THE VAK QUESTIONNAIRE

For each question there are 3 potential answers.  Circle the one that most closely represents you.  When you have finished add up the scores under each column; this can give you an idea of the sense you prefer to utilise to take in information and store it; your comfortable or dominant sense.  Different learning tasks may require different strategies; for example learning to ski and learning poetry.  Use the tool as starting point.

WHEN YOU….               DO YOU…..

From “Learning how to Learn”

P 3 Consulting Limited, Glos.

CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT: BIGGS

A good teaching system aligns teaching method and assessment to the learning activities stated in the objectives, so that all aspects of this system are in accord in supporting appropriate student learning.  This system is called constructive alignment based as it is on the twin principles of constructivism in learning and alignment in teaching.

Theories of teaching and learning focusing on student activity are based on two main theories:

• Phenomenography: (from Marton and Saljo's studies into deep & surface learning)
• Constructivism (Piaget, Bruner, etc.)

Both are premised on the view that meaning is not imposed or transmitted by direct instruction; it is created by the students' learning activities, their 'approaches to learning'.

Meaning is personal; it depends on motives, intentions, prior knowledge, etc.

Learning is a way of interacting with the world

We structure information we get, not just receive it, thus education is about conceptual change which takes place when:

• It is clear to students (and teachers) what is 'appropriate', what the objectives are, where all can see where they are supposed to be going.
• Students experience the felt need to get there. The art of good teaching is to communicate that need where it is initially lacking. Motivation is a product of good teaching not its prerequisite.
• Students feel free to focus on the task, not on watching their backs. Often attempts to create a felt need to learn, particularly through ill-conceived and urgent assessments, are counter-productive. The game then becomes a matter of dealing with the test, not with engaging the task deeply.
• Students can work collaboratively and in dialogue with others, both peers and teachers. Good dialogue elicits those activities that shape, elaborate and deepen understanding.

John Biggs’ book holds the view that teaching that induces surface learning does not produce effective learning as its too based on memorising and regurgitation, and that teaching needs to encourage deep learning, constructive alignment being a powerful way of doing this.

Deep and surface approaches to learning describe the way students relate to a teaching/learning environment; they are not fixed characteristics of students, their 'academic personalities' so to speak.

Biggs offers a '3 P' model of learning, involving:

Presage factors, such as students’ prior knowledge, commitment, etc. together with teaching context in terms of expertise, ethos of the classroom.

Process: teaching and learning activities

Product: learning outcomes

Constructive alignment handles these factors as elements of a system in which all components support each other as they do in any ecosystem. Constructive alignment rests on a view of teaching as supporting learning; its not what teachers do but what students do that is the focus here - this implies a need for clarity about:

-          what it means for students to 'understand'

-          what kind of teaching-learning activities are required to reach those kinds of understandings

Critical components to consider for constructive alignment are:

• The curriculum
• The teaching methods
• The assessment procedures
• The student-teacher relation
• The institutional climate

The curriculum has to be at the centre and must determine the TLAs (teaching and learning activities) and the assessment.

Forms of assessment and levels of award can be expressed in terms of the verbs used, (ref Bloom’s Taxonomy) e.g. if a student is asked to:

• Hypothesise                      = a first
• Explain/solve/analyse          = 2:1
• Classify/cover                    = 2:2
• Weak version of the last      = 3^rd

The verb you use is important because it denotes the performance you are looking for.

Understanding is performative.

The difference between meeting the requirements of institutional learning and real understanding is illustrated in Gunstone and White ….two balls, one heavy and one light, were held in the air in front of the students.  They were then asked to predict, if the balls were released simultaneously which one would hit the ground first, and why.  Many predicted that the heavy one would 'because heavy things have a greater force' or 'gravity is stronger nearer the earth' (both are true but irrelevant).  These students had 'understood' gravity well enough to pass A level physics but few understood well enough to answer a fairly simple real life question about gravity…  they didn't really understand gravity in the performative sense

In Biggs' view understanding unfolds from uni-to multistructural levels. His SOLO taxonomy captures these levels which reflect different knowledge levels/forms from functioning (= a sophisticated level of know-how) to conditional (knowing when to do things and why) to declarative (descriptive) to procedural (understanding of sequences/skill learning).

