleshed-out‟] Questions 1. What does our learning journey look like in practice? 2. As a result of this section what is our network or site of activity going to do? 2.5 A checklist for facilitators The following checklist summarises some of the key things to remember. Well beforehand What is the purpose of the session? How does it fit with the overall plans for the learning network? What has worked well in the past? How well does the group know each other? Are there any “personalities”? Who should be there? Who else might be invited? How long do you have for the session? What options are there for structuring the session? Who is the best person/people to facilitate? (Is it you?!) Have you sent out clear joining information and a programme? Are you clear about what the venue is like? Have you booked any significant items – rooms, equipment etc? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 92 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers A few days before Do you have a timed plan for what you are going to do? Can you state the purpose of the session really simply? Are you in the right state of mind? Have you checked with the venue? Do you have a clear plan for how you are going to organise the seating? Do you need to contact anyone beforehand? Have you got all the portable equipment you need to take – badges, paper, post-its, signs etc On the day Has everything you have booked arrived? Is the space welcoming? If not, how can you make it more so? Do you need to change anything that you had planned in the light of the reality of the venue? Afterwards What went well? What could have gone better? What will you do differently next time? How will you build up a knowledge bank to share what you have learned? 2.6 Characteristics of a good facilitator Since 1990, the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) with the Institute pf Cultural Affairs has been coordinating discussions across the world about the competencies of facilitators. This was published in 2000 by Virginia Pierce, Dennis Cheesebrow and Linda Braun and is quoted in various books on facilitation, (see Understanding facilitation; theory and principles by Christine Hogan page xx). Activity The following material is based on the IAF work. To what extent does it help you to agree the characteristics of an effective facilitator of a learning network? [Artwork: set this material as a chart] 1. Engage in professional growth Knowledgeable about group psychology, change, learning and leadership theory Knowledgeable in facilitation methods, especially able to distinguish content and process Practice reflection and learning Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 93 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2. Create collaborative relationships Identify and satisfy client needs Demonstrate collegial and professional relationships 3. Create an environment of participation Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills including the ability to build rapport and give feedback Honour diversity Deal with conflict 4. Use multi-sensory approaches Demonstrate creative approaches to learning and thinking Recognise different learning styles Know how to energise a group Use time and space to best effect 5. Orchestrate the group journey Establish clear contexts and objectives with appropriate processes Enable the group to develop self-awareness Demonstrate consensus building skills 6. Commit to a life of integrity Model ethically and morally sound behaviours Demonstrate ability to set aside own opinions Activity Do you agree with these headings and the more detailed suggestions they contain? To what extent do they also cover the emerging role of coleader where responsibilities are shared? Can co-leader facilitators afford to stay neutral? To what extent do they need to be sensitive to individual circumstances? Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 94 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers 2.7 Troubleshooting - Difficult situations and how to handle them “I always have to remind myself that the network and the network activity is a very small part of what the teachers do, so they don‟t roll out the carpet for me every time I come...I am a very small part of their lives…they are very receptive, they are very welcoming and the work we do is very rewarding, but I have to keep it in perspective.” Facilitator Whether in a specific session or, in ensuring the effective development over time of a learning community, there are bound to be challenges. There is also the real possibility that you may just be dealing with issues which really matter and which, therefore, inspire strong feelings! Here are just a few situations with some suggestions for dealing with them. How do I deal with distractions There will always be people who, either through temperament or because they are having a bad day or, very often, because something is going on for them which is making them unhappy, revel in distracting the group from its agreed purpose. You might like to:  Ensure that there is a place – for example a flip chart – where important issues can be “parked”, ie written up for exploration on a another occasion. This helps someone to see that their point is important even if it is currently not appropriate to be discussing it. Actively cut short the first person who is obviously seeking to distract the group by referring them back to the already agreed purpose of the session and invoking your role as the custodian of the greater group process. Head off likely interrupters by quietly taking them to one side talking to them during an activity and listening to whatever is on their mind. Be specific about when sessions and parts of sessions will begin and end so that people cannot just drift in and out. You may also like to model starting and ending on time!    How do I manage difficult individuals Just as there are difficult pupils, so there are difficult teachers and no hard and fast rules for managing them! You might like to: Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 95 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers       Remember to be specific about the behaviour which is difficult in any comments you make rather than ever allowing yourself to be provoked into making personal remarks. Invoke the greater good of the group by asking them whether they agree with the difficult individual‟s point of view with a quick show of hands, (a high-risk strategy which can back-fire!) Describe how a difficult person is making you feel “I really appreciate that this is important to you, but this is making me feel that….” Nip any obvious discontent in the bud as early as possible by moving towards its source and engaging in a friendly way with the “difficult” person or people. Offer ways which people can use to express strong emotions without de-railing the whole group, either by writing them down or by building in moments when you actively encourage divergent views. Re-frame something which has been said in an inappropriate way. How do I re-energise a group when they