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- Learners need to engage with the full range of what is relevent to engage with
- Developing learner autonomy is a very worthy objective
- The role of telling and teaching diminishes but staff retain expert role in feedback and facilitation
By the time Hellie has worked this list out, she understands that actually Gertie is getting more value for money regarding resources than she would if she just had the 50 minute lecture. Gertie is actually potentially more able to learn the material as there will be some way she can access it to suit her particular learning style. In fact, gertie can learn it because of Hellies willingness to provide flexible resources, rather than trying to learn it in spite of Hellie lecturing to her...
When they meet, Gertie comes prepared with her own list of issues. There's the internet problem, the time management problem, the fact she likes to chat face to face as part of her learning, and the whole deal about what she (and her bossy parents) percieve the role of teacher to be. She sees Hellie as the expert, and her parents are paying for the expert to teach her.
So Hellie and Gertie work through the problem solving process together - the biggest thing Gertie needs to do is recognise what resources best suit her learning style, and work out some intrinsic time management skills. They revisit good old VARK, and they list the resource types that will best suit Gertie. Then they do one of those old fashioned study time tables (a wee poster one she can put on her wall with funkey colours and stuff). Gertie also decides that internet access is important, as with IT skills - she will ask her parents to pay for broadband by bribing them with promises to email regularly, and she decides to spend an hour of two in the CLC to get some more computer skills under her belt.
Gertie goes away happy, and has learnt to consider Hellie as one of her many learning resources rather than the expert teacher. Hellie goes away more comfortable, realising that her personal philosophy of facilitating learning and nurturing curiosity in students is more closely aligned to flexible delivery than she had acknowledged.