Declarative à Procedural à Conditional à Procedural

Teachers need to sort out what levels of understanding and kinds of knowledge they are asking for and to grade different levels of performance accordingly. Assessment demands will grow through a students' academic journey. The first year might require more declarative and the last more functional.

“A common mistake in curriculum design is to go for coverage rather than for understanding.”

Before deciding objectives, we need to:

1. Decide what kind of knowledge is to be involved

2. Select the topics to teach and don't overload

3. Decide the purpose for teaching the topic, hence the level of knowledge desirable for students to acquire

4. Put the package of objectives together and relate them to assessment tasks so that the results can be reported as a final grade.

Get the climate right.

Biggs draws on McGregor's concept of a high or low trust culture affecting motivation. If an organization doesn't trust its workers/students, it will get less work out of them. Cynical and unhelpful teacher attitudes are often responsible for student failure. Give students clear direction, constructive feedback and convey your confidence and trust in them. If you treat students as untrustworthy, this will direct all kinds of negative messages and teaching strategies.

 “In aligned teaching the assessment reinforces learning.  Assessment is the senior partner in learning and teaching.  Get it wrong and the rest collapses.”

Criterion referenced assessment should be used in assessment; assessing student against criteria, not each other which is norm referenced assessment.  The muddle between the two has created a lot of problems in Higher Education (HE).

The curriculum is divided into declarative and functioning knowledge.  Both have their place in higher education but when it comes to assessment, functioning knowledge is frequently assessed as if it were declarative.  Students say what they have learned rather than show it performatively.

We need to move from quantitative (number and spread of marks ) because quantifying performances gives little indication of the quality of performance, or of what has been learned.

“Norm-referenced assessments are judgments about people, criterion referenced are judgments about performance.”

Qualitative assessments looks at how well the student has done against the course objectives; a learning outcome needs to be assessed holistically (e.g. not a frame of the film but the whole film - a portfolio often strives to do this); the assessment task should require an active demonstration of the knowledge in question as opposed to talking or writing about it.

Whether the assessment is performative depends on the objectives.

Decontextualised assessments such as a written exam or test are fine for declarative knowledge.

Contextualised assessments such as a practicum, problem-solving or diagnosing a case study are suitable for assessing functioning knowledge.

Analytic marking often breaks down knowledge/tasks (e.g. a would be surgeon could pass on written exams about the hand, fail on a practical anatomy test but accrue enough marks to 'pass' overall), whereas holistic assessment recognises the intrinsic meaning of the target performance (e.g. be able to carry out hand surgery).

The strategy of reducing a complex issue to isolated segments, rating each independently and then aggregating to get a final score in order to make decisions seems peculiar to schools and universities. It not only oversimplifies the complexity of the reality but actually distorts judgments made about it. Its not the way things work in real life.

1. Closed questions tend to get 'convergent' (= unique answer) thinking answers
2. Open questions invite divergent thinking (= open, expressive, relational,)

Here are the problems with using the first over the second:

Teacher: How many diamonds have you got?

Student: I don't have any diamonds

Teacher: Then you fail.

Student: But you didn't ask me about my jade.

If you only ask a limited range of questions, you do not enable students to show what they know or make links with this in your teaching.

Assessment involves:

1. Setting the criteria for assessing the work
2. Selecting the evidence that would be relevant to submit
3. Making a judgment about the extent to which these criteria have been met

Students can be involved in all three or some of these stages; self and peer assessment - there is evidence that this improves the quality of learning.

Shake Seigel, July 2004

Back to beginning

Reference:

Biggs, J (2003) Teaching for quality learning at University. Buckingham Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education (Second Edition)

CONSTRUCTIVISM

IN EDUCATION & LEARNING

Constructivism is a more overarching theory, one that can incorporate a number of teaching practices, such as cooperative, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning.

Constructivism is a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn.  It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.  When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or even discarding the new information as irrelevant.  In either case, we are active creators of our own knowledge.  To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices.  In the most general sense, it means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing.  The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to assess constantly how the activity is helping them gain understanding.  By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom become "expert learners."  This gives them further tools to keep learning.  With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO LEARN.

