Discover. Experience. Educate. Transform.

My philosophy of teaching has developed over time through industry practice and through my graduate studies. I am a Talent & Development professional that enjoys fostering an enjoyable learning environment for learners. As an adult learner, I understand that importance and value that a positive learning environment creates for participants. This includes setting the pace and climate for the learning that ensure a safe zone for participants to share their experiences, ideas, struggles, passions, and many other needs and feelings.

 

The AET program has helped to develop my skills in both facilitation and instructional design, as I have developed my own learner-centric philosophy of teaching. The idea is to always put the learner at the center of the learning experience. Empowering the learner to be an active participant in their learning and journey. In my own AET journey and professional experience, I have seen the limitless benefits that the learning environment provides when instruction and facilitation is created with the learner's needs being the top priority. Whether it be to close a performance gap, or to foster change in knowledge, skill, or attitude. My philosophy of teaching includes a learner-centric model that I've adapted in my instructional design and facilitation within virtual learning sessions. The model below was introduced to me a couple years ago from a wonderful mentor. She taught me so much about instructional design and how to frame learning. I share with you all this model and concept that I still use today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I use this training model to ensure that I’m creating a common path for the learners that fosters an effective learning environment. This was a model that was introduced to me by a professional mentor and it has been my mantra in facilitating adult education.

 

DISCOVERY: Most learners retain information most when they learn from their own experiences. When learners are provided an environment where they are able to reflect on past experiences that relates to the content of learning in some way, then their minds are much more open to the learning process. It is easy to tell a learner information, but it is by far more powerful for them to explore the content!

 

 

CONCEPT:  Once a learners has made a discovery of their own with the learning content, they are ready to recieve new information. It is essential to connect the past experience with a brief overview of the concept and value of the topic as this allows the learners to have their “Ah Ha” moment, rather than having "knowledge" fed to them.  

 

 

APPLICATION:  The goal in this phase is to motivate the learners to apply the concept in practical terms. This can be done though participant discussion, role-plays, etc. A method to achieve this is to ask the learners questions and allow their answers to guide me.  This provides me with insight to their knowledge of the topic, and allows much of the content to come from them (their experiences).  This also supports the avoidance of covering information already known and infamous tendency to over-lecture.

 

 

PRACTICE:  Here I use a variety of exercises that allow the learners to demonstrate their skills in the topic. This can be achieved through on-the-job performance and/or simulation where feedback is immediately provided and coaching is performed.  Essentially, this is one of the critical pieces that can be left out of a learning event, as retention and learning transfer should be the goal of any learning event.

 

 

TESTING:  This can be daccomplished in a multitude of ways. I preferably enjoy using knowledge checks throughout the learning event, and depending on the subject-matter, using a criterion test may be necessary for formal documentation and for compliance standards. In allowable settings, testing can be a very informal process and does not need to be so rigid, as it works in collaboration with the on-the-job coaching.

 

I encourage you to review my philosophy of teaching reflection and synthesis paper to learn more about the model and my journey.