About me

I’m inspired by Plutarch who said, “the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting,” meaning it is not what you put in a mind, but the motivation that teaching inspires. I believe that learning is organic, and objectives —while important— do not need to be met for learning to occur.

It is estimated that up to 70 percent of learning in the workplace is informal (Merriam and Baumgartner, 2007), so in the spirit of Plutarch, I endeavor to give learners tools to direct their own learning. The learning that occurs in formal settings is only the beginning of training for adult learners. My progressive philosophy is influenced by John Dewey who once said, “We do not learn from experience …we learn from reflecting on experience.”

Collaborative Discord

As a subset of collaborative learning, I developed collaborative discord. Collaborative discord is a learning method that highly encourages dissent and disagreement between large groups of people using open ended questions for individual objectives. The teacher is a facilitator who employs dialogic learning to make meaning and encourage critical thinking. Like Malcolm Knowles, I believe the learners experience is important and we can learn from each other if we take the opportunity to listen to each other.

Dialogic Learning

I employ dialogic learning as a means of extending thinking, boosting critical thinking and develop community through shared commonalities. Although I am a teacher centered facilitator, dialogic learning works primarily outside of a formal power structure where peers are equal and can learn from each other with the intention of understanding based on shared agreements (Racionero and Valls, 2007). My role is to ask questions that accommodate storytelling while maintaining as safe a space as possible.

Narrative Learning

I believe the shortest distance between two people is a story, which is why narrative learning is the greatest tool for facilitators as it is adaptable and stimulate recall. A narrative approach to development, in contrast with other theoretical orientations, attempts to describe development from the inside as it is experienced, rather than from the outside as it is observed (Rossiter, 1999).  Humans have communicated throughout time, their most enduring form of communication has been, and continues to be, narrative.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that the learners’ experiences are important to any classroom, and that adult learning presents opportunities to present equitability and transform minds. My role as an educator is to create safe environments where healthy and challenging dialog lifts the consciousness of the group, and where stories help learners identify themselves within each storyteller.