You might look at it as a spiral.  While they reflect on their experiences, students find their ideas gaining in complexity and power, and they develop their abilities to integrate new information.  One of the teacher's main roles becomes to encourage this learning and reflection process.

Contrary to criticisms by some (conservative/traditional) educators, constructivism does not dismiss the active role of the teacher or the value of expert knowledge.  Constructivism modifies that role, so that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to reproduce a series of facts.  The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment. 

Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning process. 

Guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook.

Constructivism is also often misconstrued as a learning theory that compels students to "reinvent the wheel."  In fact, constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity about the world and how things work.  Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to understand for themselves how it turns, how it functions.  They become engaged by applying their existing knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings.

In the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students.  The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher ("expert") pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled.  In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning.  The teacher functions more as a facilitator who coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and thereby their learning. 

One of the teacher's biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.

The chart below compares the traditional classroom to the constructivist one.  You can see significant differences in basic assumptions about knowledge, students, and learning.

As is the case with many of the current/popular paradigms, you may already be using the constructivist approach to a degree.  Constructivist teachers pose questions and problems, and then guide students to help them find their own answers.  They use many techniques in the teaching process. 

For example, they may:

·         Prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry)

·         Allow multiple interpretations and expressions of learning (multiple intelligences)

·         Encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning)

For now, it's important to realize that the constructivist approach borrows from many other practices in the pursuit of its primary goal: helping students learn HOW TO LEARN.

In a constructivist classroom, learning is . . .

Students are not blank slates upon which knowledge is etched.  They come to learning situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas, and understandings.  This previous knowledge is the raw material for the new knowledge they will create.

The student is the person who creates new understanding for him/herself.  The teacher coaches, moderates and suggests, but allows the students room to experiment, ask questions, try things that don't work.  Learning activities require the students' full participation (like hands-on experiments).  An important part of the learning process is that students reflect on, and talk about, their activities.  Students also help set their own goals and means of assessment.

Students control their own learning process, and they lead the way by reflecting on their experiences.  This process makes them experts of their own learning.  The teacher helps create situations where the students feel safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either privately or in group discussions.  The teacher should also create activities that lead the student to reflect on his or her prior knowledge and experiences.  Talking about what was learned and how it was learned is really important.

The constructivist classroom relies heavily on collaboration among students.  There are many reasons why collaboration contributes to learning.  The main reason it is used so much in constructivism is that students learn about learning not only from themselves, but also from their peers.  When students review and reflect on their learning processes together, they can pick up strategies and methods from one another.

The main activity in a constructivist classroom is solving problems.  Students use inquiry methods to ask questions, investigate a topic, and use a variety of resources to find solutions and answers.  As students explore the topic, they draw conclusions, and, as exploration continues, they revisit those conclusions.  Exploration of questions leads to more questions.

Students have ideas that they may later see were invalid, incorrect, or insufficient to explain new experiences.  These ideas are temporary steps in the integration of knowledge.  For instance, a child may believe that all trees lose their leaves in the fall, until she visits an evergreen forest.  Constructivist teaching takes into account students' current conceptions and builds from there.

The Benefits of Constructivism

• Students learn more, enjoyably and are more likely to retain learning
• Students learn how to think and understand
• It is a transferable skill to other settings
• Students have ownership of their own learning
• It applies natural curiosity to real world situations
• Promotes social and communication skills within a group setting.

Modified by Shake Seigel from

“Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning”

 http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

 July 2004

European Academy of Teachers in General Practice (Network within WONCA Europe)

THE EUROPEAN DEFINITION OF GENERAL PRACTICE/FAMILY MEDICINE

There are eleven characteristics of the discipline. These are that it:

1. Is normally the point of first medical contact within the health care system, providing open and unlimited access to its users, dealing with all health problems regardless of the age, sex, or any other characteristic of the person concerned.

2. Makes efficient use of health care resources through co-coordinating care, working with other professionals in the primary care setting, and by managing the interface with other specialties taking an advocacy role for the patient when needed.