are flagging All groups flag from time to time. Often what a change of scene of a moment of physical activity helps. You might like to:  Try some of the suggestions on page xx. How do I deal with confrontation Mind set is important here. You need to get into problem resolution mode as soon as possible. As well as the suggestions on dealing with difficult people (above), you might like to:    Give the group 5 minutes “time out” Name the issue which is causing the confrontation, acknowledge its importance and suggest that any individuals deeply worried about it form a intensive problem-solving group to see if they can solve it. Ask the whole group what positive ideas they have for dealing with the situation. How do I deal with my own emotions As a facilitator you are bound to experience moments which make you angry, amused, frustrated etc. But the more you expect to do so and realise negative feelings as they bubble up in you, the better. You might like to:    Take some deep breaths Popp out of the room for a moment while the group are engaged on a task and give yourself a change of scene Share your feelings with the whole group in a non-confrontational way and ask if they can empathise with your situation! Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 96 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers How do I know when to intervene You cannot know! This is one of the most difficult decisions you have to take as a facilitator. Almost always you will have to intervene at a transition point (when you are moving from one activity to another) if the group is losing its way or if, as a result of an individual‟s actions you can see that the “greater good” of the group is being undermined. Often you will need to rely on your intuition, backed up by clear planning. (You may want to look at 1.6 again to remind yourself of some of the implications of different styles of facilitation.) You might like to:   Walk through/rehearse each of the sessions you are planning so that you can imagine when it may be helpful to intervene. If in doubt, intervene in a tentative way “I am getting the sense that we may be…”. This will allow the group to put you right if you are being over-sensitive! How do I manage to separate/distinguish my school role from the one I play in the networked learning community? With difficulty! This is a particular issue when the agenda of any learning community is very strongly aligned with a particular school‟s agenda. However there are clear distinctions. You might like to:  Have a critical friend back at school who can provide you with regular “sanity checks” as to what you are experiencing in the learning community – where enthusiasm and idealism may be very high and where the climate is reflective Check the emerging networked learning community agenda against your own school‟s and “mind the gap”, if necessary taking time to set more realistic timescales for action in your own school Involve more of your staff in the network so that the network experiences are more widely shared and do not just depend on your perceptions.   How do I balance competing demands – time, effective structures, levels of commitment Again, with difficulty! But in reality the demands of a networked learning community are not radically different from other competing demands. The particular challenge is often that where school life can sap energy, learning communities can create it. So it is easy to become a networked learning community “junky” and lose sight of the “real” world back at school. You might like to: Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 97 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers   Set yourself clear targets for what you are able to do overall and regularly review them in the light of your experiences. Get yourself a coach and give and receive feedback to help you achieve balance! Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 98 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers Useful resources Books and articles Anderson, Michelle and Thomas, Niki (2004) „Facilitating leadership development‟, symposium paper for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference 2004, Manchester, Sept 14th-18th. Anderson, Michelle, Kubiak, Chris, Creasy, Jane and Hadfield, Mark Building Leadership in Networked Learning Communities, AERA 2004 Anderson, Michelle, Hadfield, Mark and Spender, Barbara (2004) What is a Networked Learning Community? CDROM, Networked Learning Group, Cranfield, Cranfield University. Asch, Solomon, Social psychology, (Prentice-Hall, 1952) Belbin, Meredith Team roles at work (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996) Cameron, Esther Facilitation made easy (Kogan Page, 1998) Claxton, Guy Building Learning Power (TLO, 2003) Claxton, Guy and Lucas, Bill, Guy Be Creative; essential steps for life and work (BBC Books, 2004) Hadfield, Mark et al, Building capacity; developing your school (NCSL, 2002) Heron, John, The Complete Facilitator‟s Handbook, (Kogan Page, 1999) Honey, Peter and Mumford, Alan The Learning Styles Questionnaire (Peter Honey Learning, date?) Christine Hogan, Understanding facilitation; theories and practice (Kogan Page, 2002) Higgins, James, 101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques (New Management Publishing Company 1994) Horne, Matthew, Diamond 9, (NCSL 2004) Kolb, David Experiential learning, (Prentice Hall 1984) Kubiak, Chris and Bertram, Joan (2004) „The Growth and Development of School-Based Networked Learning Communities: Participant Perspectives‟, symposium paper for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference 2004, Manchester, Sept 14th – 18th. Langer, Ellen The power of mindful learning, (Perseus Books, 1997) Lucas, Bill Power up your mind: learn faster, work smarter (Nicholas Brealey, 2001) Lucas, Bill et al, Teaching pupils how to learn, (Network Educational Press, 2002) McGregor, Jane, Holmes, Darren and Temperly, Julie (2004) „Collaborative enquiry in networked learning communities‟, symposium paper for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference 2004, Manchester, Sept 14th – 18th Owen, Harrison Open Space Technology, A User‟s Guide (Berrett-Koehler, 1997) Pierce,Virginia, Cheesebrow, Dennis and Braun, Linda Facilitator Competencies (IAF, 2000) Schwartz,Roger The Skilled Facilitator (Jossey-Bass 2002) David Schon, The Reflective Practitioner, (Basic Books, New York 1983) Senge, Peter et al Schools that learn (Nicholas Brealey, 2000) Spender, Barbara and Anderson, Michelle (2004) „What should co-leaders of networked learning communities avoid doing? – the dos and don‟ts of Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 99 A guide to facilitating learning networks, Draft for readers leading a NLC, (unpublished paper), Networked Learning Group, Cranfield, Cranfield University. Stoll, Louise et al, It‟s about learning and it‟s about time; what‟s in it for schools? (Routledge Farmer, 2003) Web sites www.iaf-world.org www.ncsl.org.uk www.solonline.org www.theworldcafe.com Index Lucas, Anderson and Thomas DRAFT 100