3. Develops a person-centred approach, orientated to the individual, his/her family, and their community.

4. Has a unique consultation process, which establishes a relationship over time, through effective communication between doctor and patient

5. Is responsible for the provision of longitudinal continuity of care as determined by the needs of the patient.

6. Has a specific decision making process determined by the prevalence and incidence of illness in the community.

7. Manages simultaneously both acute and chronic health problems of individual patients.

8. Manages illness that presents in an undifferentiated way at an early stage in its development, which may require urgent intervention.

9. Promotes health and well being both by appropriate and effective intervention.

10. Has a specific responsibility for the health of the community.

11. Deals with health problems in their physical, psychological, social, cultural and existential dimensions.

The Role of the General Practitioner

The following is a definition of the role of the family doctor, which puts the characteristics of the discipline (of general practice) into the context of the practising physician.  It represents an ideal to which all family doctors can aspire.  Some of the elements in this definition are not unique to family doctors but are generally applicable to the profession as a whole.  The speciality of general practice/family medicine is nevertheless the only one which can implement all of these features.  An example of a common feature is that of the responsibility to maintain skills; this, however, which may be a particular difficulty for family doctors who often work in isolation.

General practitioners/family doctors are specialist physicians trained in the principles of the discipline.  They are personal doctors, primarily responsible for the provision of comprehensive and continuing care to every individual seeking medical care irrespective of age, sex and illness.  They care for individuals in the context of their family, their community, and their culture, always respecting the autonomy of their patients.  They recognise they will also have a professional responsibility to their community.  In negotiating management plans with their patients they integrate physical, psychological, social, cultural and existential factors, utilising the knowledge and trust engendered by repeated contacts.  General practitioners/family physicians exercise their professional role by promoting health, preventing disease and providing cure, care, or palliation.  This is done either directly or through the services of others according to health needs and the resources available within the community they serve, assisting patients where necessary in accessing these services.  They must take the responsibility for developing and maintaining their skills, personal balance and values as a basis for effective and safe patient care.

 3. Core Competences

The definition of the discipline of general practice/family medicine and of the specialist family doctor must lead directly the core competencies of the general practitioner/family doctor.

Core means essential to the discipline, irrespective of the health care system in which they are applied.

The eleven characteristics of the discipline relate to eleven abilities that every specialist family doctor should master.  Because of their interrelationship, they are clustered into six independent categories of core competence.  The main aspects of each cluster are described.

 3.1. Primary Care Management

Includes the ability:

• to manage primary contact with patients, dealing with unselected problems;
• to cover the full range of health conditions;
• to co-ordinate care with other professionals in primary care and with other specialists;
• to master effective and appropriate care provision and health service utilisation;
• to make available to the patient the appropriate services within the health care system;
• to act as advocate for the patient

3.2. Person-centred Care

Includes the ability:

• to adopt a person-centred approach in dealing with patients and problems in the context of patient's circumstances;
• to develop and apply the general practice consultation to bring about an effective doctor-patient relationship, with respect for the patient's autonomy;
• to communicate, set priorities and act in partnership;
• to provide longitudinal continuity of care as determined by the needs of the patient, referring to continuing and co-ordinated care management.

3.3. Specific Problem Solving Skills

Includes the ability:

• to relate specific decision making processes to the prevalence and incidence of illness in the community;
• to selectively gather and interpret information from history-taking, physical examination, and investigations and apply it to an appropriate management plan in collaboration with the patient;
• to adopt appropriate working principles. e.g. incremental investigation, using time as a tool and to tolerate uncertainty;
• to intervene urgently when necessary;
• to manage conditions which may present early and in an undifferentiated way;
• to make effective and efficient use of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

3.4. Comprehensive Approach

Includes the ability:

• to manage simultaneously multiple complaints and pathologies, both acute and chronic health problems in the individual;
• to promote health and well being by applying health promotion and disease prevention strategies appropriately;
• to manage and co-ordinate health promotion, prevention, cure, care and palliation and rehabilitation.

3.5. Community Orientation

Includes the ability:

• to reconcile the health needs of individual patients and the health needs of the community in which they live in balance with available resources.

3.6. Holistic Approach

Includes the ability:

• to use a bio-psycho-social model taking into account cultural and existential dimensions.

4. Essential Application Features

In applying the competences to the teaching, learning and practice of family medicine it is necessary to consider three essential additional features; contextual, attitudinal and scientific.  They are concerned with features of doctors, and determine their ability to apply the core competences in real life in the work setting.  In general practice these may have a greater impact because of the close relationship between the family doctor and the people with whom they work, but they relate to all doctors and are not specific to general practice.

4.1. Contextual Aspects

(Understanding the context of doctors themselves and the environment in which they work, including their working conditions, community, culture, financial and regulatory frameworks)

• Having an understanding of the impact of the local community, including socio-economic factors, geography and culture, on the workplace and patient care.
• Being aware of the impact of overall workload on the care given to the individual patient, and the facilities (eg staff, equipment) available to deliver that care.
• Having an understanding of the financial and legal frameworks in which health care is given at practice level.
• Having an understanding of the impact of the doctor's personal housing and working environment on the care that s/he provides.

4.2. Attitudinal Aspects

(Based on the doctor's professional capabilities, values, feelings and ethics)

• Being aware of one's own capabilities and values - identifying ethical aspects of clinical practice (prevention/diagnostics/ therapy/factors influencing lifestyles);
• Having an awareness of self: an understanding that their own attitudes, and feelings are important determinants of how they practice
• Justifying and clarifying personal ethics;
• Being aware of the mutual interaction of work and private life and striving for a good balance between them.

4.3. Scientific Aspects

(Adopting a critical and research based approach to practice and maintaining this through continuing learning and quality improvement)

• Being familiar with the general principles, methods, concepts of scientific research, and the fundamentals of statistics (incidence, prevalence, predicted value etc.);
• Having a thorough knowledge of the scientific backgrounds of pathology, symptoms and diagnosis, therapy and prognosis, epidemiology, decision theory, theories of the forming of hypotheses and problem-solving, preventive health care;
• Being able to access, read and assess medical literature critically;
• Developing and maintaining continuing learning and quality improvement. 

September 2006

http://www.euract.org/html/pap06104.shtml

Back to beginning 

from

http://www.trainer.org.uk/members/theory/process/neurological_levels.htm

Level Alignment Process

Start by physically laying out a space for each of the levels

Spiritual          Identity             Beliefs/values    Capabilities     Behaviours   Environment

1.  Now stand in the “Environment” space and answer the question

“Where and when do I want to be more aligned as a teacher?”

2.  Move to the “Behaviours” space and answer the questions

“What do I need to do when I am in those times and places?”

“How do I want to act?”

3.  Stand in the “Capabilities” space and answer the questions

“How do I need to use my mind to carry out those behaviours?”

“What capabilities do I have or need in order to carry out those actions in those times and places?”

4.  Step into the “Beliefs and Values” space and answer the questions

“Why do I want to use those particular capabilities to accomplish those activities?”

“What values are important to me when I am involved in those activities?”

 “What beliefs do I have or need to guise me in my heart when I am doing them?”

5.  Move into the “Identity” space and answer the questions   “Who am I if I have those beliefs and values and use those capabilities to accomplish those behaviours in the environment?” “What is a metaphor or symbol for my identity and mission?”

6.  Stand in the “Spiritual” space and if you feel it is appropriate, try answering the questions

“Who and what else am I serving?”

 “What is the vision beyond me that I am participating in?”

7.  Maintaining the physiology and inner experience associated with the “spiritual” space, step back into the “identity” space.  Combine and align your “spiritual” level and “identity” level experiences.  Notice how your “spiritual” level experience enhances or enriches your initial representation of your identity and mission.

8.  Take the experience of both your vision and your identity and bring them into your “belief” space.  Again notice how this enhances or enriches your initial representation of your belief and values.

9.  Bring your vision, identity, beliefs and values into the “capabilities” space. Experience how they strengthen, change or enrich the capabilities you experience within yourself.

10. Bring your vision, identity, beliefs and values, and capabilities into the “behaviours” space. Notice how even the most seemingly insignificant behaviours are reflections and manifestations of all the higher levels within you.

11. Bring all the levels of your self into the “environment” space and experience how it is transformed and enriched.

12. Memorise the feeling of this aligned state.  Imagine yourself being in this state at key times and places in the future when you will most need it.

Back to beginning

Miller’s Pyramid

Miller GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med 1990;65 (suppl):S63–67

  Back to beginning

 The Kirkpatrick Hierarchy

Kirkpatrick's Learning and Training

Evaluation Theory

The four levels of learning evaluation

Donald L Kirkpatrick first published his ideas in 1959, as a series of articles in the US Training and Development Journal.  They have since been available in:

Kirkpatrick DI. Evaluation of training. In: Craig R, Bittel I, eds. Training and development handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill , 1967

And also in Kirkpatrick's own books, including “Evaluating Training Programmes The Four Levels” (1998)

The books defined his originally published ideas of 1959, and increased awareness of them, so that his theory has now become arguably the most widely used and popular model for the evaluation of training and learning.  Kirkpatrick's four-level model is considered an industry standard across the HR and training communities.

The four levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model essentially measure:

1. The reaction of the student - what they thought and felt about the training
2. learning - the resulting increase in knowledge or capability
3. behaviour - extent of behaviour and capability improvement and implementation/application
4. results - the effects on the business or environment resulting from the trainee's performance

All these measures are recommended for full and meaningful evaluation of learning in organizations, although their application broadly increases in complexity, and usually cost, through the levels from level 1-4.

Since Kirkpatrick established his original model, other theorists (for example Jack Phillips), and indeed Kirkpatrick himself, have referred to a possible fifth level, namely ROI (Return On Investment).  In practice, ROI can easily be included in Kirkpatrick's original fourth level 'Results'.  The inclusion and relevance of a fifth level is arguably only relevant if the assessment of Return On Investment might otherwise be ignored or forgotten when referring simply to the 'Results' level.

Learning evaluation is a widely researched area.  This is understandable since the subject is fundamental to the existence and performance of education around the world, not least universities, which of course contain most of the researchers and writers.

While Kirkpatrick's model is not the only one of its type, for most industrial and commercial applications it suffices; indeed most organisations would be absolutely thrilled if their training and learning evaluation, and thereby their ongoing people-development, were planned and managed according to Kirkpatrick's model.

More about Evaluation etc 

For reference, should you be keen to look at more ideas, there are many to choose from...

Jack Phillips' Five Level ROI Model

Daniel Stufflebeam's CIPP Model (Context, Input, Process, Product)

Robert Stake's Responsive Evaluation Model

Robert Stake's Congruence-Contingency Model

Kaufman's Five Levels of Evaluation

CIRO (Context, Input, Reaction, Outcome)

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

Alkins' UCLA Model

Michael Scriven's Goal-Free Evaluation Approach

Provus's Discrepancy Model

Eisner's Connoisseurship Evaluation Models

Illuminative Evaluation Model

Portraiture Model

Also look at Leslie Rae's Training Evaluation and tools available on the www.businessballs.com site, it might save you the job of researching and designing your own tools.

Other links on the same site include: 

Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences theories

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains

360 degree appraisals tips

employment termination, dismissal, redundancy, letters templates and style

exit interviews, questions examples, tips

grievance procedures letters samples for employees

group selection recruitment method

induction training checklist, template and tips

job interviews - tips, techniques, questions, answers

job descriptions, writing templates and examples

performance appraisals - process and appraisals form template

team briefing process

training evaluation processes

training and developing people - how to

http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm
 

Back to beginning

The 4-Part NVC Process    © Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.

http://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/index.htm

Non-Violent Communication

GIRAFFE LANGUAGE

When I saw/heard/imagine/remember….. ( give what you observe)

I feel/felt……………………..

                                                Because I

I need………………………………. (don’t mention the other person, “you”)

So will you……………………..? (request for specific “do-able” action)

                        Be prepared to accept a “NO”

THE EMPATHIC GIRAFFE

When you saw/ heard/ remembered/ imagined……………….

Were you feeling……………………………….

                                                Because

You need…………………………….

So can I ……………. (request and offer actions YOU are able/ prepared to take, in order to resolve conflict)

Other words for  “NEEDS”

Wants                                       Wishes                                     Values

Desires                                     Hopes                                     Dreams

“Would have liked”                    Find important

Colloquial expressions of needs;

I really enjoy…………                                        I love to…………..

I would be nourished by…………..                     It’s important to me……………..

I value………                                                     I want…………….

It matters to me………………….

FEELINGS TO BE AWARE OF

I Feel THAT………..

I feel you/ I/ we/ they…………..

I feel LIKE

I feel WHEN

I feel a need to

What follows tends to be an analysis or interpretation.

WATCH OUT FOR:

Words that sound like feelings, but again are analyses.

Ignored                         misunderstood                          abused

Used                            cheated                                                manipulated     

Rejected                       betrayed                                   forgotten

Adored                         respected                                 understood

Loved                           wanted                                      considered

Accepted                      remembered

Get deeper by asking “When I feel ignored, how do I feel?”

BE AWARE       IF YOU NOTICE YOU ARE FEELING -

Anger                           guilt                             depression                               shame

You know you are talking to yourself in “jackal”

Back to beginning

John Heron: Six Dimensions of Facilitation

1. Planning dimension

   HOW WILL THE GROUP ACQUIRE ITS OBJECTIVES AND ITS PROGRAMME?

Hierarchical mode:  You plan for the group; choose what you want them to learn, decide unilaterally and make decisions for learners.

Co-operative Mode:  You plan with the group.  You negotiate and take account and seek agreement regarding the timetable.  You take ideas into account.

Autonomous Mode:  You delegate planning of programme to group, keep out of their way, and affirm the group’s need to work out the programme itself.

2. Meaning dimension

HOW WILL MEANING BE GIVEN TO AND FOUND IN THE EXPERIENCES AND ACTIONS OF GROUP MEMBERS?

Hierarchical mode:  You make sense of what is going on.  You give meaning to events and illuminate them.  You are source of understanding.

Co-operative Mode:  You invite the group to participate in generating understanding.  You prompt them to give their view of what is happening in the group, and give yours as part of whole.  You all collaborate in making sense.

Autonomous mode:  You choose to delegate interpretation, feedback, reflection and review to the group.  Making sense of what is going on is entirely self-generated within group.

3. Confronting Dimension

HOW SHALL THE GROUPS CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT RESISTANCE TO, AND AVOIDANCE OF, ISSUES BE RAISED?

Hierarchical Mode:  You are responsible for pointing out what is being avoided, and for pointing out rigid behaviour.  You do this directly to and for people, in such a way that those involved take up and show awareness of issues.

Co-operative mode:  You work with group members to raise awareness about avoided issues and defensive behaviour.  You prompt and invite people to contribute to raise consciousness collaboratively

Autonomous mode: You hand over all conscious­raising about defensive avoidance behaviour to group.  You create a climate that enables group to practice self and peer confrontation.
 

4. Feeling Dimension

HOW SHALL THE LIFE OF FEELING AND EMOTION WITHIN THE GROUP BE HANDLED?

Hierarchical Mode:  You take full charge of affective dynamic for the group, deciding how to handle, and thinking for the group; judging best way to handle feelings and emotions in the group.

Co-operative mode:  You work with the group eliciting, prompting and encouraging views by discussion with members how to manage feelings and emotions in the group.

Autonomous Mode:  You give group space for and delegation in the process of managing affective dynamics

5. Structuring Dimension

HOW IS THE GROUP’S LEARNING TO BE STRUCTURED? (the shape, from and nature of Learning activity?)

Hierarchical mode.  You structure learning activities for the group.  You design the learning activities, and directly supervise their use.

Co-operative Mode:  You structure learning methods with the group, co-operating with them on how learning should proceed.  They help design and apply supervision of exercises.

Autonomous Mode:  You delegate control of learning process.  They are entirely self-directed and peer directed in design and supervision of activities.

6. Valuing Dimension

HOW CAN A CLIMATE THAT VALUES THE INDIVIDUALITY OF MEMBERS, AND THE INTEGRITY OF THEIR NEEDS BE CREATED?

Hierarchical mode:  You take initiative to care for group members; you manifest to them in word and deed your commitment to their fundamental worth as persons.

Co-operative mode:  You create a community spirit of mutual valuing and respect.  You are inclusive, and collaborate with the group, as emergent self creating individuals.

Autonomous Mode:  You delegate affirmation of self worth to group.  You give space for the celebration of value of personal identity, and allowing its emergence in its own way.